Collections : [Washington and Lee University, Leyburn Library]

This collection includes early Washington and Lee University papers and miscellaneous materials supplementary to the university's trustee's records, faculty meeting minutes, and treaurer's records. Much of this collection was found over decades from various locations on campus and housed in the Treasurer's Office.

The Alexander Lockhart Nelson Papers consist of materials related to Nelson's life as mathematician at Washington and Lee University; Nelson, Guy, Matthews, Archer, and Rennick family genealogy; an address by Nelson on his teaching experience during Robert E. Lee's presidency of Washington College; some family and miscellaneous correspondences; and photographs. Included and, perhaps, the primary aspect of the collection is Nelson's notebook used during his time as both student and professor of mathematics during the mid through late 19th century. The notebook also contains a range of content unrelated to his career as mathematician such as an extensive family tree, a journal/day book which includes details about weather from December 1880 through March 1881 in Lexington, Va.; a pencil drawing of his property and its improvements in downtown Lexington; and notes about payments made to a hired laborer for his Lexington home and grounds. There is an albumen photograph of a group of young girls of the Ann Smith Academy in Lexington – including an image of Nelson's daughter Evelyn. The collection is in two series – each formerly a unique accession from unique sources and different dates. The collections have recently been combined. Each series includes a control folder explaining its provenance. Series two includes a letter from WLU student Jack C. Desha in 1871 to his father Lucius Desha of Kentucky. In the letter Jack shares his travel experiences from Cincinnatti, Ohio to Lexington, Va., including an overnight visit in Washington DC. Series two also includes student Randolph Preston's (WLU class of 1902)typescript reminiscence of his Washington and Lee University student experience fifty years earlier.

Contains c.55 items, of Dr. Alfred Leyburn and the Leyburn family of Lexington, Va., including 22 letters between Leyburn and his wife, Ann Eliza, 1835-36; patents of Edward J. Leyburn.

This collection contains a notebook kept Alphonso Smith in September 1849 while a student at Washington College. The notebook contains Smith's recording of Professor George D. Armstrong's "Lectures on General Chemistry." The notebook includes 59 lectures on 86 pages, as well as folk art sketches on the front and rear endpages and pastedowns. Smith also inscribed "Dr. Samuel U. Holt alias 'Lazybones.'"

This collection contains items of the Anderson and Alexander families including correspondence dealing with legal business, family matters, and Lexington, Virginia affairs. Consists largely of the family correspondence of William Alexander Anderson, Francis T. Anderson, and Mary Anne Alexander Anderson; includes letters to and from Virginia Governor John Letcher, and two letters from Mildred Lee, daughter of Robert E. Lee. Other correspondents include William A. Glasgow, George Hutcheson Denny, Charles Alfred Graves, Henry Holstine, George Junkin, George Bolling Lee, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, James McDowell, Samuel McDowell Moore, and Walter LeConte Stevens. Also includes legal and business correspondence of Francis T. Anderson; letters and diary of William D. Alexander dated 1858-1859; business accounts, wills, obituaries, including Mary Anne Alexander Anderson's obituary as a pamphlet titled In Memoriam, November 27, 1881; and genealogies of the McNutt, Anderson, and Thomas families. Includes copies of speeches of William A. Anderson dated 1842-1930 and a few photographs.

The Anne McClung Collection is comprised of materials from the Lindsay Family, which include 19th century correspondence, WWII ration books, and the last will and testament of William Lindsay; a tax book from 1844; 19th century receipts from the Gilmore Family; records of the Alone Canning Company; records from the Alone Mill Telephone Cooperative; papers on regional history, including canals, an emergency plane landing, and personal narratives; and miscellaneous newspaper clippings and ephemeral materials related to the collection.

Includes 2 bound volumes of minutes of the meetings of its Board of Trustees (1807-1910), yearly reports of the various principals, miscellaneous correspondence, business papers, bills and receipts.

This collection in comprised principally business and family correspondence and general papers of the Baer family of the Panther Gap vicinity of Rockbridge County, Va. with a concentration of papers relative to the family's land holdings such as maps, indentures, and wills. Other highlights are a group of twenty-one manuscript weaving drafts for making household textiles, a family Bible in German(l744), local militia fines, genealogical materials, some relating to the Decker and Hite (Heyt) families, and two farming account books of Joseph Baer, 1853-1859.

This collection consists of ten pieces of Bank of Rockbridge currency dated 1857-1862 and one Lexington lottery ticket dated 1803. The currency includes bills in the amount of five, ten, and twenty dollars between 1857-1859. The 1861 bill is for two dollars, and the 1862 bill is for one dollar and twenty-five cents.