Collections : [Hampden-Sydney College]

This collection contains miscellaneous correspondence, documents, publications, and newspaper clippings pertaining to Hampden-Sydney College from 1776 through 1988, organized into folders by year. This primary source material was collected and originally organized by Paul L. Grier.

The Account Books, SC-000200, contains 13 account books or ledgers written by various people. Some of the items track family accounts while others track business accounts. Not included in this collection are any daybooks or diaries pertaining to the daily lives of the individuals. Each account book spans a couple of years while some cover a larger amount of time but altogether, the account books were created in the 19th century.

The collection contains an unfinished manuscript by A.J. Morrison about Prince Edward County, along with letters, newspaper clippings, and various documents about local history. Dates of materials range from 1754-1975.

The Joseph D. Eggleston II Papers document Eggleston's tenure as president of Hampden-Sydney College from 1919 to 1939, as well as his retirement, when he continued to conduct genealogical research pertaining to Prince Edward County, Virginia, and to live on the Hampen-Sydney College campus. Primarily dating from 1934 to 1951, the collection includes copies of public addresses and presentations, photos, correspondence, newspaper clippings, historical documents used in genealogical research, addenda, and obituaries, including material related to fundraising for, design, and construction of the Watkins Bell Tower, named after Hampden-Sydney Professor Asa Dupuy Watkins and erected in 1934. The last series of this collection includes a bound typescript of historical and genealogical research written, conducted, and collected by Eggleston.

The Hampden-Sydney Photograph Collection is an iterative, artificial collection featuring myriad photos of people, places, and things associated with the College, from its founding in 1775 until the present. Much of the collection is unprocessed, and most of the photos are unidentified.

This summary and location guide, linked here, was compiled for Hampden-Sydney College Archives & Special Collections in Spring 2003 by Rebecca Laine and acts as a Finding Aid to a significant part of the collection SC-000109. The scanned pdf is keyword searchable due to optical character recognition, and contains pertinent events from various sessional records as well as a brief index of names and places featured therein.

This artificial collection contains diplomas from former graduates of Hampden-Sydney College and the Union Theological Seminary that have been donated to the library over several years.

Scope and Contents reflects historical typewritten inventory found with the papers.

The Margaret Venable (nee Dickinson) letters contains correspondence relating to familial matters and social information from 1833-1918. Some of the topics discussed include schooling at Hampden-Sydney College, the Civil War, courtships, weddings, new children, and deaths. Not included in the collection are specific details about the Civil War or specifics about classes Hampden-Sydney College.

This collection contains the original records, including minutes, constitution and bylaws, roll lists, accounts, and library records for Hampden-Sydney College's two literary debate societies, the Philanthropic Literary Society and the Union Literary Society, some of the nation's oldest. The two societies combined in 1929 to become the Union-Philanthropic Literary Society, which is still presently active on campus. Records from the new, combined society, including minutes, roll call, accounts, and a constitution and bylaws, are also contained in this collection.