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Reverend C. Shirley Donnelly, a Baptist minister and local historian, collected these materials for his own research and interest in West Virginia history. The collection contains various materials pertaining to coal mining and West Virginia history, especially in the New River area and Fayette County. It includes correspondence, land grant and deed records, pamphlets, journals, local histories, records, photographs, and art relating to mining and life in the New River area. One set of correspondence includes recollections, a yearbook, and newspaper clippings by a World War II sailor from the USS West Virginia. Another series of correspondence includes the antebellum, wartime, and postwar letters and personal receipts of Charles Dequasie, a Confederate soldier from Fayette County, West Virginia, and Robert Edward Dequasie's personal and business correspondence. Other ephemera includes West Virginia and mining journals and certificates belonging to Donnelly and others. A scrapbook and notebook of newspaper clippings pertain to early court hangings and executions in West Virginia. Political posters include those for West Virginia Governor William C. Marland and West Virginia Senators Harley Kilgore and Robert Byrd.

This collection consists of public records initially filed at the clerk's offices of the Charlottesville Corporation and Circuit Courts. They include, but are not limited to the following: corporate charter books, docket books, court memorandum books, liens books, alcohol inventories, commitment records, writs of execution, local election certifications, and property assessment books.

These files constitute the major record series generated by the office of Francis H. Smith, VMI's first Superintendent. He served from 1839-1889. The records, (ca. 30 linear feet) consist of incoming and outgoing correspondence, order books, speeches and publications, annual reports, personal file, and subject files.

This collection consist of ca. 16,000 items, 1787-1936, and contains the papers of the Bondurant familyof Buckingham County, Virginia, and the Morrison familyof Rockbridge County, Virginiawho were related through the marriage of Alexander Joseph Bondurantand Emily MacFarland Morrisonin 1859. Alexander J. Bondurantand Emily (Morrison) Bondurantwere the chief correspondents in this collection. Alexander J. Bondurant(1836-1910) was a Confederatesoldier, farmer, politician, superintendent of Buckingham County, Va.schools, professor of agriculture at Auburn University, and tobacco consultant to the government of Australia. His father, Thomas Moseley Bondurant(1797-1862), was a landowner, member of the board of trustees of Hampden-Sydney College, a soldier in the War of 1812, a member of the Virginia Senate, and one of the founders of the Richmond Whig. His oldest son, Alexander Lee Bondurant(1865-1937) was professor of Latin and head of the graduate school of the University of Mississippi.

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 Sheet Music Collection includes sheet music collected by the Special Collections Research Center.

The Ephemera Collection contains material primarily acquired for teaching. It includes material in various formats, most of which have been previously published. The collection is currently being processed and new items will be added on an ongoing basis. For this reason, the indicated date range is approximate at this point.

Records of Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg, Va.