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Correspondence, legal papers, photographs, and printed materials of John W. Mason (1842-1917). Mason was a circuit court and state Supreme Court judge, member of the Virginia State Debt Commission, and commissioner of Internal Revenue. The general correspondence contains personal and business letters, as well as manuscript speeches, notebooks, and reports. The period while Mason was circuit judge is particularly sparse. Also includes Internal Revenue correspondence consisting of about 8,500 pages in letter press copy books. Roughly half of the collection is devoted to his legal papers and printed materials concerning law in general. Subjects include early development of the Republican Party in West Virginia; political campaigns in West Virginia from 1870-1916; Monongalia Academy; industrial development; Internal Revenue Service (1889-1893); the Virginia Debt question; early banking development in Grafton; and the development of coal companies, particularly around Fairmont. Correspondents include Arthur I. Boreman, A.W. Campbell, Stephen B. Elkins, Benjamin Harrison, Francis H. Pierpont, and others.

The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.

Papers of Alexander Smith and George W. Brown. The Smith papers are letters and receipts, 1794-1814, and include a letter from N. Suter commenting on a naval battle of the War of 1812, current prices, government, and business conditions and receipts for the payment for slaves. The Brown letters, 1870-1886, concern a gift to West Virginia University, marriage, and payment of land taxes. Correspondents or persons mentioned include Alexander Martin and John W. Mason. Receipts, 1881-1894, are for taxes paid by the Brown, Miller and Co. Also included are certificates of appointment and commissions, 1858-1921, for Virginia Militia, Quartermaster General and Adjutant General of the state of West Virginia, the Collector of Internal Revenue, the U.S. Army Officers' Reserve Corps, the National Guard, and a membership certificate for the Society of the Army of West Virginia.