Collections

The Prest papers are comprised mostly of materials pertaining to his work as a hospital chaplain and educator. There are some materials contained in the collection from the Department of Patient Counseling that date after Prest's retirement in 1993. These papers offer insight into how the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program was formed and administered as well as trends in the professionalization of clinical pastoral care. The collection is divided into six series. Materials of particular interest are detailed in the series descriptions.

This collection consists of 34 films relating to local, regional, and Appalachian history, dating from 1981-2005. The films are in a range of formats and were likely collected by one person before being transferred to Special Collections and University Archives in the early 2000s.

This collection includes prints pertaining to West Virginia and the surrounding area. Many have been taken out of publications. Subjects include the U.S. Civil War; various WV cities, landscapes, and geographical features; and various local industries.

The collection contains letters and programs, writings and other papers documenting Aquilla Matthews, an African-American woman originally from Danville, Virginia who was the director of the USO African American Women's group, The Sun and Sand Caravan during World War II. The collection includes: photographs of several members of the group notes with description of different areas served and several letters documenting Matthews personal and professional life.

This collection contains correspondence, clippings, notebooks, and other material related to Archibald F. Ward, Jr. Included in the collection are notebooks and articles pertaining to Ward while he was the Chaplain at Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia, biographical material related to Ward, a notebook describing Ward's experience at Magruder and Camp Peary, correspondence with various members of the Rockefeller family, and correspondence related to the 250th anniversary celebration of the founding of Williamsburg, Virginia.

Documents (photocopies), circa 1980s, relating to Ardith Pugh's service on the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, created to investigate the incarceration of American citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II. This collection consists of photocopies of interviews/testimonies, case files used during the incarceration procedures, and correspondence between government officials, much of which was used by the Commission in its deliberations.

Scrapbook of Aristotle Smith (1863-1911), doctor, lawyer, teacher, and historian. The scrapbook consists of newspaper clippings (1897-1909) and other ephemera glued onto pages of a book, Report on Population and Resources of Alaska (1893) from the 11th census, published in 1890. The scrapbook also includes handwritten text on the book's pages and regards the history of various West Virginia counties: Calhoun, Clay, Braxton, Roane; the genealogy of the Chenowiths, his wife's family; his own Smith family; other families include Stalnaker, Smith, and Westbrook; some diary-like entries detailing the weather, visitors, and reminiscences; and profiles of individuals, some recounting Civil War stories and accounts of settler skirmishes with Native Peoples.