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This collection documents the research, public service, and life of Ancella Bickley, writer, educator, speaker, and historian. Includes writings, research materials, and more, focusing on the history of African Americans in West Virginia and the black experience in West Virginia. Collected research materials are predominantly facsimiles. Printed formats include correspondence, clippings, interview transcripts, typescript writings, publications, pamphlets, ephemera, speeches, articles, military records, and more. Other formats include photographs, slides, and audiocassettes.

The Richard Wright collection, compiled by Richard Wright and orginally referred to by Wright as "The Richard Wright collection of Graphic Images of African Americans," focuses on the evolution of the Black American image in print media, cartoons and comics. Wright organized his own historical timeline titled "Good Clean Fun: Blacks in Comics," also referred to as "Clean Fun: Blacks in Comics," in a series of binders with artist biographies and time period summaries. Item titles have been retained from the original labels.

The Maurice Lévy papers (1952-2012; 3.25 cubic feet) document the research, professional career, and personal life of Maurice Lévy. The bulk of the collection consists of research papers and publications, with subjects ranging from gothic literature to William Faulkner to H.P. Lovecraft. The collection also contains conference talks given by Lévy, correspondence with universities and grant agencies, publications from Lévy's organization CERLI (Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur les Littératures de l'Imaginaire), and a few photographs of Lévy with family members.

Highlights of this collection include material concerning the Washington and Lee Journalism Department, including course material, student papers, and lecture notes. Supplementing this course material are published materials on the history of film, 20th century war propaganda, the Nazification of Germany, Paris in the 1920's and the "Lost Generation." There also includes wide selections of personal research materials for projects such as Riegel's books Mobilizing for Chaos and Crown of Glory; collections on Riegel's travels to Central and South America and Europe including Germany during the 1930s, and the typescript of his unpublished autobigraphy to 1945 titled "Hacking It."

The collection includes photographs, negatives, slides, film, postcards, ephemera, correspondence and artifacts belonging to Thomas L. Williams, photographer for William & Mary for 35 years. He was also a photographer for Camp Peary and Colonial Williamsburg prior to working for William & Mary.