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Correspondence of Charles J. Faulkner (1806-1884), who was a Martinsburg attorney, Virginia legislator, member of Congress, and ambassador to France during the James Buchanan administration. Subjects include national and Virginia-West Virginia politics, 1827-1876, and foreign affairs, 1868-1876. Other subjects include the French Colonization Society, the slave controversy, Maryland-Virginia boundary dispute, Virginia Revolutionary debt claims, disposal of the Harpers Ferry Armory, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, numerous internal improvement schemes in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and local history of the Martinsburg and Shenandoah Valley area. Correspondents include Sherrard Clemens; Lyman C. Draper; John J. Jackson, Jr.; Daniel Lamb; Alexander Martin; Samuel Price; George W. Summers; Henry A. Wise; and Waitman T. Willey. For a more complete list of subjects and correspondents, see Scope and Content Note. For a partial list of contents, see the control folder. For more information about Faulkner, see the Historical Note.

Letters to their family in Ohio from James M. Hartley and Thomas J. Hartley. James M. Hartley served in the Ohio 116th. Volunteer Infantry, Company B stationed during the Civil War at Romney, WV; Winchester, VA; Sharpsburg, MD; Martinsburg, WV; and Richmond, VA. Thomas J. Hartley was mustered into an unidentified Ohio regiment at Camp Ripley, OH and served in Stanford, KY and Nicholasville, KY. These letters, most being from James M. Hartley, reflect conditions in the U. S. Army in the field during the Civil War mentioning late payroll payments and occasional shortages of food rations. The correspondence of James M. Hartley is more detailed with him giving his opinions about the battles of Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the siege of Richmond. Often he notes that the Confederates surrender due to inadequate food provisions.

The photographs and negatives of the Gerbrick Studio of Martinsburg whose most prominent proprietor was Jacob H. Gerbrick. There are group and individual portraits as well as pictures of business and industry, modes of transportation, schools, churches, residences, clubs and organizations, and social events. These photographs reflect life in Martinsburg and the extreme Eastern panhandle, including unique events such as strikes or floods, annual events such as festivals and parades, and everyday occurrences of the inhabitants. There are also images of the apple industry, Gerbrick family, Shepherd College, and Storer College.

Two letters authored by Corporal John Service (Company A, 18th Connecticut) from Martinsburg describing eloquently and in some detail how citizens and soldiers celebrated the end of the Civil War, and mourned over the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. (4/15/1865, four pages, incomplete) (4/25/1865, six pages, complete).

Includes minute books of the Martinsburg Board of Trustees (1813-1857), the Council of the Corporation of Martinsburg (1857-1862, 1865-1894), and the City Council (1894-1981). There are also ordinance books, 1870-1981.

Three large group portrait photographs of a Sunday school and of business employees in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Two photos are of the Sunday school of the Bethel Pentecostal Tabernacle Church, ca. 1950 and 1960.; and one photo is of the employees of the Perfection Garment Company, October 1948. Two of these portraits are cirkut photos; one of these photos was created by the Gerbrick Studio of Martinsburg, W. Va.

Collection consists of assorted newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and brochures relating mostly to the history of West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland. See inventory folder for list of file folder headings.

Most of the letters are to Helen M. Robinson of Fetterman, Taylor County, West Virginia, from relatives and friends. Subjects discussed include housekeeping, fashions, farming, schools, religion, and the Civil War from both the Confederate and Union perspectives. There are frequent, specific references to the political and military state-of-affairs in the upper Ohio Valley region.

Papers of Jewett Palmer, a Union Army officer, Mayor of Marietta (Ohio), and Republican official of Washington County (Ohio). Includes correspondence, daily journals, clipping scrapbooks, military records, genealogical and autobiographical notes, and printed materials. The papers regard the activities of Company B of the 18th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI) and Company G of the 36th OVI. There are also papers of Palmer's wife, Saida Scott, who taught music. Addendum of 1996/09/23 contains a muster roll of Company G, 36th OVI, signed by Captain Jewett Palmer, for 10/31/1863 - 12/31/1863. See Scope and Content Note for more information.

Microfilm copy of assorted books, speeches, and pamphlets related to early West Virginia history. Includes: On The Plains In '65 by George H. Holliday; Heyward Shepherd, Victim Of Violence, by Matthew Page Andrews; and The Harpers Ferry Insurrection by J. Ewing Glasgow. For a complete listing, see the control folder.