The collection is open for research.
The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials.
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Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Margaret M. Sullivan Collection, Ms2013-091, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The Margaret M. Sullivan Collection was donated to Special Collections and University Archives in 2013 and 2014.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Margaret M. Sullivan Collection commenced and was completed in November 2013. Sullivan's memoirs were added to the collection in March 2014.
Margaret Sullivan was born September 5, 1926, to Myrtle and Benjamin Earl Mathena in the Toms Creek area of Montgomery County, Virginia. She spent her childhood living with her grandparents in a two-over-two log cabin that was built shortly after the American Civil War and still (as of 2013) stands on Toms Creek. Margaret married Bernard Sullivan and had four sons and two daughters. She worked at the Radford Arsenal during World War II while Bernard served in the Army Air Corps. Later she worked in the lunchrooms at the Belleview and Prices Fork Elementary Schools. Margaret was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church and the Prices Fork Grange. Margaret Sullivan passed away on January 20, 2013, after having lived in Prices Fork since the early 1950s.
This collection contains the papers of Margaret M. Sullivan, a resident of Montgomery County, Virginia, including a handwritten memoir (together with typed transcript) of Sullivan's life in the county. Sullivan's reminiscences focus primarily on the years from her birth in 1926 through World War II and contain discussions of mountain dialect, rural education, children's activities, and home life during the Great Depression. Also two photographs depict students at Sunnyside School in Montgomery County. The earlier photo, dated 1910, is a photocopy of a 1970s newspaper clipping and is accompanied by the names of those pictured; the pupils in the second photo, dated 1932, are unidentified. Sullivan's other interests are reflected in two handwritten pages of genealogical notes on the Price, Surface, and related families of Montgomery County, and a John F. Kennedy Vari-Vue presidential campaign button.
The following item was cataloged for the Rare Book Collection: Carlyle, Thomas.
The guide to the Margaret M. Sullivan Collection by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/share-your- work/public-domain/cc0/).