This record is made available under an Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license.
This collection is open for research use.
This collection was purchased from Black Swan Books by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library in July and August 2017. An addition to the collection was purchased from Charles Agvent on February 17, 2026.
Jefferson Wallace (1864-1951) was a commercial artist from Richmond, Virginia. Wallace was born in Richmond on August 8, 1864, to Charles M. and Joyce W. Clopton Wallace. He was active in state and city politics. He was the Secretary of Richmond's Democratic Committee and challenged Joseph Bryan, an American publisher and industrialist from Richmond to a duel in 1894. Bryan refused him publicly in The Richmond Times, effectively ending the practice in Virginia, saying that duels were uncivilized.
Wallace went on to study commercial art in New York and returned to Richmond to work. He was active in fraternal organizations and served as a Master Mason of Dove Lodge for nearly 52 years. He served as a high priest of the Temple Chapter No 32, Temple Chapter No 32, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (AF&AM), and an honorary member of Fraternal Lodge No 53. He married Anne Wynn Hawthorn in 1906 in Lunenburg, Virginia. They had one child, Anne Wallace, and would divorce. He died in Richmond on March 31, 1951, and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
MSS 16338, Jefferson Wallace collection, Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library.
This collection contains typescript and manuscript books, all richly illustrated with watercolor paintings and illuminations by commercial artist and Richmond resident, Jefferson Wallace. These include The Fairy Book, The Story Teller, Anthology of English poetry, The Virginia Text Book: Containing a history of Masonic Grand Lodges and The Book of Myths. The content mainly focuses on mythological stories, fairy tales, original stories and selections from English
The "Anthology of English Poetry, selected from the writings of British and American Poets and illuminated by Jefferson Wallace, Richmond, Virginia MCMXXVI [1926]. Contains 327 pages including index. Illuminated in watercolor throughout, with attractive borders, decorations, illuminated letters, and ornaments and portrait rondels of poets. Large collection of male poets, both minor and major. Selected names include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, and Oscar Wilde.
"The Fairy Book, MS Edition of Colored Illustrations by Jefferson Wallace" contains 296 pages of heavily ornamented typescript, with borders in the medieval style and hundreds of illuminated figures and decorations in the margins. The book is incomplete. The entire book was to be over 346 pages; we lack the final 6 tales. With twenty-seven full page watercolor illustrations with captions and pagination indications.
"The Storyteller" contains 192 pages, with illuminated letters, full page watercolor illustrations, chapter headings, tail piece, and so on. Typescript of a group of stories by Wallace, with notations to a printer as well as notes to himself of things still to be done. Of particular interest are several stories set in Richmond, including a tale about Richmond Theater, the Carrington family of Richmond, Cary Street. Many illustrations of Richmond places and people, including African-American figures.
The full title page reads: "The Virginia Text Book: Containing a history of Masonic Grand Lodges and the Constitutions of Masonry or Ahiman Rezon together with a digest of the laws, rules and regulations of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, also a complete compilation of the illustrations of masonic work, as drawn from Preston, Webb, Read and others by John Dove, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Virginia. Engrossed and illuminated by Jefferson Wallace, Worshipful Master of Dove Lodge, No. 51, Richmond, Virginia 1925." It is a heavily illustrated typescript; illustrations are pen and ink drawings with extensive hand-coloring, and include portraits, illuminated capitals, and whimsical marginal illustrations. It is in unbound gatherings.
"The Book of Myths" is a leather-bound 1913 illustrated manuscript by Jefferson Wallace for his daughter, Anne Clopton Wallace. Jefferson Wallace's bookplate, place marked Richmond, Virginia, appears at the volume's front endpage. The hand-illustrated and colored frontispiece of the book features the subtitle "Some of the Sweet Myths of Nature" and features the credit line "Arranged for Mistress Anne Clopton Wallace by Her Daddy." Underneath these captions is "Philadelphia, MCMXIII," where the manuscript was completed for Anne in 1913. Opposite the frontispiece is a photograph of Jefferson alongside Anne, captioned "The man and the girl. Scranton, Pa., January 1, 1914." There is a table of contents that covers up to page 115, but there are another 23 additional pages following that for a total of 143 pages, including the title and content pages. The book's content is separated into eight sections: "Greek Mythology," "Folk-Lore," "Bible Stories," "Indian Stories," "Persian Fables," "Japanese Stores," "Norse Mythology," and "Hindu Mythology." Wallace's hand-drawn coat of arms, seen on his bookplate, appears again following the table of contents. There is a total of 35 stories across these sections. Each story ranges in length and is typewritten at the center of each page inside a rectangle. Surrounding each text block are hand-illustrated and colored scenes associated with each story. There are more robust scenes depicted from each story pasted on brown cardstock and captioned throughout, with page numbers provided in reference to each occurrence's location in the volume. Many of these illustrations depict vibrant wildlife and nature scenes. The front cover of the book is gilt with "The Book of Myths" and "Anne Clopton Wallace, Her Book."
This collection was a purchase from Charles Agvent to the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 17 February 2026.