Virginia Scott Cocke Lyman papers

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

Preferred citation:

MSS 16921, Virginia Scott Cocke Lyman papers, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Summary

Extent:
1.4 Cubic Feet 3 document boxes (letter), 1 half document box (letter) and 0.0063 Gigabytes 1 pdf (paper copy in collection)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

MSS 16921, Virginia Scott Cocke Lyman papers, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains 268 letters Virginia Scott Cocke wrote to David Russell Lyman, whom she would marry in 1905. The letters date from 1898 to 1905 and document their courtship. Also included are photographs, a postcard, a bookplate, an album, marriage certificates, transcripts of the letter, and a thumb drive.

Virginia Scott Cocke lived at 'Lower Bremo' in Fluvanna County, Virginia, and met her future husband when he was a senior at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The bulk of the collection is the letters written from Virginia to David.

These letters illuminate the life of a privileged if somewhat impoverished, Southern gentlewoman. Throughout these letters, she writes of life in Virginia, visits to family and friends in Alexandria, VA, Baltimore, New York City, Wilmington, NC, Richmond, New Orleans, Mississippi, and a trip to Honduras on a United Fruit Company ship.

Dr. David Russell Lyman, during this time, did his medical internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Trudeau's tuberculosis sanitorium at Saranac Lake, New York, where he was both a patient and a physician. He was then hired to establish a tuberculosis sanitorium in Wallingford, Connecticut, now Gaylord Specialty Healthcare.

Virginia Jenkins, the granddaughter of Virginia and David, prepared a transcript of the letters, which is included in the collection in print and as a PDF.

In addition to the letters are photographs of Virginia, David, Jane, their daughter, some images of Bremo, several UVA football players, and a photograph of a Black woman and possibly her two children identified as "Mammy" who worked at Lower Bremo. Virginia refers to her once in the correspondence, from a letter dated April 15, 1902. It mentions the passing of a man named Phil, who appears to be Mammy's partner, and Mammy's grief.

Along with the photos are a postcard of University of Virginia's East Colonade from Jane Lyman to her father, David R. Lyman, from 1925, an album with a poem and accompanying photographs, certificates of marriage, and Virginia's bookplate of Lower Bremo.

Biographical / historical:

Virginia Scott Cocke was the great-granddaughter of John Hartwell Cocke II (1780-1866) of Bremo in Fluvanna, Virginia. He was an American military officer, planter and businessman. During the War of 1812, Cocke served in the Virginia militia. After his military service, he invested in the James River and Kanawha Canal and helped Thomas Jefferson establish the University of Virginia.

Acquisition information:
This collection was a gift to the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 22 May 2025.
Physical facet:
1 thumbdrive (restricted)
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard