Collections

This collection contains twenty black and white photographs, approximately 9 x 7 inches, depicting African American life, presumably in a segregated area in rural Virginia. The pictures have no annotations on the back, and the photographer is unknown. The location is also unclear; however, it may be somewhere near or in Fauquier County, Virginia. This location possibility is based on a photograph that depicts several storefronts, including a beauty salon which has two names painted on the window, Green & [ ] Beauty Salon. Juline Turner and Helen Blackwell, are presumably the proprietors of the salon.

The papers chiefly consist of letters Albert Frederick Wilson (1883-1940) sent to his mother in New Jersey while a student at the University of Virginia. There is also some correspondence from Wilson's father and grandfather; family photographs; and unpublished manuscripts by Wilson.

This collection contains one catalog for the Bluestone-Harmony Academic and Industrial School from 1935-1936, two Minutes of the annual session of the Harmony Baptist Sunday School Convention: 45th (1941), 46th (1942), and fourteen minutes of the annual session of the Bluestone Baptist Association: 39th (1910), 43rd (1914), 50th (1921), 51st (1922), 52nd (1923), 53rd (1924), 55th (1926), 58th (1929), 59th (1930), 67th (1938), 69th (1940), 73rd (1944), 75th (1946), 91st (1963).

Two panoramic photographs of African-American training units at Camp Lee, Virginia, in the 1940s. The first is a group photograph of "Company "G", 9th Quartermaster Training Regiment" stationed at Camp Lee, with the names of all members of platoons 1st through 4th listed along the bottom of the image. The second panoramic photograph was taken in front of the 1st platoon building and features five rows of unnamed soldiers.

This collection contains a certificate of a local Virginia election in the first district of Accomack County on October 22, 1867, preliminary voting for delegates for the upcoming Constitutional Convention, marking the first time African-Americans voted in the state.

This collection contains a photograph album of a student from Hampton Institute. The original photo album, measuring 7' x 10' with 24 pages, contains 44 black and white photographs of an unidentified young Black woman, approximately 20 years old, as well as cut newspaper images and a photo postcard. She is seen at Hampton Institute, a historically Black University, in Hampton, Virginia, posing in front of school buildings, clowning around with friends, and preparing for graduation. Also included are scenic photographs of places she visited such as a dam, a church, and a parade. The last few pages contain family photographs; a couple photographs show her with an elderly woman. Some of the baby photographs are inscribed "To Grandma" and "To Grand Dad" and another is labeled "Me". The identification of the Hampton Institute as the locale comes from a real photo postcard with the title "The Hampton Institute Creative Dance Group" and a newspaper cutout of the Hampton Institute Choir along with the news caption, "They Keep Spiritual Values High at Hampton." It is possible that this album was kept by the grandparent of the young women.

The John Mitchell Brooks collection of NAACP files, 1957-1960, is a collection of administrative paperwork and correspondence used by John Mitchell Brooks during his initial years as director of the national voter registration and education program of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The materials primarily consist of files regarding the state branches of the NAACP across the United States. These branch files contain correspondence and statistical reports from the officials in charge of each state's voter registration initiative. The files show methods that the different branches incorporated to maximize the effectiveness of their individual voting initiatives. Additionally, some branch files include examples of promotional material created by each branch to ignite public interest. The materials were sent to Brooks for approval and feedback.

John Walter Wayland collection of correspondence,notes,photographs, and newspaper clippings about Henry Martin who was the bell ringer for the University of Virginia from 1868-1909. "Henry Martin rang the bell at dawn to awaken the students, and rang it during the day to mark the hours and the beginning and ending of class periods. He was beloved by generations of faculty, students, and alumni, and he remembered them all when they returned for visits." Dr. Wayland, a former University of Virginia Ph.D. student (1907), history professor, and author from Harrisonburg, Virginia was planning to write a paper about Martin who was born enslaved by Monticello, and the Carr family estate. During the American Civil War, he tended the wounded at the military hospital in Charlottesville. In 1866 he was hired by the University to haul coal. He worked at UVA for more than four decades, becoming a well-known figure there but one who was treated in the context of the Lost Cause archetype of the faithful servant. He died in 1915.