Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

West Virginia and Regional History Center

West Virginia & Regional History Center
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6069
1549 University Avenue
Morgantown, WV 26506
Primary Collecting Areas:
West Virginia and Appalachia History and Culture
Description:
The West Virginia & Regional History Center preserves and provides access to the records that document the history and culture of the state and the central Appalachian region. The Center is part of West Virginia University Libraries.
POC: Lori Hostuttler
Phone: (304) 293-3536
Start Over Repository West Virginia and Regional History Center Subjects Authors -- Letters and papers

Margaret Prescott Montague, Author, Papers 6.5 Linear Feet Summary: 6 ft. 5 3/4 in. (14 document cases, 5 in. each); (3 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each); (1 oversize folder, 1/4 in.)

Montague, Margaret Prescott, 1878-1955

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes and notebooks, diaries, press clippings, photographs, and printed material of a West Virginia essayist, short-story writer, poet and novelist, who won the first O. Henry Memorial Prize in 1919 for her short story, "England to America." The papers include correspondence from editors, publishers, agents and critics; readers' correspondence; family letters; manuscripts of short stories and other works; outlines, plots, and drafts; and diaries and notebooks primarily concerned with religious meditation, Christian mysticism, and Miss Montague's concept of human ennoblement through suffering. Correspondents include Bernard Baruch, Russell Doubleday, Howard M. Gore, M.A. DeWolfe Howe, Vachel Lindsay, Christopher Morley, Philip Van Doren Stern, Joseph P. Tumulty, and Woodrow Wilson.

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Melville Davisson Post (1871-1930) Papers 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 1/2 in. (1 folder)

Post, Melville Davisson, 1869-1930

Correspondence of writer Melville Davisson Post with Louis E. Schrader, a Wheeling court reporter who edited, typed, and often forwarded Post's manuscripts to the publisher. These letters are primarily instructions for Schrader and concern Post's legal writings as well as his detective stories.

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Melville Davisson Post Papers 0.08 Linear Feet Summary: 10 in. (2 document cases, 5 in. each)

Post, Melville Davisson, 1869-1930

Manuscripts of short stories and essays of Melville D. Post, some of which were published between 1920 and 1929 in the Review of Reviews, Everybody's, and the American Magazine. Collection also includes World War I poster texts and articles on various subjects by Melville D. Post; also, two letters. See processing notes for list of titles.

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Minnie Kendall Lowther Papers 5.9 Linear Feet Summary: 5 ft. 11 in. (14 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 scrapbook, 1 in.)

Lowther, Minnie Kendall, 1869-1947
M.K. Lowther (1869-1947) was a journalist and one of the first women newspaper editors in West Virginia. She was the author of the HISTORY OF RITCHIE COUNTY; BLENNERHASSETT ISLAND IN ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY; FRIENDSHIP HILL, HOME OF ALBERT GALLATIN; MARSHALL HALL AND OTHER POTOMAC POINTS IN STORY AND PICTURE; and MT. VERNON: ITS CHILDREN, ITS ROMANCES, ITS ALLIED FAMILIES AND MANSIONS. There are complete and incomplete typescripts, rough drafts, revisions, photographs and plates of her books. Also there are typescripts of news articles on Washington, D.C., the Potomac Valley, and Wood County. There are genealogical notebooks and correspondence and also correspondence to publishers concerning business arrangements. Families mentioned are: Ball, Barber, Bee, Brake, Broadwater, Burns, Chenoweth, Clayton, Collins, Corbitt, Cox, Cunningham, Davis, Day, Dougherty, Drake, Fittro, Fitzrandolph, Goff, Hall, Hardman, Harris, Haymond, Henderson, Hoff, Hughes, Ireland, Jackson, Johnson, Kapkin, Kendall, Kercheval, Kuykendall, Leep, Leg(g)ett, Lemon, Lowther, McDougal, McGinnis, McGregor, McNeill, Marsh, Maxwell, Meredith, Minear, Modesitt, Morgan, Morrison, Murphy, Null, Nutter, O'Maley, Piatt, Pierpont, Pribble, Prunty, Ralston, Reger, Riddel, Riddle, Scott, Sharp, Shinn, Sleeth, Smith, Stump, Taylor, Waldo, Web(b), Willard, Willis, Wilson, and Zinn.
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Muriel Miller Dressler, Poet, Papers Collected by William Plumley 2.1 Linear Feet 2 ft. 1 in. (5 document cases, 5 in. each)

Dressler, Muriel Miller, 1918-2000
Papers of Muriel Miller Dressler (1918-2000), of Witcher, Kanawha County, West Virginia, noted Appalachian poet and lecturer in the 1970s and 1980s. Collection is chiefly composed of Dressler's poetry and other materials related to her career in the 1970s and early 1980s, though much of the material is undated. Writings include drafts of the poems in her two published collections, Appalachia, My Land (1973) and Appalachia (1977), as well as drafts of unpublished work, materials related to her speaking engagements, and letters related to her poetry. Notable correspondents from the 1970s include Earl Hamner, Ken Kesey, Martin Sheen, and Jesse Stuart. Collection also includes photographs, slides, and film footage of Dressler and audio cassettes of Dressler and William Plumley discussing Appalachian literature. Papers were compiled and probably organized by William Plumley, poet, professor of English, and editor of anthologies and articles on Appalachian folklore, poetry and fiction. Materials largely retain the order in which they were received from Plumley.
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Oren F. Morton (1857-1926) Papers 2.5 Linear Feet Summary: 2 ft. 6 in. (6 document cases, 5 in. each)

Morton, Oren F., 1857-1926

Correspondence, diaries, sketch books, published and unpublished manuscripts, literary notes, business records, and printed material of a schoolteacher, newspaper writer, county historian, novelist and essayist from Kingwood, whose fiction and nonfiction writings deal primarily with the Virginia-West Virginia Allegheny highlands. His best known works are WINNING OR LOSING?: A STORY OF THE WEST VIRGINIA HILLS (1901); LAND OF THE LAUREL: A STORY OF THE ALLEGHANIES (1903); UNDER THE COTTONWOODS: A SKETCH OF LIFE ON A PRAIRIE HOMESTEAD (1900); and histories of Preston, Pendleton, and Monroe counties. The collection also includes a manuscript temperance paper, "The Meridian Temperance Banner," 1880; and a list of marriage bonds for Monroe County, 1799-1846.

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Paul A. Miller Papers 8.75 Linear Feet Summary: 8 ft. 9 1/4 in. (21 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 folder, 1/4 in.)

Miller, Paul A., 1917-2015
Professional papers, correspondence, books, serials, and photographs documenting the professional career of Paul A. Miller, who served as president of West Virginia University, 1962-66. The material also deals with Miller's work as a graduate student, professor, and provost at Michigan State University, 1946-61; his tenure as assistant secretary for education in the Department of Health, Education & Welfare; and his term as president of Rochester Institute of Technology, 1969-79. Correspondents include: Marshall Buckalew, Francena L. Miller, Thomas E. Millsop, Leonard Riggleman, D. Banks Wilburn. See "Scope and Contents" note for an addendum to this collection.
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Samuel T. Wiley (1850-1905) Papers 0.8 Linear Feet Summary: 10 in. (2 document cases, 5 in. each)

Wiley, Samuel T.
Letters, notebooks, scrapbooks, diaries, manuscripts, and memorabilia of a secondary schoolteacher in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and Preston County, and an author and local historian of Preston and Monongalia counties in West Virginia. The collection includes notes on history, orthography, new method arithmetic, two teachers report books of 1872-1885 and 1879-1880, teachers' certificates, a Wiley family genealogy, manuscripts on slavery, Odd Fellowship, public schools, after-dinner speeches, history of the United States, short stories, assorted sayings and aphorisms, notes for a history of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, a biographical sketch of Wiley and copies from his diaries and works, and an autograph book and information on Monongahela College at Jefferson, Pennsylvania.
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