Search

This collection consists of certificates, citations, commissions, and similar documentation associated with VMI alumni, faculty, staff, or VMI as a whole. The collection does not include VMI diplomas or literary society certificates, which are filed separately.

The collection consists mainly of certificates presented to Amos R. Koontz, M.D., by the army, together with his medals in a frame, and membership certificates in organizations. Included is a competition for designs for National Military Dress (1809); and shoemaker's account books of Harden Keyser (1849-1861), one of which Mattie Keyser used as a scrapbook at a later period and in which she wrote autograph poems; a souvenir booklet of the Panama Pacific Exposition (1915); and genealogical information on the Koontz, Graves, Stocking, Guy, Snyder, Dolan, Brown and Bageant families.

This sub-group includes the following documents: Manuscript, appointment of the first VMI Board, 1839; James McDowell appointment, 1839; Alfred Leyburn, 1843; William B. Taliaferro, 1852; Arthur C. Cummings, 1866; Martin B. Wood, 1882; Alexander F. (Alex) Ryland

The personal and professional papers of Carter Lowance, executive assistant to six governors of Virginia: William M. Tuck, John S. Battle, Thomas B. Stanley, J. Lindsay Almond, Albertis S. Harrison and Mills Edwin Godwin. Papers also concern Harry F. Byrd, Sr. and Harry F. Byrd, Jr., and John N. Dalton. There are speeches, papers relating to Lowance's military career (including correspondence with his wife, Elizabeth Austin Lowance), awards received by Lowance, photographs, and papers concerning his funeral. There is also correspondence received by Mrs. Lowance after his death. The collections includes material concerning proposed amendments to the Virginia Constitution as well as some papers concerning Lowance's service with the College of William and Mary.

These papers contain correspondence, photographs, business papers, artifacts, certificates, and other materials related to Charles Edward Gary, Jr. Mr. Gary was a prominent African American business owner in Williamsburg, operating for decades the West End Valet Shop off Prince George Street. The collection comprises business ledgers and other West End Valet Shop records over several years, as well as legal documents pertaining to the Valet Shop and Gary family estates such as leases and deeds. Personal materials pertain especially to Mr. Gary's schooling, his miltiary service during World War II, family photographs, and some of Mrs. Zelda Gary's personal papers. An active member of the Williamsburg community, Mr. Gary served in several civic, fraternal, and religious organizations. Centering on his involvement in local baptist churches and in the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World - Old Capitol Lodge, Mr. Gary's papers include speeches he prepared for religious and I.B.P.O.E.W. meeting touching on religion, family, and race issues in America. The collection thus contains materials relevant to the study of twentieth-century Williamsburg history and African American history.

Professional and personal papers, 1745-1892, of the Galt family of Williamsburg, Virginia. Papers primarily concern the Galt family's work at the Eastern State Hospital, including apothecary shop daybooks, account books, medical daybooks, clinical notebooks, weather diaries, commonplace books, reports, medical notes, lecture notes, correspondence, and other. The personal papers consist of diaries, letters, scrapbooks, school notes, financial papers, memoirs, and other material.

This collection contains the family papers of members of the Grigsby and Galt Families. Mary Blair Grigsby married William W. Galt in 1881. The collection contains papers of various members of the Grigsby family, particulary Hugh Blair Grigsby who was a historian and Chancellor of The College of William and Mary and his son, Hugh Carrington Grigsby who lived his entire life at the family farm, Edgehill, in Charlotte County, Virginia.