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Lura Royall and Vladimir Sournin Correspondence, 1904-1925

Lunenburg County (Va.) Circuit Court

The Lura Royall and Vladimir Sournin Correspondence, 1904-1925, consist of 97 letters and postcards that were part of several cubic feet of papers left in the old Lunenburg courthouse by former Lunenburg County Clerk John L. Yates. The majority of the letters were written by Vladimir Sournin and document his relationship with Lura Royall and allude to their possible marriage. Sournin's letters document his chess career, his work with the United States Geological Survey as a cartographer, and his singing career. Sournin also discusses conducting a survey in the Panama Canal Zone and his subsequent lectures about the canal in the U.S. and Europe. One letter, dated March 1915, briefly mentions World War I. Information about Lura Royall's family and social life in Lunenburg County and Washington, D.C., can also be uncovered in the correspondence. Also included in the correspondence are copies of letters sent to Vladimir Sournin from photographer Joseph K. Dixon.

  1. Library of Virginia

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