Search

This collection contains items of the Anderson and Alexander families including correspondence dealing with legal business, family matters, and Lexington, Virginia affairs. Consists largely of the family correspondence of William Alexander Anderson, Francis T. Anderson, and Mary Anne Alexander Anderson; includes letters to and from Virginia Governor John Letcher, and two letters from Mildred Lee, daughter of Robert E. Lee. Other correspondents include William A. Glasgow, George Hutcheson Denny, Charles Alfred Graves, Henry Holstine, George Junkin, George Bolling Lee, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, James McDowell, Samuel McDowell Moore, and Walter LeConte Stevens. Also includes legal and business correspondence of Francis T. Anderson; letters and diary of William D. Alexander dated 1858-1859; business accounts, wills, obituaries, including Mary Anne Alexander Anderson's obituary as a pamphlet titled In Memoriam, November 27, 1881; and genealogies of the McNutt, Anderson, and Thomas families. Includes copies of speeches of William A. Anderson dated 1842-1930 and a few photographs.

Receipt for land transfer from John R. Taylor to Carter Braxton, September 23, 1833. Ledger balance receipt for a day ledger. Obituary of Carter Braxton's son, Phillip Ludwell Braxton, [1835]. Handwritten eulogy entitled "Thoughts on the death of dear Ludwell" written by either Carter Braxton or his wife. Account by Carter Braxton of the sale of Mr. Robertson's estate, Providence, in Middlesex County, Virginia, 1837. Names of purchasers includeThomas Harrow, Benjamin Temple, George D. Pace, William K. Pace, Carter Braxton, Braxton Garlick, Joseph Todd, John D. Berry, James Jones, Mark Towell, Erma Bennett, Phill Fizhugh, Thomas Hutching, John Sims, Ailworth, Bartlett Davis, Franklin Blackburne and Henry Palmer. Includes a short list of negroes who were hired out. Letter from The Historical Society of Pennsylvania to Earl Gregg Swem about the Braxton Papers at the Historical Society, September 6, 1922.

Diary, 1870, of Samuel K. Thompson, 2nd Lieutenant of the 25th Regiment of the U.S. Infantry, which was one of the all African-American regiments founded in 1866 that are also referred to as "Buffalo Soldiers." Thompson was a white commanding officer of the regiment.

Diary, 1826-1946, of Lydia Wasson (1800-1853) of North Carolina and La Porte, Indiana, her daughter Charlotte Wasson Cox, and her grandson William Wasson Cox (b. 1857). At the beginning of the diary, Lydia Wasson, a devout Quaker, chronicles her life from birth to 1826 when the regular diary entries begin. Toward the end of her life she dictated her entries to her daughter, who after her mother's death continued to write in the diary a few more times at irregular intervals. Charlotte Wasson also titled the diary "A brief sketch of the religious exercises and varied experiences of Lydia Wasson written by herself - age 52 years - at her death in 1852."

This collection covers the Greater Williamsburg Area, including Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, James City County, York County and other nearby communities. It includes gifts and purchases whose contents are ephemeral in nature and not well-suited as stand-alone collections. The items are usually transient documents of everyday life and can include menus, flyers, advertisements, and programs but can also be postcards, games, ticket stubs, and the like.