Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Unedited, unselected, and uncensored correspondence and business record of the now defunct Hammond Fire Brick Company of Hammond (Marion County), West Virginia. Includes correspondence for the years 1900-1931; shipping records indicating the type of brick, to whom sent, quantity sent, railroad, and the date for the years 1907-1913; freight bills from various railroads for the years 1906 to 1909 and 1921 to 1923; bills and orders, 1900 to 1931; one large payroll book with line entries for each worker listing days and hours worked with deductions for store, coal, etc., one unrelated account book for a store at Lancaster, Pa., for the years1803 to 1811; cancelled check files for 1906,1908,1921,1924 and 1928; and three sample bricks produced by the company.

Newspaper clippings, mainly from Doddridge and Harrison county, concerning marriages, deaths, family histories, letters from World War I service men, nurses, and from former residents who had moved, or gone to other states to teach, including a series of letters from L.P. Willis from the Phillippine Islands and Japan. Mr.Willis was employed as a teacher and Head Of the Bureau of Education in Japan, and the Phillipines for twenty years. Also, included in the collection are tax and school tuition receipts, orders,unsigned copy of Thomas Hickman's will, deed and other papers of several members of the Hickman family of Harrison county. A photostat copy of a form letter from the State Medical Society Committee on Examination of the Medical Botany of the State addressed to Dr.P. Davis from Wheeling, 1868.

Newspaper clippings, principally from Harrison and Doddridge county papers, concerning W. Va. Servicemen in World War I, weather and flood reports, and miscellaneous West Virginia Subjects. There are also some clippings from Parkersburg and various Ohio papers.

The official papers of the 17th governor of West Virginia. Gore's career began in World War I when he was assistant food administrator in West Virginia; and in 1921 he went to Washington as a livestock appraiser and specialist in marketing livestock in the Department of Agriculture; he was appointed Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, and upon the Death of Henry C. Wallace, was made Secretary of Agriculture (November 22, 1924- March 4, 1925). In addition to his papers as Governor, other series show his activities in producers' co-ops, the Farm Bureau, the Federal Farm Board, the West Virginia Public Service Commission, the Weston and Union Livestock Sales companies, and West Virginia politics. The collection includes a 1925 scrapbook of photographs documenting the activities of the 4-H camp at Jackson's Mill near Weston, West Virginia.

This scrapbook contains photographs capturing the World War I service of Jacob Carroll Bowman, Senior. These photographs, taken closeup and from the air, include images of war planes, listening posts, commanding posts, battlefields, and trenches. There are also many aerial shots taken of cities and countryside throughout France.

Correspondence between WVU professor John H. Johnston and British World War I poets, including David Jones, Herbert Read, and Siegfried Sassoon. There are fourteen letters authored by David Jones, a British World War I poet widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century by his contemporaries. The letters include a "discussion" between Johnston and Jones, mostly regarding Johnston's critique and analysis of the World War I poets, and also the thoughts and philosophies that influenced Jones's work (especially "In Parenthesis"). There are also two letters authored by Siegfried Sassoon and one authored by Sassoon's son, George, upon his father's death. Siegfried Sassoon was a British World War I poet best known for his critical view of the war following his service. Also includes publications by and about David Jones, and one piece of published greeting card artwork by David Jones with signature and note.

Scrapbooks, diaries, correspondence and papers of the noted lawyer and 1924 presidential aspirant for the Democrats, John W. Davis, kept by his daughter, a famous author, Julia (McDonald) Davis Adams. Noteworthy is a 1948 official publication in tribute to Davis' career as Solicitor General of the United States (1913-1918). There is a typescript copy of his diary recounting his wartime and post-war tenure (1918-1921) as the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. His letters include some of his candid feelings about the political events of his day such as the New Deal and tributes to his scholarly approach to practicing law from Supreme Court Justices Robert H. Jackson and Felix Frankfurter.