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The papers of Anna Maria (Campbell Hickman) Otis Mead Chalmers (1809-1891) and her family offer a deep look into a 19th century American family with a sharp focus on enslaved and formerly enslaved persons. The collection documents the life of a young, widowed woman, Anna Maria Mead Chalmers, who was the granddaughter of General William Hull (1753-1825). She was a mother of four children and became a businesswoman in Richmond, Virginia. She was a writer, an editor of the Southern Churchmen, an educator and founder of Mrs. Mead's School for Young Ladies, and a director of The Southern Churchmen Cot ("Retreat for the Sick"), a hospital for children. Anna Maria's family enslaved people who are represented in the papers including Othello "Tillo" Freeman (1790's-1860's?). It includes a letter from William written in [1875], who was their carriage driver, and letters about Sam the fiddler, who settled on the farm after escaping harsher enslavement in Louisianna, and Jordan who was described as being hired out in a letter dated September 8, 1841 from Thomas R. Blair.

The Armstead L. Robinson papers(1848-2001; 43 cubic feet) consist of audiotapes; book reviews; census material; computer printouts; conference papers; correspondence; biographical information; instructional material; lectures and speeches; manuscripts and original writings by Robinson, his colleagues and students; maps; memorabilia; microfilm; organizational and professional files; photographs; printed items, and research and topical files. Most of the nineteenth century material is in the form of photocopies.

MSS 9221 Bennett Taylor papers consist of family correspondence with letters to and from Bennett about education at the University of Virginia, descriptions of United States Civil War battles including the 19th Virginia Regiment Company F, Picketts Divison at 2nd Manassas, a prisoner exchange for Lieutenant Colonel Bennett Taylor from Johnson Island in Lake Erie New York, and family news of descendants of Thomas Jefferson and local Charlottesville families from 1851-1894. Correspondence of Bennett Taylor (1836-1898): 30 letters. In addition to the letters there is a University of Virginia examination report for Bennett Taylor's father John Charles Randolph Taylor, dated July 5, 1860.

The Fernande Gontier papers (1787-2005; 8.6 cubic feet) document Dr. Gontier's scholarship on Simone de Beauvoir; Colette; Etienne Cabet and his followers in Nauvoo, Illinois; Mathilde de Morny; and Comtesse Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy. The collection includes manuscript drafts, research files, correspondence, and books representing Dr. Gontier's work. Materials also include manuscripts for cookbooks co-written by Dr. Gontier. The papers are arranged into six series.