Collections

Manuscript and printed materials relating to the development of railroads in West Virginia, including contracts, letters, wage agreements, monthly situation reports, construction profiles, maps, and speeches. Most of these pertain to the business of the Coal and Coke Railroad Co., Elkins W.Va. Railroad companies represented include Baltimore and Ohio; Charleston, Clendenin and Sutton; Coal and Coke; Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk; Hampshire Southern; Nicholas, Fayette, and Greenbrier; Roaring Creek and Belington; Western Maryland; West Virginia Midland; and West Virginia and Pittsburgh.

One notebook used by Mr. Carpenter while he was writing "History of American Schoolbooks." Collection also includes 4 notebooks and 14 small scrapbooks containing notes and clippings about William McGuffey and the McGuffey readers. Also included is a small tabloid newspaper and a letter to Reverend Ira Sherman from William McGuffey, November 5, 1847.

This collection includes court case papers and exhibits from Taylor & Harrison Counties; deeds; title abstracts; one land grant; a coal lease for mining & stripping; one letter; and a genealogy chart for the Morgan family.

Scrapbooks maintained by Charles Carpenter, Grafton, between 1939-1963. Subjects include descriptions of libraries, book and manuscript collections, museums, rare and unusual books, magazines, book reviews, newspapers, and advertisements for books. There are items as early as 1838, 1875, 1898, 1905, 1917, but the mass of the collection is in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Recurrent topics include book auctions, book burnings, the dime novel, the Freedom Train, the Gutenberg Bible, Hyde Park Library, Incunabula, the Library of Congress, "London Times Notes on Sales," The Morgan Library, New York Times magazine and book review, New York Times columnists (Philip Brooks, Edward Larocque Tinker, and Herbert W. Horwill), and stamps. There are also letters concerning books from Charles Carpenter's son. For more detailed description, see inventory sheet.