Collections

This collection contains a letter from Alice E. Nutt to her cousin, Kate, that discusses various personal matters before querying Kate on her impressions of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Nutt, whose father was an ardent Virginia secessionist, articulates an unfavorable reaction to the recently published work and also addresses her disdain for the abolitionist efforts of English noblewomen. The letter measures 7.75" X 6.25" and is four pages in length. Some parts of the fourth page are written upside down in between lines. While there are small separations along old folds, there are no losses to the text.

This collection contains a single letter from Colonel Archibald McClean to Pennsylvania Congressman Honorable Francis James, dated February 16, 1842. McClean, a well-connected Virginia lawyer, expresses his support for the anti-slavery efforts of John Quincy Adams. McClean notes his interest in "the debate which has been going on for some time in your House [of Representatives] upon the resolution for censuring Mr. [John Quincy] Adams for presenting a petition which was unpalatable to at least a portion of the members." The Gag Rule of 1840 silenced Adams's opposition to slavery. McClean praised Adams in the letter and voiced his belief that Adams would ultimately prevail against the gag rule. McClean also discusses the Southerners in Congress who opposed Adams and their hypocritical posture toward the enslaved and America's failure to agree with England on a reciprocal right to search each other's vessels to suppress the slave trade, as England had already abolished slavery in 1833. McClean also requests a copy of John Quincy Adams speech on Amistad.

This collection contains a brown faux leather photo album (7.25" X 11.25") belonging to Bessie Emanuel. Bessie (1902-1984) was raised in White Plains, New York. She was the first Black woman in her town to attend college, entering the Hampton Institute in Virginia in 1922. The photographs are dated from 1922 to 1924 and capture daily life at the Institute, sports events, friends, and family. Captions are found throughout the album. A picture of Bessie with her family in the Hampton Institute dining room features a poem dedicated to her parents on its reverse. The album was compiled by Black students at Hampton Institute.

This collection primarily contains the letters of Ellen "Nellie" Strong Bartlett, author and historian, when she was sixteen years old. Ten letters describe her trip to Washington, D.C., from January to early March 1864. She stayed with her aunt and uncle, Julia and David Bartlett. David Bartlett wrote an early and influential campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln and served as the Clerk of the Committee on Elections in the House of Representatives. The letters describe her travels to Washington and the scene in the nation's capital shortly before the close of the Civil War. She tells her impressions of Lincoln and other political and military officials, accounts of public events, private parties, sightseeing excursions in and beyond the city, and the trends of ladies' fashion. Most letters are from Nellie to her family, most to her parents, but one to her grandmother. Also included is a letter written by her grandmother while Nellie was in Washington and a letter from her mother to Nellie while she visited her Grandparents in September. There is also one letter addressed to a woman named Sadie, written by Nellie's grandmother. In addition to the letters are a Certificate of Non-Liability, which exempted her father from the draft, and a prospectus for her book "Historical Sketches of New Haven." Also included are transcripts of the letters from the vendor.

This collection contains a photo-illustrated travelogue by Ervin W. Moore documenting a Maine family's trip to the Jamestown Exposition of 1907 in Norfolk, Virginia. En route, they visit New York City, the Library of Congress, Mount Vernon, and numerous theater houses, museums, and other public institutions. The journal documents Moore's impressions and observations of the places visited along with allusions and quotes of literary figures both ancient and modern. Photographs are interspersed

This collection contains four black and white photographs (roughly trimmed to 8 x 10 inches or slightly larger) featuring Florynce 'Flo' Kennedy (1916-2000) speaking. Kennedy was an American lawyer, feminist, and activist who founded the Feminist Party in 1971. Each photograph is stamped in red ink with the Examiner Reference Library. The stamps are dated 1973-1976. Three photos include a newspaper clipping of the same image pasted onto the verso, with "Examiner" captioning the photo and including photo credits including Paul Gines, Lynott, and Teresa Zabaia. One picture is stamped with a caption on the verso: "Flo Kennedy at Hookers Convention."

This collection contains an account book of a Virginia dentist, Dr. I.T. Walton, who worked in Appomattox, Prince Edward, Charlotte, Mecklenburg, and Albemarle Counties. The book recorded services for white, enslaved, and free Black patients between 1857 and 1861. The account book documents procedures, tooth conditions, and overall health assessment of patients and includes prices for cleanings, toothache drops, "gold plugs," and various "temporary" and "amalgam" fillings, as well as for "extracting" teeth and "fangs," resetting teeth, and occasionally "killing nerve[s]." Each entry records the name of the patient and, if different, the name of the person paying the bill. Most of the volume proceeds chronologically, though Walton regularly returns to entries to record later work on the same patient. Walton delineates race within his account book, with forty individuals referred to as either "negro" or "negress". Walton notes two Black patients as free, and the rest were evidently enslaved. No mention of the Civil War appears. A few entries note Walton's renting rooms- evidence of an itinerant practice- while others, apparently from Key West, Florida, indicate that he spent some time there in the late 1850s. A few early pages contain dental account entries from 1857 through 1859, and some twenty pages at the end contain brief entries on Walton's personal and dental accounts from 1857 to 1861. A number of poems, some apparently authored by Walton, are interspersed between dental entries.

This collection contains a single black-and-white photograph of Langston Hughes, noted American poet and leader of the Harlem Renaissance.

This collection contains a letter from a young woman, either Lucy or Ella Winston, to her mother, Martha A. Winston. The letter, unsigned, describes her travel to and her experience of the Buckingham Female Collegiate Institute. The Buckingham Female Collegiate Institute, chartered in 1837, was the first college for women in Virginia and was attended by both Winston sisters. In the letter, the writer describes the sisters' trip to the institute, shares her first impressions, comments on changes at the school, and discusses various teachers, messages, financial matters, and course study.

This collection contains the trial drawings for an illustrated alphabet book by the Reverend George Liddell Johnston. The book, bound in crushed red morocco by C. & C. McLeish sometime in the early twentieth century, contains the inlaid drawings and manuscript pages. The book begins with two calligraphic frontispieces, one titled "The Envelope" with an angel holding a brush and canvas. This image was likely the front panel of an envelope that stored the contents before binding. Then follows three pen and ink title pages with letters in the Victorian grotesque tradition, eight manuscript leaves with limericks for each letter, twenty-six calligraphic leaves of alphabet limericks in pencil and pen, twelve watercolors, and forty-six total drawings. The bulk of the manuscript is the drawings and watercolors that illustrate the alphabet, some referencing the subject of the limericks and others alternative subjects. These are humorous and often satirical images. These include critiques of religious figures like cardinals and the Pope and more everyday situations and people like a quack, a statesman, a Yankee, an older man entranced by a younger woman, and an angry wife, among other characters. Devils and demons are frequent figures in the illustrations. A number of the drawings that appear here also appear in a privately printed book by the same title. Johnston made a few copies of this book for his friends and family.