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Reverend C. Shirley Donnelly, a Baptist minister and local historian, collected these materials for his own research and interest in West Virginia history. The collection contains various materials pertaining to coal mining and West Virginia history, especially in the New River area and Fayette County. It includes correspondence, land grant and deed records, pamphlets, journals, local histories, records, photographs, and art relating to mining and life in the New River area. One set of correspondence includes recollections, a yearbook, and newspaper clippings by a World War II sailor from the USS West Virginia. Another series of correspondence includes the antebellum, wartime, and postwar letters and personal receipts of Charles Dequasie, a Confederate soldier from Fayette County, West Virginia, and Robert Edward Dequasie's personal and business correspondence. Other ephemera includes West Virginia and mining journals and certificates belonging to Donnelly and others. A scrapbook and notebook of newspaper clippings pertain to early court hangings and executions in West Virginia. Political posters include those for West Virginia Governor William C. Marland and West Virginia Senators Harley Kilgore and Robert Byrd.

Revolutionary War Military Service Pay Records, 1775-1818, include account books, bonds, correspondence, ledgers, lists of officers and men who received military pay certificates, and vouchers.

Business, military and legal papers, chiefly 1774-1822, of Richard Billups of Mathews and Gloucester Counties, Virginia. Papers include accounts, land records, and correspondence and some concern shipbuilding. Includes minutes, 1842, of a temperance meeting and Methodist church records.

Papers, 1772-1872, of the Blow family. Chiefly business papers, 1772-1820, of Richard Blow of Portsmouth and "Tower Hill," Sussex County, Va. and his son George Blow, Sr. and George Blow, Jr. of 'Tower Hill' and Williamsburg, Va. Richard Blow was a partner in stores in Virginia and North Carolina (trading as Richard Blow and Co., Briggs & Blow, Baker & Blow [South Quay, Nansemond County, Va.], Blow & Barksdale [Petersburg, Va.], and Blow and Scammel). He was also a plantation owner that operated in part by labor of enslaved persons. He shipped the goods produced by the plantation by sea, often to European markets. His correspondence and papers during this period provide a model source on plantation management, sea trade, trade during the American Revolution, and trade during the War of 1812. Includes correspondence, plantation accounts, ship accounts, and legal papers.

Richard G. Joynt's collection of British manuscripts, from the 15th to the 20th century, of 88 letters and documents, 41 cut signatures, and many book engravings. The authors and signatures include kings, queens, prime ministers, nobles, military officers, authors, and other dignitaries. Personal matters, military orders and letters, religion, treaties, politics, intrique, and much more are covered in these letters, often interwoven with current events.

This collection contains approximately 300 rare printed maps, unique manuscript maps, and published texts collected by Richard H. Brown, which pertain to the American Revolutionary War era.