Collections : [Alexandria Library]

Notes and reminiscences of Mrs. Benham's life from her childhood and youth in Alexandria to her adult travels along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Also covers the settlement of Oregon (through her brother William's experiences there), the careers of her siblings and her elderly musings. Alexandria sections include materials on Mrs. Benham's family life, the Potomac River, Monsieur Generis' dancing school, the Woods and Warren Play Actors (the summer theater), Parson Muir, Bishop Meade, Christ Church, Mount Vernon, Washington Lodge, Washington City and President Monroe's daughter's wedding. Also highlighted are many prominent Virginia and Washington D.C. families such as the Washington's, Lewis', Moore's, McCormick's, Meade's and Vowell's. Local customs, social life and institutions are discussed.

This collection includes records and correspondence relating to the William H. May & Son Company, including an undated four page list of supplies available from the company. There are also flyers with information and pictures relating to nineteenth century farm equipment from other companies. Other correspondence shows William H. May's involvement with the International Silver Company and the Alexandria Home Insurance Company. There is also a letter to William H. May from a Russian banker, caught embezzling in Europe and incarcerated in Madrid, Spain, asking for help with funds for his daughter in the United States. John W. May is represented in this collection by some deeds and correspondence. There are two 1845-1846 letters to John from cousins Isaac and Hoziah Hook of Cumberland, Maryland. Carroll H. May was not only involved with the William H. May & Son Company until its demise, but correspondence in this collection shows that as Lieutenant of Company G, First Regiment, Infantry, Virginia Volunteers, Alexandria, he was active in organizing a parade for the dedication of a park and laying the cornerstone of a monument to George Washington. The George Washington Monument Association is mentioned. Carroll resigned his commission in 1912. There are also some papers relating to Carroll as president of the Bethel Cemetery Company. Other correspondence to Carroll includes items from an 1899 gramophone company, the YMCA, advertisements of a magic book, the Improved Order of Red Men of Virginia and North Carolina, and Robinson Moncure (a Virginia House delegate). Carroll was a medical doctor and Sanitary Inspector for the City of Alexandria. Letters from 1943 offer consolation for the death of his son in World War II. There are several pieces of correspondence to May women. One is a 1903 letter to Effie DeVaughn from Palais Royal of Washington, D.C., and the other is a 1936 letter from Laura P. Sullivan of the Business and Professional Women's Club of Alexandria, Virginia, to Emily R. May. There is also an 1846 letter to William and his mother from his sister, Margaret May. There is an 1856 autograph album of Mary DeVaughn. Emily R. May's English literature scrapbook of 1901-1902 and her correspondence are in this collection. There is also some correspondence to and from James DeVaughn, a furniture manufacturer, who was Effie DeVaughn's father.

This collection consists of three series related to the McKnight, Piercy, and Jacobs families. In each series there are sub-series of letters, legal documents, and genealogical materials. Contents also include military records, harbor and ballast master papers, an 1849 inaugural ball invitation, and miniature portraits of William P. McKnight and Margaret Jacobs. McKnight correspondence relates to the Civil War.

The papers in this collection cover all of the Alexandria Fire Department's business and legal transactions over a span of one hundred years. The canceled checks show the many expenditures necessary to outfit, maintain, and operate the volunteer fire companies. There are also many receipts from commercial firms who provisioned, repaired, serviced and supplied the volunteer fire companies. The Alexandria Common Council appropriated money each year to cover the entire Fire Department.