Collections : [Alexandria Library]

The manuscripts vertical file is an artificial collection containing a wide variety of unique manuscript items relating to Alexandria, Virginia residents, businesses, organizations, and history.

The collection consists of circulation, subscription, and financial ledgers, annual lecture series documents, catalogues, correspondence, and various organizational documents. Topics include: foundation of the Alexandria Library Company, its cycles of growth and decline reflecting the local economy; the formation of the local public library system; and the on-going activities of the Alexandria Library Company, most notably its lecture series.

The collection contains reports, correspondence, account books, minutes, warrants, court orders, vouchers, bills to be paid and to be collected, some printed matter, stocks and bonds, petitions, election returns, and poll books, ranging in date from 1750 to 1983, predominately 1825-1875. Topics include both the city auditor and the city treasurer records of receipts and expenditures for many city functions--the poor house, the police, employee pay records, etc.--, election results, the issuance of Corporation stocks and bonds, railroads, and canals.

These are the collected papers of Alexandria politician Armistead Lloyd Boothe (1907-1990). Papers created or collected by Boothe in the course of his career include campaign materials, correspondence with colleagues, and extensive newspaper clippings in addition to other research on political issues such as segregation, education, and transportation.

Nathaniel's papers related to business and to the New York Life Insurance Company. There are also letters from Nathaniel to Samuel during the Civil War years. Letters to Samuel from relatives, including his sisters Effie and Fannie and his mother Jane, contain commentary on the Civil War. At different times during the war Samuel was in New Orleans, Manassas and Petersburg. There are Confederate passes among his papers. There is also an 1865 letter from Samuel to his mother about his return home. Samuel's correspondence from his friend Maurice Hurley mentions that Hurley was exiled to Canada to avoid taking the "oath to President Lincoln" in 1864. Correspondence of Nathalie Boush Asher and her husband G. Gordon Asher make up the remainder of the collection. There is also an 1893 Alexandria Female Institute report card for Nathalie. Most of her correspondence is personal letters, sympathy notes, and some letters on House of Representatives stationary. Her interest in politics is indicated by the latter plus newspapers that she saved relating to the candidacy of C.C. Carlin and E.B. White for the 1918 Virginia Eighth District election for the U.S. House of Representatives. There are several pieces of business and personal correspondence to G. Gordon Asher.

The collection contains loose pages and one ledger. There are missing pages and some existing pages are difficult to read due to damage. The loose pages appear to have been part of a ledger in which minutes were kept for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Robert Andrews Dist. 417 . Entries found in the minutes indicate the organization was one that assisted retired and/or injured railroad workers financially. Within the ledger, members names and dues amounts paid each month are listed. The names listed are men who lived in the City of Alexandria or the nearby surrounding area. They worked or were still working for the railroad at time of membership. The ledger used for the names and dues records shows the heading "Virginia Midland Railway" at the top of each page.

This collection covers the history of the Cazenove Family of Alexandria from the 1790s to the 1970s. The first part of the collection features records from James O'Hara Cazenove (1880-1971), consisting primarily of correspondence and records relating to his business interests and investments, as well as legal documents and business related litigation. Some of the correspondence and notebooks relate to his role as an inventor including a patent for an improved eggbeater from the 1920s. It also includes records from his brother, Louis A. deCazenove (1851-1925), primarily related to his education at Cornell University.

Family papers, letters, wills, and deeds of the Chapman Family of Maryland and Virginia.