Collections : [Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University]

The collection contains project files and drawings related to more than 1,500 residences, churches, businesses, schools, and community buildings, predominantly in the Roanoke and Southwest Virginia area, designed by Smithey & Boynton, mostly between 1935 and 1957.

The Fries Textile Plant Records includes correspondence, production data, personnel ledgers, photographs, legal and financial materials, internal reports, blueprints, and other administrative materials. The collection provides a complete history of the company's operations, from its founding at the turn of the twentieth century until its closure in the 1980s.

This collection includes research notes, manuscripts, typescript drafts, working copies and galley proofs for books and articles written by Virginia Tech's Alumni Distinguished Professor of History James I. Robertson Jr., 1982-2001. Large collection of notes, papers, and correspondence relateing to Virginia Civil War counties and units. Also contains a small set of general materials which includes items related to the preservation of lands adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park.

The collection consists of Marshak's professional and personal papers, detailing his career as university professor in physics at the University of Rochester and Virginia Tech, member and leader in several scientific institutions, and president of the City College of New York. Materials include Marshak's files on the Shelter Island Conferences (1947-1949) and his administrative and correspondence files on the Rochester Conferences on High-Energy Physics (1950-1957), which he founded. The papers also includes correspondence, notes, reports, files, speeches, proceedings, newsclippings, autographs, photographs, interviews, transcripts, and other personalia related to his career at the University of Rochester, City College of New York, and Virginia Tech. Some materials relate to his work in international science and physics organizations, including USSR-US relations, Soviet science, the American Physical Association, International Center of Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, and the International Foundation for Science in Sweden. Of special note are several items and files with other well-known physicists, including Hans Bethe, George Sudarshan, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Susumu Okubo, Abdus Salam, Victor Weisskopf, Enrico Fermi, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Mildred Dresselhaus, Richard Feynman, and a letter from Albert Einstein.

Samuel Herrick was an astronomer who specialized in celestial mechanics, generally recognized as the founder of the field of astrodynamics. His papers consist of correspondence, notes, drafts of publications, files relating to students and courses, and reprints of the works of others in astronomy and space sciences. Other highlights include Herrick's consulting files for projects such as NASA's Project Mercury, the film ""The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), and private industry. This collection is part of the Archives of American Aerospace Exploration at Virginia Tech.

The Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club (RATC) Records document the management of the club from its founding in 1932. The collection includes the club newsletters, board minutes, former officers' and members' records, NPS and RATC acquisition information, conservation issues, management plans, histories of the club, scrapbooks, and photographs. The RATC continues its original mission to maintain and protect the Appalachian Trail (AT), and the club covers over 120 miles of the AT, including McAfee Knob, Dragon's Tooth, and Tinker Cliffs.

This collection contains the papers of ornithologists John Eugene Law and Harold H. Bailey, including notes on bird species, habitat, and behavior; correspondence; field journals; printed materials; photographs and other images. Among Bailey's papers are files relating to his books, The Birds of Virginia and The Birds of Florida, as well as his operation of the Rockbridge Alum Springs Biological Laboratory. Also includes biographical files on hundreds of other naturalists and ornithologists, including such materials as correspondence, writings, photographs, field notes, and biographical sketches.

Sigrid L. Rupp (1943-2004) was principal architect of her own firm, SLR/Architects in Palo Alto, California from 1976 to 1998. Born in Germany in 1943, she relocated to California with her family in 1953. She earned a B. Arch. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966. SLR/Architects specialized in technical facilities and industrial work providing architectural services for many of the pre-eminent Silicon Valley firms in the 1980s and 1990s. The collection consists of architectural drawings, photographs, administrative and job files, contracts, and other material relating to over 700 of Rupp's projects, as well as material relating to Rupp's personal travel and artistic endeavors. The materials in the collection range in date from 1950-2004 with the bulk of the material dating 1976-2004.

The collection includes performing arts programs from around the world as well as scrapbooks and clippings about the theatre and movie industries. The programs cover a variety of genres including theatre, classical and popular music, opera, ballet, motion picture, and other genres such as horse ballet, ice skating, and circus. The programs come from numerous countries including the United Kingdom, Israel, Russia, Japan, and Poland with the majority being from the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. The programs cover the late 1800s through the late 1900s with the majority of items from the 1940s through the 1960s.