Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

The correspondence, scrapbooks, articles and speeches of the collection document the later portion of the life of Daniel Hale (1912-1975), a Princeton physician and conservationist, who was a creator of the board of the Southern Soil Conservation District, and a founder of the Mountain Resource Conservation and Development Area. Correspondents include Robert C. Byrd, James Kee, Arch A. Moore, Jr., and Jennings Randolph.

The letters and papers of E.C. & H.B. Eagle, a father and son legal firm of Hinton, Summers County. Subjects mentioned are election campaigns, women's suffrage, prohibition, World War II, Korean War, gun control, and the goals and strategies of the Republican Party. Correspondents include Robert C. Byrd, Walter S. Hallanan, Rush D. Holt, Arch A. Moore, Jennings Randolph, Hulett C. Smith, Cecil Underwood.

Papers of E. Hansford McCourt, a West Virginia politician from Webster Springs. Included are correspondence, speeches, writings, clippings scrapbooks, oral history tapes, photos, and two videotapes documenting McCourt's political career from his election to the state legislature in 1953, through his rise to president of the state senate in the 1960s, to his retirement from politics in 1973 following his unsuccessful run for Secretary of State on the Democratic ticket. Among the prominent correspondents represented in the papers are Cecil Underwood, Harley Staggers, Robert C. Byrd, and Arch A. Moore.

Correspondence, financial records, speeches, reports, blueprints, and pamphlets of a Bluefield banker and businessman who was a treasurer of the Democratic Executive Committee and a member of the Board of Governors of West Virginia University. Subjects include numerous businesses in the Bluefield area, Bluefield State College, Concord College, Bank of Bramwell, Island Creek Coal Company, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Pocahontas Fuel Company, Smokeless Operators Association, Virginia Railway, Winding Gulf Collieries, and West Virginia University. Correspondents include W.W. Barron, Joe F. Burdett, Robert C. Byrd, Clyde L. Colson, Phil Conley, Ken Hechler, Cecil B. Highland, John Hoblitzell, Rush D. Holt, Elizabeth Kee, Robert P. McDonough, Clarence W. Meadows, Paul A. Miller, Arch A. Moore, Jr., Okey Patteson, Jennings Randolph, Raymond E. Salvati, John M. Slack, Hulett Smith, James M. Sprouse, Elvis J. Stahr, and Irvin Stewart.

Correspondence, mostly letters of thanks, from national journalists and prominent West Virginia politicians to the editor of the Clarksburg Exponent, Heister Guie Rhawn, and to his daughter Harriette Rhawn Behringer. Noteworthy is a Jennings Randolph 1945 letter confiding his political ambitions. Also there is an Oct. 15, 1932 issue of the 'West Virginia Legionnaire' about the election of Louis A. Johnson of Clarksburg, West Virginia as American Legion national commander.

Papers of Helen Louise (Froelich) Holt (1913-2015) relating to her personal, educational, and political activities. Types of material include publications, clippings, correspondence, photographs, and ephemera, among others. The collection is divided into six series: Personal and Political Papers (1912-2015 and undated), Press and Media Activity (1937-2008 and undated), State Government Papers (1955-1960), Federal Government Papers (1960-1984 and undated), Rush Dew Holt, Jr. Papers (1953-2014 and undated), and Addendum of 2021 October 20 (circa 1996).

Three congratulatory messages to Senator Jennings for his work on the Randolph-Shepphard Act which enabled employment assistance for blind citizens within government institutions. They were sent on occasion of a Lions Club dinner in his honor in Elkins, West Virginia. Includes letter from Senator Robert C. Byrd, telegram from Senator Jay Rockefeller, and telephone message from Congressman Harley Staggers.

Papers of James ("Jim") Franklin Comstock of Richwood, West Virginia, whose position as editor of the West Virginia Hillbilly and avocation as collector and advocate of all things West Virginia led to the preservation of much of the state's physical, visual, and textual history. The collection includes materials Comstock collected about West Virginia history as well as his own personal and professional papers. Materials include: general series of historical documents such as letters, deeds, and county court cases pertaining to a diverse range of subjects (1717, 1754-1988, undated [includes facsimiles]); letters of Lucy Prichard, former instructor at Marshall College (now Marshall University) (1925-1927, undated); clippings and typescripts of Wirt County resident and Atlantic Monthly writer Louis Eckert Reed (ca. 1960-1975, undated); account books concerning economic development and commercial activities in the northern part of the state in the 19th and early 20th centuries (1830-1938); printed material about West Virginia schools, businesses, and events as well as non-West Virginia books and pamphlets (1829-1995, undated); Comstock's personal and professional correspondence (1882-1995, undated); a wide variety of photographs, including images of West Virginia cities and towns, among many others (ca. 1850s-1995, undated); microfilmed records of the Civil War and Dunmore's War (undated); glass lantern slides, which include views of scenery and buildings in Wheeling and various other locations in Ohio County, WV (1871-1897, undated); Grand Army of the Republic and U.S. military history scrapbooks (1883-1918); broadsides, including advertisements for a circus in Moundsville (ca. 1827-1960 [includes facsimiles]); and maps and atlases of pre- and post-statehood West Virginia, counties, colonial North America, and other topics (1730-1976, undated [includes facsimiles]). An addendum of 2013/05 includes additional personal and professional correspondence, publications, newspaper morgue files, photographs, audio-visual material, artifacts, scrapbooks, account books, and maps. For more information on Jim Comstock, see the Historical Note.