Search

Ninety glass plate negatives created ca. 1881-1910, chiefly of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Content of images date from ca. 1780s-1817 (these are facsimiles of documents and pictorial material), and the 1881-1910s, and undated. Subjects include buildings in Berkeley Springs, such as the baths, David Hunter Strother's house, Mount Wesley Academy, and others. The negatives also include images of portraits or letters of prominent individuals, such as Joseph Barnes, Alexander Boteler, DeWitt Clinton, General William Darke, Moses Hoge, and James Rumsey and family. Some subjects are unidentified. Box 2 contains prints of some of the glass plates.

Material includes signed letter from David H. Strother to Perley Poore, Berkley Springs, March 25, 1858; lottery ticket for town lot in Bath, 1814; Porte Crayon autograph, and a slave list, Berkley County. Photostats of material in the Library of Congress include an signed letter from William Wirt to his daughter, August 31 1823 on Berkeley Springs; Thomas Jefferson to Mr. Rodney Washington, December 8, 1808 in regard to gambler Thomas Bailey's assault on Jefferson's secretary; portion of a Journal of President James K. Polk describing a visit to Bath in 1848; and a section of the journal of Samuel Vaughan noting a visit to Bath in 1787. The collection also includes a section of "Uria Brown's Journal" from the "Maryland Historical Magazine," volumes 11 and 12 (1915, 1916), detailing a visit to the springs at Bath.

Selected letters and portions of the diary of John P. Kennedy, a Baltimore essayist and novelist. The letters describe Kennedy's many visits to Berkeley Springs and White Sulpher Springs. These items were copied from the originals which are held by the Library of Congress.

Papers of a Baltimore essayist and novelist which include selected materials pertaining to the Berkeley Springs-Martinsburg-Winchester area, visits to Richmond, Salt Sulphur, and White Sulphur Springs, and a journey in 1850 to Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Louisville from Kennedy's journal, 1848-1855; and his diary, 1829-1832. There are also selected letters and portions of a diary copied from originals in the Library of Congress.

Family papers compiled by Katherine Williams of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Most of the papers are of the James H. Taylor family of Clarksburg, West Virginia dating from the 19th century. There are also records of the Irwin family including a genealogy, and the Civil War letters of private George Irwin, a soldier in Company F, 95th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Other families documented include the Redman and Summers families. The collection includes letters, autograph books, family business records, genealogies, photographs, and other material.