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Map illustrates a view of San Francisco, California, in 1868.

Diary kept by Jane Campbell Dawson (died March 30, 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri), sister of Archibald W. Campbell (1833-1899), a leader of the West Virginia statehood movement, editor and part owner of the Wheeling "Daily Intelligencer", and prominent Republican. Most noteworthy in terms of West Virginia history is her "In Memoriam" statement regarding her brother found in the back of her diary. This statement regards his character and conveys her sentiment; he died in her Missouri home. Jane Dawson was an aunt to Jessie Campbell-Nave, daughter of Archibald W. Campbell. The diary also contains references to other family members, and religious activities and feelings. There are two brief entries regarding author Rebecca Harding Davis, one regarding a letter sent to her, and the other a brief obituary newspaper clipping with an inscription by Dawson claiming friendship. The larger part of her diary regards time spent in San Francisco from May, 1909 to June, 1910. Although San Francisco had recently suffered from the earthquake of 1906, there is no apparent evidence in her diary regarding the status of recovery efforts. There is documentation of people she knew and places she visited in California. She liked California and stayed on several months longer than she originally intended. The diary also documents a trip her family took in July, 1910 to Huronia Beach, Port Huron, Michigan to escape the heat of St. Louis; it does not include a record of events after arrival. This collection also includes a manuscript memo book from the 1880s by Reverend W. Dawson of Burlington, Vermont. He was probably her father-in-law. It includes lists of Sunday school students, names with addresses, Latin inscriptions, and financial records.

Letters of Henry and Joseph Bennett concerning travel by sea from New York to Chagres, Panama, overland across Panama and by ship to San Francisco in 1851. Letters from California, 1852-1853, discuss arrival of immigrants; employment conditions and wages; gambling and social life in San Francisco; investment opportunities; conditions in the gold mines; travel by steamboat to Hangtown (Placerville); churches; crime; Indians; mining profits; cost of land; ranching; blacksmith and plough shop in Santa Clara; digging a canal to take water from the American River to supply Hangtown, Coon Hollow, and Gold Hill; and Webber Run. Two letters by Joseph Bennett from Australia in l853 comment on mining, living conditions, profits of mining, and criminals sent from Great Britain. There is one 1849 letter to Samuel Bennett from relatives in Sheffield, England. There are several items of Jacobs family correspondence, 1880-1923, concerning family affairs, schools, economic conditions in Jackson County, and Monongalia County taxes in 1907.

Travel diary of Sallie Montgomery of Fredericksburg, VA, who travelled to San Francisco by train in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition.

The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.

A collection of slides taken by George Mason Univeristy (GMU) President Vergil Dykstra during his trips with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) to China and Taiwan, as well as the GMU campus and President's House.