The Roscoe Phelps diary is a bound manuscript entitled "Anecdotes of the Year 1900" written by Washington and Lee University student Richard Roscoe Phelps (Class of 1902). Phelps reports on life as an undergraduate student touching on courtship, recreation, hazing, off-campus boarding and regional travel and exploration of such places in Rockbridge County Virginia as House Mountain and "Lover's Leap". Other events covered include the vandalizing of "Old George", the George Washington statue atop Washington Hall on W&L's campus, on Washington's birthday; christening a new boat for the crew team, construction of the grandiose and doomed DeHart Hotel in Lexington; the tenure of W&L president William Lyne Wilson; a local opera house fire; and a detailed description of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. This collection also includes a copy of The History of Rockbridge County Virginia, by author Oren Morton which descended in the family of the donor. The book is inscribed by Samual M. Dunlap.
Preferred citation: [Identification of item], Roscoe Phelps Diary, WLU Coll. 0496, Special Collections and Archives, James G. Leyburn Library, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA
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