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Anne H. Cutler Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS 00138

  • Staff Only
  • No requestable containers

Scope and Contents

Papers relating to property owned by Anne Haughwout Cutler, of the Bucktrout-Braithwaite family in Williamsburg, Virginia. Cutler was the great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Bucktrout, a cabinetmaker from London who moved to Williamsburg in 1766, where he opened a business making funeral coffins.

Upon the death of her mother, Virginia Braithwaite Haughwout, Cutler inherited several properties in the Williamsburg area. In 1954, Cutler helped create with other family members the Bucktrout-Braithwaite Memorial Foundation (BBMF), a non-profit organization that gains ownership of Virginia B. Haughwout's properties after Cutler's death. Papers include the BBMF certificate of incorporation, by-laws, board of trustees' correspondence, and meeting minutes. The BBMF negotiated several agreements with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF), allowing CWF to lease properties owned by Cutler and BBMF. This collection includes legal and financial papers relevant to the leasing contracts made between BBMF and CWF.

In particular, several folders in this collection concern the leasing and restoration of Providence Hall, an eighteenth-century residence adjacent to Colonial Williamsburg's historic area. Providence Hall was once located in Providence Forge, New Kent County, Virginia, before being transported and rebuilt in Williamsburg in the 1940s by Virginia B. Haughwout. Under Cutler's ownership, Providence Hall was leased out to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where it has served as lodging and a conference center, often for important international leaders, such as President Ronald Reagan.

This collection also contains correspondence concerning William & Mary's Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies program's inaugural Braithwaite Lecture, named after Minnie Braithwaite, Cutler's aunt. In 1896, Braithwaite unsuccesfully petitioned William & Mary to allow her to take a chemistry class at the then all-male institution.

Other projects pursued by Cutler include her research on France's military involvement in the American Revolutionary War, as well as research on the unidentified Revolutionary War soldiers buried in her family's cemetery, the Bucktrout Burying Ground.

Dates

  • Creation: 1930-2013
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1954-2000

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.

Conditions Governing Use

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, and the holder of the copyright, if not Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Extent

6 Linear Feet

Language

English

Related Materials

Bucktrout-Braithwaite Papers (Mss. 98 B85)
Richard Manning Bucktrout Daybook and Ledger (Mss. 1997.15)
Bucktrout-Smith Papers (MS 00142)
Bucktrout Funeral Home Records (Mss. Acc. 1997.22)


Title
Guide to the Anne H. Cutler Papers
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Research Center Repository

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