Papers, circa the 1930s and the 1960s-1970s, of the Bristow Family of Middlesex County, Virginia. The collection includes letters written to Joseph Christian Bristow, Jr., while at the University of Richmond and letters written to him while serving in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. The primary correspondent is Kitty Major, of Stormont, Virginia, who seems to be in a relationship with Bristow for most of their correspondence. Topics include Major's daily activities, events happening in Stormont and Urbanna, marriages, local gossip, and Bristow's lack of communication with Major, among other items. Other correspondents include Kitty Major's sister, Deborah Major, Bristow's parents, people with whom Bristow went to the University of Richmond, and other soldiers, among others. Included is a card mentioning the protests against the war in Vietnam.

There are also photographs, news clippings, and material relating to the graduate education of Joseph Bristow, Jr., and Elizabeth Jean Acker Bristow at Wayne State University, as well as two scrapbooks of Mabel Irby. One scrapbook is a poetry assignment and the other a travel scrapbook of the western United States in 1939. Irby is the maiden name of Katherine Bristow, the mother of Joseph Christian Bristow, Jr.