Content Description

Fourteen photographs showing the grounds, buildings, and students of St. Emma's Industrial and Agricultural institute, a school for Black boys founded in 1895 in Powhatan County, Virginia. It was renamed St. Emma's Military Academy and closed in 1972.

Content Description

Fourteen satirical cartoons created by Charles Homer McCutchen, a United States Army private serving in World War II. McCutchen was a resident of Chicago, and worked after the war as a painter and a freelance artist. The cartoons in this group feature commentary on military life, as well as politics.

Content warnings for racial caricatures.

Content Description A letter from M. (possibly Margaret) E. Griffin to her cousin John Davis. In the letter, Griffin asks Davis to hire out or sell all of the enslaved people working on the plantation she inherited. She mentions that an enslaved man by the name of Henry struck her son Jordan, and left the plantation to go to Lynchburg without permission. Griffin states that Henry has been "increasing in insolence, till his presence can no longer be endured."Content warning for derogatory language...

Content Description Twenty-six, 5" x 6.5", engravings of famous London landmarks printed by Joseph Thomas Wood on glazed cards. The card titled "London Bridge from the Surry side of the River Thames" has a note handwritten on the back that mentions William and Mary. All titles are written under the printed images in English on the left side, and French on the right. The titles of the cards are as follows:London Bridge from the Surry side of River ThamesThe Colosseum Regents...

Content Description A list of names, separated by Virginia counties and cities, of families identified as attempting to "pass." This list was likely compiled by the law firm established by Senator Robert Opie Norris, Jr. around 1904, or its successor firm, Clarke and Clarke. The list has notes next to some names providing alternate spellings, and in the case of the Beverly family from Amherst, a longer statement about the methods they used to "evade the situation." The full official title typed on the document ...

Content Description Twenty-four letters written by members of the Niebling and Duke families. Seventeen of them are written to Salena Niebling Duke. Salena Niebling married Richard Hardin Duke and moved to Richmond, Virginia from Baltimore, Maryland. The couple had three sons, Frank M. Duke, Walter Garland Duke, and Charles R. H. Duke. This group of correspondence spans geographically from Virginia and Maryland to Massachusetts and Illinois, and features letters from all three Duke sons, Richard Duke, his...