Preferred Citation

MSS 11777 addition, Elizabeth Howard papers on Meade, Valentine, and Walker family papers, Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was a gift to the Small Special Collections LIbrary at the University of Virginia Library by Elizabeth Meade Howard of Charlottesville in August 2000 and August 28, 2018.

Scope and Contents

These papers, 1873-1980, consist of ca. 290 items pertaining to the Meade, Valentine and Walker families of Charlottesville, Virginia. Included are correspondence, financial and legal papers, newspaper clippings, photographs, and scrapbooks. Among those represented are: Albert Edward Walker, Bessie Carroll Valentine Walker, Ida M. Payne Valentine, Robert Poore Valentine, Virginia W. Meade, and Everard W. Meade.

Ida Payne and Robert Valentine correspond during their courtship in 1873 discussing matters of the heart, plans for accommodations after marriage, and the wedding. Copies of correspondence are from the Valentine family .

There is a letter from James L. Cabell to Robert Poore Valentine, as President of the Charlottesville and University Railway Company, relating an incident which occurred on the street car the previous evening between two ladies and a Black man.

There is a letter from John B. Minor speaking against violation of the Sabbath.

Letters to Albert Walker discuss chiefly business matters as editor, reporter and solicitor for various newspapers. Among the topics mentioned are special editions of newspapers and costs for printing.

Financial and legal papers for the Meade family include specifications for the general contract and invoices for work done on their home on Valley Road. Among the papers of the Valentine family are a deed and survey of city land purchased at auction by Robert Poore Valentine; land and business transactions; and, lists of the property of Valentine.

The papers of the Walker family include a deed of city land purchased by Bessie V. Walker; Bessie's application for membership to the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution; general conditions and detail specifications of the contract between Bessie Walker and Stanislaw J. Makielski; letters from Bessie Walker on letterhead, "The Student Union, Madison Hall, University, Virginia;" last will and testament of Bessie Walker; and memoranda of agreement between Walker and publishing companies.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• African American women teachers