Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Robert S. Pace Collection, Accession 10530-c, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Library by Robert S. Pace of Troy, Virginia, on February 23, 1993, in honor of his parents, Mary Elizabeth (King) and Robert Septimius Pace.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Blair and Woodbury Families--Biographical Information

Montgomery Blair, lawyer and statesman, was born in Franklin County, Kentucky on May 10, 1813 and died in Silver Spring, Maryland, on July 27, 1883. He was appointed to West Point in 1831 by President   Jackson; after his graduation in 1835 he received a lieutenancy in the army in time to serve in the Seminole War. The following year he resigned his commission in order to study law at Transylvania University. He settled in St. Louis, Missouri in 1837 and began practicing law; he was appointed U. S. district attorney for Missouri but removed for political reasons by President   Tyler. He served as mayor of St. Louis, 1842-1843, and as judge of the court of common pleas, 1845-1849. He resigned in 1849 to resume his law practice, and in 1852 moved to Maryland where he practiced law chiefly before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1855, President   Pierce made him the first solicitor in the court of claims in the U. S. but President   Buchanan dismissed him in 1858 because of his pronounced views on slavery. He gained prestige among anti- slavery people when he acted as counsel for the plaintiff in the celebrated Dred Scott case; he helped secure a defense attorney for John Brown after the Harper's Ferry incident. He was appointed postmaster general in 1861 by President   Lincoln, and while in office, organized the postal system for the army, introduced compulsory payment of postage and free delivery in cities, improved the registry system, established the railway post office, organized the postal draft plan, stopped the franking privileges of postmasters, and was instrumental in bringing about the Postal Union Convention at Paris in 1863. After resigning from Lincoln's cabinet, he continued to loyally work for Lincoln. He believed in Lincoln's plan of reconstruction, and decried the disenfranchisement of the Southern whites and enfranchisement of the negroes. During the late 1860s he returned to the Democratic party.

Woodbury Blair, the son of Montgomery and Mary Elizabeth (Woodbury) Blair, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 1, 1852, and died on October 14, 1933. He graduated Phillips Exeter Academy, and Harvard University, 1874, and its law school, 1876. He practiced law in his father's office in Washington, D.C.; was counsel for Citizens' National Bank of Washington; trust officer and vice- president   of National Savings and Trust Company; director in Columbia Title Insurance Company, Washington Railway and Electric Company, Potomac Electric Company, and Norfolk and Washington Steamboat Company; and, president   of the Metropolitan Club. He was also president   of the Central dispensary and emergency hospital of Washington, which he developed from a small building to an institution of nearly a block, with 280 beds, 300 employees, modern nurses' home, new interns' home, x-ray laboratory, and out-patient and emergency departments. He was married to the former Emily N. Wallach.

Francis Preston Blair, lawyer and army officer, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on February 10, 1821, and died in St. Louis, Missouri, in July 1875. After graduating from Princeton University in 1842, he studied law in Washington, was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1843, and began to practice in St. Louis. When the Mexican War began he enlisted in the army as a private; following the war he returned to his practice in St. Louis. He was elected to congress, and in 1857, spoke in favor of colonizing the negroes of the United States in Central America. Following the South Carolina secession convention, he stressed the importance in preventing the seizure by state authorities of the St. Louis arsenal, and became the head of the military organization then formed, which occasionally guarded the arsenal. As brigadier-general in the army, he commanded a division in the Vicksburg campaign, led his troops in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and was at the head of the 17th corps during Sherman's campaigns in 1864-1865. After the war he served in state and government positions.

Charles Levi Woodbury, lawyer, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on May 22, 1820; and, died in 1898. He was a member of the Suffolk, Massachusetts bar and U. S. district attorney for that state 1858-1861. He edited with George Minot the three-volume Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Circuit Court of the United States for the First Circuit (Boston 1847-1852), containing the decisions of Judge Levi Woodbury.

Scope and Content Information

Scope and Content

This collection of Virginiana and Americana, 1669 (1830-1965) 1993, consisting of ca. 200 items, was acquired by Robert S. Pace . There are correspondence, papers, newspaper clippings and other printed, 1861-1980, pertaining to the Blair and Woodbury families as well as various pamphlets, 1910-1917, collected by Woodbury Blair . The next series includes Virginiana and Americana in the form of autographs, correspondence and papers, and printed. In addition to autographs of prominent persons, there are correspondence, 1946- 1961, of Judith and Arthur Hart Burling with prominent people; correspondence, 1908-1944, of the Marlow Coal Company of Washington, D.C. ; and, correspondence and papers of Robert S. Pace , chiefly concerning Americana and restoration. Other material consists of World War II Japanese propaganda.

Blair and Woodbury Families

The miscellaneous papers of the Blair family include: copy of a letter, January 31, 1861, from Montgomery Blair (1813-1883) to Gustavus V. Fox , Assistant Secretary of the Navy, concerning the attempt to send supplies and relief to Fort Sumter ; an autograph poem, June 5, 1866, by Oliver Wendell Holmes , given to Fox to take to Russia ; a copy of a letter, September 10, 1915, from Woodbury Blair (1852-1933), Reed Cottage, Newport, Rhode Island, to Admiral F[rench] E[nsor] Chadwick (1844-1919), Newport, Rhode Island, concerning the relationship between England and the United States, with a transcript of Chadwick's letter of September 1, 1915, on the "causes of the war" in great detail; and, newspaper clippings about the Blair House in Washington, D.C.

Biographical and historical information on the Blair and Woodbury families include pamphlets on the loss of Charles Levi Woodbury 's rare collection of books during the great fire in Boston , and on the Blairs of Virginia and Kentucky; and, a book entitled Portsmouth, New Hampshire: A Camera Impression by Samuel Chamberlain that shows the Governor Levi Woodbury House .

Newspaper clippings on the Blair and Woodbury families include the last sermon, January 1861, of Rev. Woodbury, obituaries of Francis Preston Blair (1821-1875), Blair's involvement in the John C. Fremont controversy, and other Civil War occurrences. There are also pamphlets, 1910-1917, on various subjects, collected by Woodbury Blair .

Americana and Virginiana

There are autographs, 1669, 1789-1888, of prominent Americans and other persons. These previously framed items include: 1) ALS, May 9, 1789, George Washington (1732-1799) to Governor [John] Hancock (1736-1793); 2) ANS, May 9, 1863, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) with etching published by J. O. Wright & Co., New York, New York; and, 3) AMsS, March 29, 1877, last testament of Louis Pasteur (1822-1895); and, also Woodbury family items consisting of an 4) ALS, September 20, 1845, James Knox Polk (1795-1849) to Levi Woodbury (1789-1851); and, an 5) ALS, June 14, 1888, Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) to "Dear Miss Woodbury." There is also 6) a royal indenture, August 27, 1669, between Sir Henry and Dame Agatha Chicheley and John Jeffries , releasing Chicheley land in Virginia to Jeffries and Thomas Colclough . Other items include 7) a land grant, November 21, 1816, signed by President   James Madison , to Beverly Stubblefield , in pursuance of an Act of Congress, August 10, 1790, entitled "An Act to enable the Officers and Soldiers of the Virginia line on Continental Establishment, to obtain Titles to certain lands lying northwest of the river Ohio, between the Little Miami and Sciota," and autographs of 8) Henry William DeSaussure (1763-1839), jurist and chancellor of South Carolina and 9) David Paul Brown (1795-1872), leading lawyer of Philadelphia and attorney for Aaron Burr.

There are autographs, 1909-1965, of prominent Americans: Ted W. Brown , Ohio Secretary of State; George P. Comer , U. S. Tariff Commission; William Van Zandt Cox (1852-1923), treasurer of the Wilson and Marshall Inaugural Committee; James Forrestal (1892-1949), Secretary of the Navy; Ernest J. Fuller , Navy Department; C. R. Heflin , Farm Loan Board; Hubert H[oratio] Humphrey , U. S. Senator and Vice- President  ; John L. McMillan , U. S. Representative; Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946), forester; James McPherson Proctor (1882-1953), assistant U. S. attorney for Washington, D.C.; and, Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), President   of the United States, in a letter to Robert S. Pace concerning the latter's support of "the past national administration's work."

Among the items in the miscellaneous correspondence are: autographs of Joseph H[arley?] Bradley (1844-?) and Blair Lee (1857-1944), lawyer and senator in Maryland; and, transcripts of an indenture, August 27, 1669, between Sir Henry and Dame Agatha Chicheley and John Jefferies, and a letter, May 23, 1857, from Lord Macauley, London, to Henry Stephens Randall (1811-1876), author of The Life of Thomas Jefferson (1858), concerning Jefferson policy.

Correspondence, 1946-1961, of Judith and Arthur Hart Burling , chiefly concerns their book Chinese Art and related subjects. There are letters from Louis Bromfield ( -1956); Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973); William Christian Bullitt (1891-1967); William J[oseph] Donovan (1883-1959); Joseph Clark Grew (1880-1965); Walter H[enry] Judd (1898-); Estes Kefauver (1903-1963); Edward Martin (1879-1967); James A[lbert] Michener (1907-); Walter S. Robertson ; and, [Anna] Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962). There is a newspaper article about the Burlings and their love of Chinese art as well as the book jacket for their book.

Correspondence, 1908-1944, of the Marlow Coal Company of Washington, D.C., concerns its business transactions with various individuals as well as institutions including Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb ( Gallaudet College ), Georgetown University , Washington Home for Foundlings , Commissariat of the Holyland , and the War Department . Correspondents include: Edward Miner Gallaudet (1837-1917), President   of Gallaudet College; Joseph Himmel (1855-), president   of Georgetown University; John R[oll] McLean (1848-1916), journalist; John B[ell] Larner (1858-1931), attorney; Robert E[dgar] Mattingly (1868-), attorney; F[rederick] L[incoln] Siddons (1864-1931), attorney and judge; John M[oulder] Wilson (1837-1919), Brigadier General, U. S. Army; W[alter Keyser] Bachrach (1888-1963), Bachrach Studios; Howard Sutherland (1865-), U. S. Senator; W[illiam] L[evering] DeVries (1865-1937), canon and chancellor, Washington Cathedral; G[ardiner] Howland Shaw (1893-1965), Counselor for the Department of State; Frank B[rett] Noyes (1863-1948), president   of the Evening Star Newspaper Company; Ringgold Hart (1886-1965), attorney; John Hays Hammond (1855-1936), chairman of the U. S. Coal Commission; S[amuel] D[ickerson] Rockenbach (1869-), Brigadier General, U. S. Army; John M[arshall] Robsion (1878-1949), U. S. Representative; L[ouise] E. (Mrs. William Cabell) Bruce; Frank Clark (1860-), U. S. Tariff Commission; David D[ixon] Porter (1878-1944), Brigadier General, U. S. Marine Corps; William T[heodore] Schulte (1890-), U. S. Representative; David Foote Sellers (1874-1949), Rear Admiral, U. S. Navy; Paul F. Douglass , president of American University; and, Thomas Francis Bayard (1868-1942), U. S. Senator.

Oversize items include: Two land grants, April 13, 1787, to William Croghan for tracts of land "in the District set apart for the Officers and Soldiers of the Virginia State line" by virtue of a "Land Office Military Warrant," signed by Governor Edmund [Jennings] Randolph (1753-1813); and, a copy of the Columbian Register , New-Haven, July 6, 1813, published by Joseph Barber.

An unpublished bound volume, 1992, entitled Life and Works of Arthur Fickenscher American Composer (1871-1954), written by William W. Jones in collaboration with Robert S. Pace, is also present. The work contains a chronology of Fickenscher's life, writings on his career and music, a reminiscence of him at the Univesity of Virginia , and a catalogue of his compositions.