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Virginia Military Institute Archives
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Thomas J. Nottingham papers, 1883-1885. MS 0017. VMI Archives, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.
Thomas Jacob Nottingham was born in Richmond, Virginia on September 1, 1864 to Thomas J. Nottingham (1834-1891) and Mary B. Tarrall (1835-1886). He entered VMI in 1882 and graduated in 1886. After graduation, he was a businessman in Norfolk, Virginia, primarily associated with the wholesale coal and lumber industry.
Nottingham served in both the Spanish-American War and World War I. He married Minie Virginia Mapp on December 12, 1888 in Baltimore, Maryland, and the couple had one son, Thomas Jacob Nottingham, Jr. who was born in Norfolk, Virginia in January 1903. Nottingham died on June 8, 1953 at the home of his son in Arlington, Virginia. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Norfolk.
The Thomas J. Nottingham papers consist of the diary (dated 1883-1885) written by VMI cadet Thomas J. Nottingham. It contains a consistent record of the daily cadet routine as it existed during the mid-1880s and is an excellent source for information about student life during that era. Included are specific references to the following: Recitations Fights Dress parade The Dialectic Society (a student debating society) YMCA Girls Baseball and football games with Washington College students ("minks") Death and funeral of John D. Letcher Destruction of the VMI arsenal Death of Henry W. Williamson (VMI Class of 1845 and staff member) Death of Sara Henderson Smith Some special events are also mentioned, including the election of President Grover Cleveland and the local Democratic Party celebration in November 1884. The diary also includes a list of letters sent and received by Nottingham, along with lists of staff and class members.
An addition to these papers (7 items) was received in 2016, consisting of family correspondence. Included are letters regarding Nottingham's studies at the Suffolk Military Academy (Virginia) from 1880 to 1881, and one letter (dated May 11, 1884) written from Nottingham to his father in which he discusses his religion, his promise to give up drinking and smoking, and a dispute with his mother.