Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Harry Clemons Letters to Miss Roy Land, Accession #6068-h, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This group of letters was given to the Library on July 20, 1987, by Miss Roy Land of Charlottesville.

Scope and Content

This collection contains forty-one letters, 1940-1952, from Harry Clemons (September 9, 1879-August 30, 1968), tenth University Librarian, first at the Rotunda and then at Alderman Library, to Miss Keturah Royster "Roy" Land (1908-1994), Circulation Librarian. Clemons' letters, true to character, are charming and witty. They reveal much about Alderman Library and its personnel in its early organizational years, during World War II, and in the years that followed, until Clemons' retirement in 1950.

The letters mention several Library employees, including Jack Preston Dalton, John Cook Wyllie, Francis Berkeley, Louise Savage, and Lucy Clark, as well as different occurrences concerning the Library.

Clemons writes of the acquisition of materials, including the manuscripts of Carroll Mason Sparrow (June 25, 1942), a "photoprint" of a letter to Thomas Jefferson donated by Randolph [Greenfield] Adams (March 17, 1943), and early Virginia newspapers from Mrs. Clement (August 6, 1946). He also mentions an eleven-page letter he received from Gen. Jefferson Randolph Kean describing the dedication of the Jefferson Memorial and a ceremony at the General's home at which friends drank Thomas Jefferson's favorite wine from a silver cup given to Jefferson by George Wythe (April 21, 1943). Clemons makes references to Dumas Malone at Cambridge sending an inquiry to the University (March 24, 1943) and his appointment as Honorary Consultant in Biography (May 1944).

During World War II, Alderman Library made room for manuscripts from the Library of Congress and the National Union Catalog and its staff. They furnished special reference services to military organizations. Clemons refers to this and related situations at the University of Virginia . He mentions books belonging to the School of Military Government, the National Union Catalog's search for trained librarians (June 25, 1942), the Army's arrangements for the pre-meteorological recruits (March 24, 1943), and the University's being too poorly equipped to be a military institute (May 19, 1943), and the Navy's pre-flight school at the University being closed and the consequences (May 26, 1943). In addition, he mentions hearing news from the European front and of men in the service, especially Francis Berkeley and John Cook Wyllie, and blackouts in Charlottesville as part of the war effort.