Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of the Blackwell Family, Accession #38-143-a, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was presented to the Library by Mrs. Frances J. Hubbard of Charlottesville, Virginia, on 3 November 1977.

Scope and Content

The James De Ruyter Blackwell collection consists of 275 items, ca. 1860-1900, primarily autograph poems written by Blackwell. Blackwell, born in Fauquier County, Virginia, in 1828, originally studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1860. He later taught at the Bethel Classical and Military Academy. Having been both a lawyer and a teacher, he settled into his third, and final, vocation as a poet. Two volumes of his poetry were published, one in 1879 and the other in 1884, under the title, The Poetical Works of James De Ruyter Blackwell . Many of his poems concern his native state where he lived until his death in 1901.

Arrangement

The poems in this collection are organized alphabetically by title, or by first line in cases where there is no title. Some of the manuscripts were numbered by Blackwell, but this apparent pagination was not considered in the final order. The last two folders contain essays and a bill, and a verse play.