A Guide to the H. R. McIlwaine Papers, 1885-1934 McIlwaine, H. R., Papers, 1885-1934 24641

A Guide to the H. R. McIlwaine Papers, 1885-1934

A Collection in
the Library of Virginia
Accession Number 24641

Library of Virginia

The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219-8000
USA
Email: archdesk@lva.virginia.gov(Archives)
URL: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/

Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed by: Trenton Hizer

Repository

Library of Virginia

Accession number

24641

Title

H. R. McIlwaine Papers, 1885-1934

Physical Characteristics

2 cubic feet

Creator

H. R. McIlwaine

Physical Location

Personal Papers Collection, Acc. 24641

Language

English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

H. R. McIlwaine. Papers, 1885-1934. Accession 24641. Personal papers collection. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Transferred from the Office of the Librarian, Virginia State Library and Archives, 1 July 1957 and 1 September 2010.

Custodial History

Accession 45138 is interfiled with accession 24641.

Biographical/Historical Information

Henry Read McIlwaine was born 12 July 1864 in Prince Edward County, Virginia, to Joseph Finley McIlwaine (1838-1897) and Sarah Embry Read McIlwaine (1841-1875). McIlwaine grew up in Petersburg, Virginia, where he attended W. Gordon McCabe's (1841-1920) University School. He graduated with an A.B. from Hampden-Sidney College in 1885 and with a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1893. McIlwaine taught in private schools for a few years before returning to Hampden-Sidney College to serve as professor of English and history. In 1907, he was appointed State Librarian for the Virginia State Library, which position he held until his death. While Librarian, McIlwaine published several volumes of documents with significant historical value, making them more accessible to scholars. McIlwaine was made an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa by the College of William and Mary in 1909, and received an honorary LL.D. from Hampden-Sidney in 1918. McIlwaine was considered a leading authority on Virginia history and genealogy. Unmarried, he died 16 March 1934 in Richmond, Virginia, and was buried in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg.

Scope and Content Information

Papers, 1885-1934, of H. R. McIlwaine (1864-1934), professor of history, English literature, and logic at Hampden-Sidney College and State Librarian of the Virginia State Library, consisting of abstracts, accounts, book reviews, budgets, certificates, clippings, commissions, correspondence, diplomas, exams,invitations, legislation, lists, notes, obituaries, photographs, poems, receipts, reports, resolutions, speeches, and telegrams divided into two series. The first is correspondence, 1885 to 1927, and the second is articles, book reviews, speeches, etc.

Correspondence includes letters written by former students of Hampden-Sidney College on H. R. McIlwaine's behalf to Hampden-Sidney College when he was under investigation by the school in 1904. Also contains letters written on his behalf when McIlwaine was pursuing the position of state librarian of the Virginia State Library in 1907. Of interest is a letter from Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), president of Princeton University, declining to recommend McIlwaine for the state librarian position. Contains letters from McIlwaine's brothers, James R. McIlwaine (1860-1923) of Nashville, Tennessee, and Richard McIlwaine (1870-1937) of Norfolk, Virginia, concerning family and business matters, including their father's death, James' handling of their financial accounts, and James' death and his estate. Other correspondence details McIlwaine's efforts to find a teaching position, his tenure as a professor at Hampden-Sidney College, and his tenure as state librarian, as well as personal, family, and business matters. Letters also discuss Read and Doak families genealogies, the Seaboard Air Line Railway, and Confederate veteran Isaac Read. Also includes McIlwaine's ph.d. from Johns Hopkins University in 1893 and his honorary degree from Hampden-Sidney College in 1918.

The Articles, Book Reviews, Speeches, etc., series includes reports, speeches, articles, and legislation regarding the Virginia State Library, public libraries in Virginia, and education. Also contains book reviews written by McIlwaine on books about genealogy and American and Virginia history. Also includes articles and speeches written by McIlwaine on famous Virginians and Americans: Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, John Marshall, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Samuel Preston Moore, Edmund Randolph, and George Washington. Also contains essays written on the histories of Virginia, Vermont, Texas, Tennessee, Delaware, and Connecticut, along with histories of Buckingham County and Jamestown, Virginia, and the Lost Colony. Of interest are newspaper clippings, 1912-1936, concerning the State Library, including efforts to construct a new building for it in 1931. There are eulogies written on the occasions of the deaths of John S. Patton, W. Pernet Patterson, Edward Virginius Valentine, and H. R. McIlwaine. Also of note are papers concerning the great seal of Virginia and resolutions on the 150th anniversary of the British surrender at Yorktown.

Organization

Collection is divided into two series: Correspondence, 1885-1934 and Articles, Book Reviews, Speeches, etc. Correspondence is arranged chronologically.

Contents List

Correspondence, 1885-1934

Box 1-3

Box 1 Folder 1
Correspondence, 1885-1890, n.d.
Box 1 Folder 2
Correspondence, 1891-1895
Box 1 Folder 3
Correspondence, 1896-1900
Box 1 Folder 4
Correspondence, 1901
Box 1 Folder 5
Correspondence, 1902
Box 1 Folder 6
Correspondence, 1903
Box 1 Folder 7
Correspondence, 1904, March-11July
Box 1 Folder 8
Correspondence, 1904, 12 July-December
Box 1 Folder 9
Correspondence, 1905
Box 1 Folder 10
Correspondence, 1906
Box 1 Folder 11
Correspondence, 1907, January-19 June
Box 1 Folder 12
Correspondence, 1907, 22 June-29 June
Box 1 Folder 13
Correspondence, 1907, 1 July- 8 July
Box 2 Folder 1
Correspondence, 1907, 8 July-17 July
Box 2 Folder 2
Correspondence, 1907, 25 July-December
Box 2 Folder 3
Correspondence, 1908
Box 2 Folder 4
Correspondence, 1909
Box 2 Folder 5
Correspondence, 1910
Box 2 Folder 6
Correspondence, 1911
Box 2 Folder 7
Correspondence, 1912
Box 2 Folder 8
Correspondence, 1913
Box 2 Folder 9
Correspondence, 1914
Box 2 Folder 10
Correspondence, 1915
Box 2 Folder 11
Correspondence, 1916
Box 2 Folder 12
Correspondence, 1917
Box 2 Folder 13
Correspondence, 1918
Box 2 Folder 14
Correspondence, 1919
Box 2 Folder 15
Correspondence, 1920
Box 2 Folder 16
Correspondence, 1921
Box 3 Folder 1
Correspondence, 1922
Box 3 Folder 2
Correspondence, 1923
Box 3 Folder 3
Correspondence, 1924
Box 3 Folder 4
Correspondence, 1927, 1932

Articles, Book Reviews, Speeches, etc.

Box 3-4

Box 3 Folder 5
Bills, Resolutions related to the Virginia State Library in the General Assembly
Box 3 Folder 6
Papers before the Budget Committee
Box 3 Folder 7
Report to Governor Pollard, 20 December 1933
Box 3 Folder 8
Reports of the Library Board and Abstracts
Box 3 Folder 9
Work of the Virginia State Library
Box 3 Folder 10
Articles or items of special interest in the State Library
Box 3 Folder 11
The Pre-Revolutionary records of Virginia and their restoration, 31 January 1933
Box 3 Folder 12
Virginia fiction in the State Library, 1 July 1911
Box 3 Folder 13
Adult education and libraries, 12 February 1932
Box 3 Folder 14
The free public library in America
Box 3 Folder 15
Libraries in Virginia
Box 3 Folder 16
The value of public libraries, 1933
Box 3 Folder 17
Clerks of the Court meeting at Fredericksburg, Virginia, 18 August 1933
Box 3 Folder 18
Commission to Study the Condition of the Farmers of Virginia
Box 3 Folder 19
Commission to Survey Educational System, 1927
Box 3 Folder 20
Virginia Classical Association Welcome, 1 December 1933
Box 3 Folder 21
Virginia Library Association, Richmond, Virginia, 14 March 1906
Box 3 Folder 22
Virginia Library Association, Richmond, Virginia, 18 November 1933
Box 3 Folder 23
Cooperative Education Association of Virginia
Box 3 Folder 24
On furnishing reading material to soldiers during the World War [I]
Box 3 Folder 25
Thomas Jefferson as a lover and collector of books, 10-11 November 1927
Box 3 Folder 26
Lafayette and Virginia, prepared for Governor Peery
Box 3 Folder 27
Radio talk on General Lee, 19 January 1932
Box 3 Folder 28
Presentation of portrait of General John Marshall Jones to R. E. Lee Camp
Box 3 Folder 29
Cyrus Hall McCormick, for Governor Pollard, 11 July 1931
Box 3 Folder 30
Samuel Preston Moore
Box 3 Folder 31
Edmund Randolph
Box 3 Folder 32
George Washington's education
Box 3 Folder 33
Early history of Buckingham County, Virginia, 30 May 1933
Box 4 Folder 1
Notes on Connecticut for Governor Byrd, 1927
Box 4 Folder 2
Delaware, for Governor Byrd, 1929
Box 4 Folder 3
Religious observances at Jamestown in early days
Box 4 Folder 4
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony
Box 4 Folder 5
Richmond before 1861
Box 4 Folder 6
Notes on the history of Tennessee, for Governor Byrd, 16 September 1929
Box 4 Folder 7
Texas and Virginia
Box 4 Folder 8
Virginia and Vermont, for Governor Byrd, 16 May 1929
Box 4 Folder 9
Story of Virginia's first century, 16 November 1928
Box 4 Folder 10
Battle of Monongahela and Virginia, for Governor Pollard, 16 May 1930
Box 4 Folder 11
The Republican Party
Box 4 Folder 12
Our Flags of Yesterday and Today
Box 4 Folder 13
The Festal Days of Thanksgiving and Christmas
Box 4 Folder 14
The Huguenot Settlement at Manakin Town, 16 April 1932
Box 4 Folder 15
The Causes of the War of 1812, Some of Its Incidents, and Its Results
Box 4 Folder 16
Great Virginia Tobacco Law of 1790
Box 4 Folder 17
The Conquered Banner (Mrs. Schaadt)
Box 4 Folder 18
Minutes of the Council and General Court, 31 October 1930
Box 4 Folder 19
The Memoirs of Talleyrand 18 November 1933
Box 4 Folder 20
Book Review, A Doctor of the 1870's and 80's by W. A. Pusey
Box 4 Folder 21
Book Review, Charles Parish, York County, Virginia, History and Regsiter by Landon C. Bell
Box 4 Folder 22
Book Review, Dissolution of the Virginia Company by Wesley Frank Craven
Box 4 Folder 23
Book Review, The Great Awakening in Virginia, 1740-1790 by Wesley M. Gewehr
Box 4 Folder 24
Book Review, Hidden Things Brought to Light by Ernest Taylor Walthall
Box 4 Folder 25
Book Review, The Iliads of the South by Rosewell Page
Box 4 Folder 26
Book Review, John Marshall in Diplomacy and in Law by Lord Craigmyle (John Shaw)
Box 4 Folder 27
Book Review, Life of John Taylor by Henry H. Sims
Box 4 Folder 28
Book Review, Little Aleck: A Life of Alexander H. Stephens by E. R. Richardson
Box 4 Folder 29
Book Review, Medicine in Virginia in the Eighteenth Century by Wyndham B. Blanton
Box 4 Folder 30
Book Review, Nicolas Martiau, the Adventurous Huguenot, the Military Engineer, and the Earliest American Ancestor of George Washington by John Baer Stoudt
Box 4 Folder 31
Book Review, Our Earliest Colonial Settlements, Their Diversities of Origin, and Later Characteristics by Charles M. Andrews 1933
Box 4 Folder 32
Book Review, The Reads and Their Relatives by Alice Read Rouse 1930
Box 4 Folder 33
Book Review, Religious Education in the Rural Church by Henry W. McLaughlin
Box 4 Folder 34
Book Review, Virginia, Economic and Civil by VPI with the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce 1933
Box 4 Folder 35
Book Review, The Washington Ancestry and Records of the McClain, Johnson, and Forty Other Colonial American Families by Charles Arthur Hoppin 1932
Box 4 Folder 36
Book Reviews
Box 4 Folder 37
William Ellery Channing notes
Box 4 Folder 38
"The Religion of Emerson " by W. H. Savage in the Arena magazine LXII, January 1895--notes
Box 4 Folder 39
The Transition in New England Theology by Alexander V. G. Allen, 1891--notes
Box 4 Folder 40
Paths to Power by Floyd B. Wilson, 1901--notes
Box 4 Folder 41
Notes "from Phillips book by Allen "
Box 4 Folder 42
"Logic "
Box 4 Folder 43
Speech to [-----] Club
Box 4 Folder 44
In Memoriam: John S. Patton (1932), W. Pernet Patterson (1930), Edward Virginius Valentine (1930), and H. R. McIlwaine (1934)
Box 4 Folder 45
Hampden-Sidney College Magazine and Hampden-Sidney College Library
Box 4 Folder 46
Great Seal, 1929-1930
Box 4 Folder 47
House Document No. 4: Gas Tax Fund Apportionment 1928
Box 4 Folder 48
Yorktown Anniversary Resolutions 1931
Box 4 Folder 49
"Country Club of Virginia Constitution, By-laws, and Rules, " 1911
Box 4 Folder 50
"Richmond's Young Men " published by the Young Men's Christian Association of Richmond, January 1911
Box 4 Folder 51
"The Struggle in Colorado for Industrial Freedom " #1, series II, 10 November 1914
Box 4 Folder 52
"U.S. Junior Naval Reserves, " 1916
Box 4 Folder 53
"Library War Council News, " 1917
Box 4 Folder 54
H. S. Nichols Catalogs
Box 4 Folder 55
"Historical Virginia Photographs and Official Views of the Jamestown Exposition " catalog 2, 1908
Box 4 Folder 56
Newspaper clippings, 1912-1914, 1920-1923
Box 4 Folder 57
Newspaper clippings, 1931, 1935, 1936
Box 4 Folder
Miscellaneous--note pad, map of the Mechanicsville/Cold Harbor battlefield, and calling card
Box 4 Folder 59
Blank Forms