Conditions Governing Use:

Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Conditions Governing Access:

Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.

Preferred Citation:

Georgia Ragsdale Curtis Papers, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Processing Information:

Accessioned and minimally described by Benjamin Bromley in October 2010.

Processed and finding aid written by Austin W. Smith in November-December 2010.

Biographical / Historical

Georgia Ragsdale Curtis lived in Roanoke, Virginia and was born on June 4, 1913. She received a teaching degree from Virginia State College for Negroes in Ettrick, Virginia (the present-day Virginia State University) and later received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the same institution in 1943. Georgia married James William Curtis who was involved in the Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home of Roanoke, Virginia. She was a member Delta Sigma Theta sorority, a member of the NAACP, and particiapted in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Georgia Ragsdale Curtis died on April 11, 2008.

Scope and Contents

Collection contains printed materials, photographs, and church-related documents related to Georgia Ragsdale Curtis of Roanoke, Virginia and her family including her sister Laura Ragsdale Barnett. The earliest materials include a 1912 handwritten diary of a Ragsdale family member. The papers in the collection include newspaper clippings of family obituaries, family funeral service programs, family photographs, civil rights related papers and magazines, Addison High School and Patrick Henry High School papers and yearbooks related to Georgia's career as a teacher, and several papers related to the Blue Ridge Baptist Church of Roanoke, Virginia which Georgia was very involved with from at least 1966 until her death in 2008.

Arrangement of Materials:

Box 1 folder 7 is housed with the Manuscripts Artifacts Collection.

Related Material

Yearbooks and books separated and catalogued as rare books include: 1966 Lucy Addison High School Yearbook, Roanoke, VA, "Georgia C. Curtis, B.S., M.A." is featured with a photograph as a teacher in the English Department on page 13; 1974 Patrick Henry High School Yearbook, Roanoke, VA, "Mrs. Georgia Curtis" is featured with a photograph as guidance counselor on page 24 (This is the year that Curtis retired and handwritten notes from colleagues appear throughout the front portion of the yearbook); book Nabala, by J.A. Caskie, 1922; book The Origin of the Black Man, by John W. Tyndall, AM. LL.D., 1927 (signature of J.E. Ragsdale in front and back of book along with Blue Ridge, VA); book Scarlet Sister Mary, by Julia Peterkin, 1928 (signature of Randolph Bolles and date 1929 in front of book); book Utica Jubilee Singers Spirituals, by J. Rosamond Johnson, 1930.

Phonograph records from this collection have been moved to the Manuscripts Audiovisual Collection.

Separated Material

Yearbooks and books separated and catalogued as rare books include: 1966 Lucy Addison High School Yearbook, Roanoke, VA, "Georgia C. Curtis, B.S., M.A." is featured with a photograph as a teacher in the English Department on page 13; 1974 Patrick Henry High School Yearbook, Roanoke, VA, "Mrs. Georgia Curtis" is featured with a photograph as guidance counselor on page 24 (This is the year that Curtis retired and handwritten notes from colleagues appear throughout the front portion of the yearbook); book Nabala, by J.A. Caskie, 1922; book The Origin of the Black Man, by John W. Tyndall, AM. LL.D., 1927 (signature of J.E. Ragsdale in front and back of book along with Blue Ridge, VA); book Scarlet Sister Mary, by Julia Peterkin, 1928 (signature of Randolph Bolles and date 1929 in front of book); book Utica Jubilee Singers Spirituals, by J. Rosamond Johnson, 1930.

All audiovisual material from this collection has been moved to the Manuscripts Audiovisual Collection.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• African Americans--Virginia--Photographs
• African Americans--Virginia--Roanoke
• Baptist Church--Virginia--History
• Cabinet photographs
• Photographs
• Printed ephemera
• Virginia State University--Students