Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Papers of Samuel K. Jackson, Accession #8483-d , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was a gift to the Library from Mr. James A. Bear, Jr., of Ivy, Virginia, on February 20, 1985.

Biographical/Historical Information

Samuel K. Jackson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College, New York, a Master of Arts degree from Washington College, Connecticut, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Washington University, Baltimore, Maryland. He moved to Norfolk from Leesburg after the death of his brother in 1855 to assist in efforts to combat an outbreak of yellow fever. He became a member of Norfolk's Board of Health, ca. 1866-1870's, and was later president of the Medical Society of Virginia during 1885 and a professor of Applied Chemistry at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Virginia (now Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). 1

1 Wyndham B. Blanton, Medicine in Virginia in The Nineteenth Century (Richmond: Garrett & Massie, Incorporated, 1933), pp. 86-87, 140, 143, 258.

Scope and Content Information

These papers, ca. 125 items (one Hollinger box), 1855, 1858, 1866 & 1872-1893, are concerned with the activities of Dr. Samuel K. Jackson (1817-1899), a Norfolk, Virginia, physician. Also present are sermons, 1826-1844, of his brother, Reverend William L. Jackson (?--1855), a Norfolk clergyman.

Dr. Jackson's papers include lectures, speeches, articles, reports, correspondence, class notes, newspapers clippings, and miscellaneous items. Subjects discussed in the lectures include digestion, tuberculosis, cholera, tuberculin, typhoid fever, alcohol, light, physical education and purification of Norfolk's water supply as well as reports and addresses regarding his professional activities and interests.

His correspondence examines such topics as methods for the prevention and control of cholera, the use of prisoners to cleanse the city, and the temporary "thinning out" of freedmen from their crowded quarters as part of those efforts, 1866; 1 there is an 1879 letter from Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman pertaining to the disinfection of vessels and their cargoes, and an 1893 letter pertaining to his friend and colleague Dr. David Minton Wright [1809-1863] who was hanged for the murder of an Union officer during the Civil War (February 17, 1893). 2 In addition, there are several letters, some of which are newspaper clippings, 1879-1881, chiefly from Norfolk newspapers such as the Landmark , Weekly Herald , and Publick Ledger , between Jackson and James Barron Hope, editor of the Landmark . These letters appertain to whom should receive credit for the Board of Health's control of cholera outbreaks in Norfolk (Jackson denies it should be given to a Dr. Ward or Captain John Sims), August 6 & 23, 1886; and his dispute with Nathan Burnham Webster as to the city mortality rates. Other correspondents and individuals mentioned are P. W. Stanhope, Dr. A. T. Bell, John Gangee, and Dr. J. H. Van [Eman?] of Kansas City, Missouri.

There are three items regarding Jackson's association with the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Virginia; these include a manuscript as to his opinions regarding the duties of the chair of chemistry and technical mechanics, a letter of recommendation on his behalf from G. F. B. Leighton, president of the Norfolk Horticultural and Pomological Society, to the Board of Visitors of the college (December 23, 1872), and a June, 1875 printed chemistry examination.

Also among the clippings is an obituary notice regarding the death of Jackson's brother, Reverend William L. Jackson, pastor of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Norfolk. He died during the city's yellow fever epidemic on October 4, 1855 and was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery. 3 His sermons, ca. 28 items, were used several times between 1826 and 1844; they bear corrections and notes and are numbered. Most were preached in Virginia and in what are now West Virginia locations: Winchester, Mill Creek, Chapel Green, Cool Spring, Charles Town, Henderson, Romney, Hampton, Alexandria, Culpeper, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Staunton, Middletown, Warrenton, Battletown, Martinsburg, Bristol, and Richmond.

1 Dr. Jackson's 1866 address was 67 West Main Street. Norfolk City And Business Directory For 1866 . . . (Baltimore: Published by Webb and Fitzgerald, Southern Directory Publishers, 1866), p. 48.
2 Second Lieutenant Alanson L. Sanborn was shot to death by Wright on July 11, 1863. Wright was found guilty by a military commission but appealed to President Abraham Lincoln. A second hearing was held, the original verdict confirmed, and the doctor was hanged on October 23, 1863. See Ervin L. Jordan, Jr., "A Painful Case: The Wright-Sanborn Incident In Norfolk, Virginia, July--October, 1863" (Masters Thesis, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, 1979).
3 Robert W. Lamb, Our Twin Cities Of The Nineteenth Century; (Norfolk And Portsmouth) Their Past, Present And Future , (Norfolk: Barcroft, Publisher, 1887-8), p. 152; William S. Forrest, Historical And Descriptive Sketches Of Norfolk And Vicinity . . . (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1853), p.63.