Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Wilbur Earnest MacClenny, Accession #3615, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was a gift on 1950 November 20.

Scope and Content Information

The papers consist of correspondence, 1900-1949, and diaries, 1900-1902, 1935-1940, of MacClenny together with his topical files on the history and genealogy of Suffolk and Nansemond County, Va., and Gates County, N.C.

Religious and military history of the area were his chief interests and there is considerable material on the Christian denomination, its local congregations, the Eastern Virginia Christian Conference, and early leader James O'Kelly. There are also research notes, rosters, and histories of local participation in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and World War I.

Items of interest include cargo manifests for two ships, 1814 and 1824; arithmetic book, 1826-1828; copies of Civil War diaries, chiefly Union, mentioning local battles; a ledger for Smith and Bigelow, merchants, of Norfolk, 1901; and a report, 1941, on the poll tax and voter registration in Virginia by Ted Dalton, R.K. Gooch, and James P. Woods.

Luther Porter Jackson and George Washington Carver are correspondents.

The collection also contains correspondence, 1922-1924, of Joseph Henry Riddick, executive secretary of the Virginia Literary and Athletic League concerning high school debating tournaments at the University of Virginia.