New Exhibit Highlights Recent Collection Additions

The Thomas Balch Library revealed an exhibit last week of items from the library’s newest archive and manuscript collections. Over 30 collections are now available to researchers, which include letters, photographs, and artifacts from several new collections that range in date from 1762 to 1975.

Among them are the following:

• The Asa Jackson Collection (1860-1866) and the Yardley Taylor Surveying Notebook (1832-1884): Both collections contain surveys of land parcels from all over Loudoun County. Yardley Taylor’s notebook is made up of field notes, and does not contain finalized surveys, while Asa Jackson’s notebook contains the finished product.
  
  
• The Leesburg Civil War Collection (1861-1865): contains photographs of and letters written by Civil War soldiers, many of them involved in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. The photographs are cartes de visite, a popular photograph format during the Civil War, about the size of a playing card. The letters include descriptions of the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, life in the camps, and the treatment of wounds and illnesses during war.
  
  
• The Cooper Fry Scott Family Papers (1816-1950) and the Nancy Graham Rogers Collection (1910-1975): both collections are of personal and family papers, and contain numerous photographs. The photographs in the Cooper Fry Scott Family Papers feature family members, formal portraits, and candid snapshots, most taken in Loudoun County. Also of particular note in this collection is an unused slave pass dated 12 November 1859, a copy of which is on display. The Nancy Graham Rogers Collection includes correspondence, recipe books, a wedding album, and a diary, most from the early decades of the 20th century.

Complete collection guides for all of these collections are available on the library’s website. The collection guides are also available at the Virtual Library of Virginia and have been cataloged by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the Nation Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.  

The exhibit will be on display in the Mercer Room of Thomas Balch Library through Nov. 30.