Special Collections Exhibit Showcases Mock Convention Memories
Washington and Lee University’s Special Collections and Archives has been working with the 2024 Mock Convention to debut an exhibit showcasing extraordinary items from past conventions.
Special Collections
In The News: Sharing Stories
Rob Fure and Tom Camden ’76, who both retired in June, opened new doors to intellectual discovery for the W&L community.
‘After Class’ Podcast Features Tom Camden
"W&L After Class" invites listeners to join conversations with W&L's expert faculty about their teaching, research and passion projects.
Haunted History
Professor of History Mikki Brock’s Spring Term course explores our fascination with the supernatural.
W&L Uncovers James Madison’s Handwritten Manuscript
How a handwritten draft of one of the most significant defenses of religious freedom in American history was rediscovered in Lexington, Virginia.
In Case You Missed It
Historians for a Day
A class of history students from Powhatan High School spent a day in Washington and Lee Special Collections and Archives, where they got to work with original materials from the vault.
Ted Talks
A series of hour-long interviews with the late Ted DeLaney ’85, professor history of emeritus, is now available online.
Set in Stone
Debris from the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing found its way to W&L’s Special Collections, where it heightened one class’s understanding of a powerful Japanese novel.
‘Preserving as Much as We Can’
The Washington and Lee University library is working to preserve documents relating to COVID-19 and diversity and inclusion discussions.
A Little Book with Big Contents
An extremely rare printing of the U.S. Constitution has been restored and returned to Washington and Lee Special Collections just in time for Constitution Day.
Life in Disneyland
A letter in W&L's Special Collections, written by former English professor George Harding Foster to Harrison Kinney '47, provides a glimpse of the inner workings at Disney Studios in the 1950s.
In Their Own Words
MaKayla Lorick '19 is collecting oral histories from African-American alumni, faculty and staff as part of a project that aims to include those missing perspectives in Washington and Lee University's history of desegregation and integration.
Washington’s Will is ‘a True National Treasure’
The will, a favorite piece for use in accounting and taxation classes at W&L, reveals much about Washington's character and views.
A Book Fit for Royals
Washington and Lee's Special Collections is an educational resource fit for a queen, but this 543-year-old book really has royal connections.
Rediscovery and Restoration of a 279-Year-Old Treasure
The Benjamin Borden Grant, the original grant for the land on which W&L now sits, turns 279 this month. It has been conserved and is stored in W&L's Special Collections.
Exhibit Highlights Mock Convention Through the Years
The exhibition, “The Mock Convention Through the Years,” is on display on the first floor of Leyburn Library between Sept. 15-29.
A Literal Treasure Chest
Charles Philip Blackledge ’38 gifted an important and fascinating collection of Roman coins to Washington and Lee Special Collections.
Eastern Art Meets Western Virginia
Dr. Ling-ting Chiu, a Fulbright Scholar and assistant professor of history at Soochow University in Taiwan, spent the summer at Washington and Lee studying the works of former W&L professor and artist Professor I-Hsiung Ju.
Phillis Wheatley: ‘Favored by the Muses’
Washington and Lee's Special Collections contains a rare volume of poetry by Wheatley, the first published African-American poet.
Rare by Association
Two tiny, leather-bound volumes in Special Collections feature signatures and bookplates that make them extraordinarily rare.
Prelude to Reformation
Four Martin Luther tracts housed in W&L's Special Collections were fully restored in time for the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation.
By Royal Decree
A Bible in the Special Collections vault turned out to be the 1642 New Testament that belonged to France’s King Louis XIII.
A Special Summer in Special Collections
Chandler Wickers '18 has spent her summer as a researcher in Special Collections, where she has been exposed to fascinating materials and learned how professors and students can take greater advantage of the collection.
James Dickey, Masked and Unmasked
The life mask is perhaps the single most valuable item in a collection of more than 1,000 Dickey items in W&L Special Collections.
On the Origin of One of W&L’s Most Valuable Books
Washington and Lee University owns a first edition of one of the most important — and controversial — books ever written.
Discovery Takes Historic Document from Ordinary to Extraordinary
This seemingly ordinary subscription list from 1776, which has long been a part of W&L Special Collections, has a fascinating connection with American independence.
Ancient Tablet is ‘Exquisite in its Simplicity’
In the first installment of this new series, Tom Camden offers the story of a Sumerian clay tablet that is the oldest recorded document in W&L's Special Collections.
Dedicated to Dickey
Ward Briggs ’67 has memorialized his longtime friend, writer James Dickey, with a large donation of Dickey materials to Washington and Lee Special Collections.
Over There: Kiffin Rockwell, W&L’s French Fighter Pilot
One hundred years ago this month, Sept. 23, 1916, a young man named Kiffin Rockwell became the first alumnus of Washington and Lee University to give his life during World War I — not as an American doughboy, as you might expect, but as a founding member of the French air squadron known as the Escadrille Americaine, or the Lafayette Escadrille.
Special Collections and Archives Department Launches Its First Online Search Tool
Researchers now have an easy way to comb through the 1,000 collections of manuscripts and photographs at Washington and Lee University’s Special Collections and Archives. “The department has launched its first online search tool, which will enable researchers to discover these treasures,” said Alston Cobourn, digital scholarship librarian at W&L.
W&L Receives Major Collection of Images on Anniversary of Lee's Surrender at Appomattox
Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, Washington and Lee University has received the gift of a rare collection of 29 vintage prints and original graphics depicting the historic event. It is arguably the most comprehensive collection of such images — all of immaculate museum quality and including two original works by artists of the period.
19th-Century Accounting Ledgers at W&L Illuminate Local History
Old account ledgers might seem a dry subject to most people, but to a class at Washington and Lee University they offered a rare opportunity to shine new light on local history.
Archives of American Shakespeare Center Find New Home at W&L
Dating to its founders' first amateur performance of Antony and Cleopatra in 1985, the American Shakespeare Center (ASC), now one of the country's leading performers of Shakespeare, has kept a careful record of everything associated with the plays it staged. The center's archives include directors' notes, prompt books, set designs, posters, fliers, still and candid […]
Washington and Lee Receives Gift of Alumnus’ Civil War Diaries
Six Civil War diaries written by a Confederate soldier and providing a first-hand account of the war in Virginia are now part of Special Collections at Washington and Lee University's Leyburn Library, the result of a multi-donor gift to the University. Archivists and researchers would be delighted enough over this newly discovered set of diaries. […]
