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Carleton D. Stanley Travel Slide Collection

Photograph Collection

C1:204
1950s–1977, bulk 1960s

4,752 35mm slides, 3 5″ x 7″ prints, 4 travel notebooks

Paris

The Carleton D. Stanley Travel Slide Collection was found in a dumpster at a house being renovated in Chester, Virginia, by a man named Waverly Bailey. He donated the collection to us to preserve. The majority of the slides feature sites from Stanley’s international travels across Europe, North America, and Asia, but some feature family, homes, flowers, and canned food.

Grand Canyon

His trips were arranged by Thru the Lens Tours, Inc., of Hollywood, California. According to the July 1981 issue of Popular Photography, “Thru the Lens Tours…has been sponsoring instructional photographic adventures to Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, the South Pacific, and the Orient” since 1952 (p. 42). Based on the number of Thru the Lens tours Stanley attended, we can assume that photography was an important hobby to him. We also know Stanley gave presentations about his travels, because a flyer in one of the boxes advertises his slides from Mexico. The notebooks document the places he photographed and sometimes the camera settings he used. The collection contains a handful of photographs of Stanley himself, who appears to be in his fifties or sixties. He often appears with a woman featured throughout the slides who we assume is his wife.

From the slide box labeled “Our Homes” taken in 1973, we know that Carleton D. Stanley … Read the rest

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Virginia Geological Survey sketches by William Thompson Russell Smith (1812-1896)

Drawing Collection, Paintings Collection

Virginia Geological Survey, Records, 1834-1903. Accession 24815, State Government Records Collection
52 sketches. Pencil, ink, watercolor, pastel, and oil on paper and cardboard. Dimensions: Vary from 11 11/16 x 7 11/16 in. to 23 9/16 x 18 1/8 in.


Visual Studies Collection.
1 sketch. Watercolor on paper. Dimensions: 12 5/8 x 8 ½ in.

One hundred and seventy-five years ago this summer, William Barton Rogers and William Thompson Russell Smith boarded a train in Pennsylvania bound for Washington, D.C. Their ultimate destination was the western part of Virginia, where they intended to describe and document geological features. Rogers (1804-1882), a geologist, chemist, physicist, and professor at the University of Virginia, had begun work on a geological survey of Virginia in 1835. Although funding from the General Assembly ceased in 1842, Rogers believed a final report would eventually be authorized. He hired Smith, an artist he had worked with on previous geological publications, to illustrate this final report.

William Thompson Russell Smith (1812–1896), better known as Russell Smith, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father brought the family to rural Pennsylvania in 1819 before moving to the growing town of Pittsburgh to be near schools. After studying with the portrait artist James Lambdin, Smith began developing a reputation as a theatrical scene painter and commercial artist. His lifelong affection for landscape painting and his work in scientific illustration both prepared him for his travels with Rogers.… Read the rest

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Collection of Busts of Virginia-Born Presidents (State Art Collection)

Paintings Collection

State Art Collection 1931.3-7, 9-10
1931
7 busts. Marble.
Average: 35” high x 24” wide x 17” deep

Today’s visitors to the rotunda at the Virginia State Capitol are unlikely to consider how the seven marble busts depicting Virginia-born presidents came to sit in niches along the walls. The busts seem to be a natural addition to the space, complementing the design and decorations around them. Unlike most works in the State Art Collection, however, the busts are the result of a single act of legislation and the efforts of one governor, John Garland Pollard, who made their acquisition an objective for his new administration.

The rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol has housed two important pieces of statuary since 1796—the full-length marble statue of George Washington and the marble bust of the Marquis de Lafayette, both by French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741–1828). Prior to 1930 there was no clear policy or plan to fill the eight architectural niches. The State Art Commission attempted to create some guidelines in 1917 when proposals to add commemorative bronze plaques to the rotunda came before the General Assembly. The commission stipulated that only busts should go in the niches, and that only marble should be used, as bronze would “detract from the beauty of the rotunda interior.”

In 1926 the General Assembly asked the governor to appoint a committee to create a list of names of “Virginia’s most … Read the rest

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Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection

Photograph Collection

C1: 163
late 1920s
62 photographic images

C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection. LVA 09_1009_61

These photographs give a detailed visual account of Suffolk-area service stations in the early automotive age, including station personnel, oil-delivery vehicles and drivers, off-site oil storage facilities, and other elements of oil-related infrastructure. Architecturally, the service stations range from pagoda-like roadside huts to urban brick produce market/gas station all-in-ones, most displaying the distinctive “Sinclair Gasoline” sign. Gas can be seen for sale at 25 cents a gallon. 

The original purpose of this series is unknown. While some of the images smack of promotional photography, especially those in which drivers pose with their vehicles, others seem more documentary or photojournalistic, particularly a handful of images showing the aftermath of a dramatic rollover car wreck. Most of the drivers and many of the station owners are named.

Provenance:
Electronic copies donated, 2009.
Vintage prints retained by donor. 

Related resources and collections:
C1: 162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection

  • C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection
    C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection
  • C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection
    C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection
  • C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection
    C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection
  • C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection
    C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection
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Stereograph File

Photograph Collection

C1: 060
1860s–1910s
approx. 318 stereographs (most albumen) and other photographic prints mounted on 4 x 7 inch cards 

C1:060 Stereograph File. Building spire of Lutheran Church, Winchester, Va. (LVA 07_0786_329)

Stereographic views were a popular nineteenth-century novelty that enabled photographs to be viewed in three dimensions. What appear to be identical photographic images paired adjacently on a cardboard support are actually slightly different and, when viewed through the lenses of a stereoscope, they “merge” to yield an unexpectedly convincing 3D effect. The Library’s Stereograph Collection contains over 300 images from many prominent photographers from the Civil War to the World War I eras. Photographs and publishers represented in the collection include the Keystone View Co., George S. Cook, Lee Gallery, D. H. Anderson, E. S. Lumpkin, Underwood & Underwood, George Ennis, Selden & Co., the Kilburn Bros., and Timothy O’Sullivan. Most of the images offer views of Richmond and other Virginia locales, such as the Old Stone House (now the Poe Museum), interiors of Washington’s Tomb, Salt Point, the Executive Mansion and Capitol Grounds (including the long-vanished wrought iron gazebo that housed the statue of Henry Clay), Monumental Church, and Libby Prison. There are also several rare photographs of Blue Ridge Springs and other long-defunct Virginia resorts, as well as a one-of-a-kind series of homemade stereographs with views of late- nineteenth-century Petersburg. 

Arrangement and access:
The collection is available for view on Digitool.

Provenance:… Read the rest

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