Pardoning Robert Taylor Preston

This week, I have Prestons on the brain. Actually, it’s been going on for a while. In May, I gave a presentation about Special Collections’ holdings relating to the Preston family in Virginia and Smithfield/Solitude history. In about two weeks, I’ll be taking a small selection of materials to display at the Preston Family Reunion weekend at the plantation house. Branches of the Preston family held land all over Virginia, South Carolina, and Kentucky in the 18th and 19th centuries. William Preston built Smithfield, the plantation on the edge of what is now Virginia Tech. His grandson, Robert Taylor Preston, built Solitude, located near the Duck Pond on campus. The land the main campus is on was bought from Robert Taylor Preston in 1870-1871.

A single blog post isn’t enough space to talk about everything we have (it’s barely room to talk about one collection!), but it is agood place to talk about an item or two.

Robert Taylor Preston served as a colonel during the Civil War. Many of his papers in the collection relate to these years (and many are worth a future post!). One of the stand out items, however, is the pardon he received after the war ended. The pardon itself is large and is stored in a large flat file. Along with the pardon, Preston was sent a certificate of the pardon’s authenticity. The last image is of Preston’s letter of receipt, written from Solitude, which reads in part: “[I] hereby signify my acceptance of the same, with all the conditions therein specified.”

We are currently working on digitizing all of Robert Taylor’ Preston’s papers and updating the finding aid. Once done, we’ll have them up on the web to see. We’re excited about being able to share this collection, since it’s one we are asked about often. So be sure to check back with us in the future!

Cooking for the President: Cora Bolton McBryde’s Cookbook

 

Cora Bolton McBryde's Cookbook
Cora Bolton McBryde’s Cookbook

Cora Bolton McBrydes cookbook is a new treasure of the University Libraries Special Collections Department. The cookbook was a gift of Janet Watson Barnhill, great great granddaughter of President John McLaren McBryde and Cora Bolton McBryde. Known as the Father of the Modern VPI, McBryde served as president of Virginia Tech from 1891, when the institution was called Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (V.A.M.C.), until 1907.

President John McLaren McBryde ("Papa"), Cora Bolton McBryde ("Mamma"), and family before they moved to Blacksburg.
President John McLaren McBryde (“Papa”), Cora Bolton McBryde (“Mamma”), and family before they moved to Blacksburg. Anna is Janet Watson Barnhill’s grandmother.

 

Born in Richmond, Virginia on August 4, 1839, Cora Bolton, was the daughter of Dr. James Bolton and Anna Maria Harrison. Dr. Bolton was one of the physicians for Robert E. Lee and worked tirelessly in hospital in Richmond during the Civil War. Janet Watson Barnhill wrote, I gather the family took care of many injured patients at home, so I believe she was well suited for the job of being the First Lady” of VPI. I think women are much overlooked in history! Cora Bolton married John McLaren McBryde on November 18, 1863, and they had eight children: Janet McLaren; James Bolton; Anna Marie; John McLaren, Jr.; Charles Neil; Susan McLaren; Meade Bolton; and Waid.

The cookbook consists of recipes in Coral Bolton McBrydes own hand as well as pasted in recipes. Some of the recipes included are:

Apple Scones

Salad dressing

Preserved plums

Grape preserve

Sponge cake

Johnnie Cake

Coffee cake

Salmon croquettes

Donuts

Browned onions

Walnut brown bread

Floras brown bread (a daughter-in-law)

Fish Croquettes

Hamburger roast

Apples with cornstarch

Feather coconut cake

Whole wheat pudding

Aunt Selinas pudding

Belmar Sauce

Because the cookbook was in fragile condition, Special Collections sent it to Etherington Conservation Services in North Carolina for repairs. The treatment included disbinding, deacidification, repair and mending of fragile leaves with Japanese paper, repair of the binding, and reattaching Japanese paper/linen to the text block.

 

Cora Bolton McBryde (second from left), President McBryde (second from the right), and family enjoy a snack
Cora Bolton McBryde (second from left), President McBryde (second from the right), and family enjoy a snack

Plans are afoot to scan the entire cookbook and make it digitally available so everyone can enjoy the recipes. Stay tuned!

 

Too Much Warm Potato Salad on July 4th? You Need “The Best Dyspepsia Water In Virginia”

Let’s face it, most American holidays center around food and lots of it. Too much of a good thing is never enough, and celebrating American Independence often means a good excuse to overeat. I already had lunch today, so hunger pangs are not the focus of this post. This week’s post on the What’s Cookin’ blog focused on frozen desserts for the steamy outdoor July 4th celebrations. So as a counterpart, let’s briefly re-visit how Americans in the late nineteenth century recovered from their indigestion and where they went to escape the summer heat.

As is often the case of working in special collections, it is very easy to get distracted by original material, rare books, or other items in the stacks. While searching for another book, I ran across a wonderful advertising piece for the Roanoke Red Sulpher Springs in Salem, Virginia. Printed in 1898, the booklet contains dozens of first-hand testimonials about those who found comfort from their ailments by visiting this largely forgotten summer resort. Yes, there are plenty of other nearby resorts (Eggleston Springs and Montgomery White Sulpher Springs) to talk about, but this forty-something page pamphlet caught my eye.

coverLike today, there is fierce competition for tourist dollars and J. Harry Chapman, the manager of the springs, made it clear that the Roanoke Red Sulpher Springs has “The Best Dyspepsia Water in Virginia.” The springs opened each June and accommodated up to 300 guests. In addition to easing the upset stomachs of those who could afford to travel to Salem, the waters also healed “Hay Fever, Lung, Throat, Heart, Kidney and Female Troubles.” The springs thrived as a destination for Virginians as well as those from across the country. Like modern day travel guides, the booklet includes distances to major cities, including New York, Atlanta, and even Galveston (only 48 hours away).

Distances

The healing waters, the cool mountain breezes, and the chance to escape the drudgery of urban areas motivated many middle-class Victorians to find their way to natural springs like this one in Virginia. The book is littered with testimonials from past visitors who hoped to cure their maladies and enjoy the tranquility of the mountains. Visitors from New Orleans, Pensacola, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and even San Antonio gushed about the springs and became regulars each summer.

testimony

The testimonials make this small nook in the Virginia mountains sound like Xanadu, rather than a resort just nine miles north of Salem. An artist’s depiction of Roanoke Red Sulpher Springs from Edward Beyer’s, Album of Virginia (1858), which appeared on the front of the 1898 booklet, matched the idyllic description of the grounds.

Album of Virginia rendering

Like many items in special collections, the 1898 booklet is a snapshot of a particular time in the history of a place. The springs first opened as a resort in 1858 and went through several owners. The medical benefits of the springs made it an ideal location for battling one of the most troublesome disease of the period–tuberculosis. In 1908, the State of Virginia took over Roanoke Red Sulpher Springs and made it the state’s first tuberculosis sanitorium (Catawba).

The 1898 advertising booklet documents the high-point of Roanoke Red Sulpher Springs as a summer resort. In the late 1890s visitors came to the springs to recuperate and have a vacation. On this July 4th, 116 years later, many of us will do the same–travel to a far away location (a lake, a beach, or an amusement park) to relax, rejuvenate, and feel better. The restorative powers of such an escape may be even better for you than natural spring waters, and certainly better than eating warm potato salad. So travel safe, be healthy, and enjoy the waters.