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This collection consists of personal letters that Caroline F. Putnam, an antislavery activist and schoolteacher, wrote to Sallie Holley and Emily Howland, her colleagues and friends, between 1868 and around 1877. Putnam described the everyday challenges of running a school for freed slaves in Lottsburg, Virginia, as well as Reconstruction politics in the postwar South.

This collection (111 items) contains personal letters that antislavery activist and schoolteacher Caroline F. Putnam wrote to Sallie Holley and Emily Howland, her colleagues and friends, between October 22, 1868, and 1877. Putnam described the everyday challenges of running a freedmen's school in Lottsburg, Virginia, as well as Reconstruction politics in the postwar South.

In her earliest letters, Putnam discussed an upcoming trip to Virginia; her impressions of Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.; and the opening of the Holley School in Lottsburg Virginia, in 1868. Most letters pertain to her life and work at the Holley School, the administrative aspects of running the school, and the numerous struggles faced by her students, mostly freed slaves and their children. On November 21, 1868, she described classroom conditions on one particularly cold evening, encouraged other educated women to help educate former slaves, and favorably compared her students to their white counterparts. Her letters to Holley often mention the work of Emily Howland, who ran a similar school in Heathsville, Virginia, until 1870. In her later letters, Putnam addressed the positive and negative responses to the school from members of the community, such as the moving reflection of an African American preacher overwhelmed by seeing children from his community coming home from school, as only white children had been able to do before the war (November 21, 1868).

Putnam also wrote about local politics and the Grant administration. For example, she addressed one letter to Senator Charles Sumner, congratulating him on his efforts to prevent disenfranchisement of freedmen (December 25, 1869). She read widely, and her letters often contained references to both local and national newspapers.

Additional material includes a printed invitation from Booker T. Washington to the Fourth Annual Session of the Tuskegee Negro Conference (ca. 1895), and several fragments.

The Richard F. Walker letters consist of a series of letters written by Walker, Virginia's Superintendant of Public Printing, a member of the Virginia Historical Society, and printer for the Richmond Whig, to Edward Denham in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Walker discussed life and politics in Reconstruction-era Richmond.

The Richard F. Walker letters consist of a series of letters written by Walker, Virginia's Superintendant of Public Printing, a member of the Virginia Historical Society, and printer for the Richmond Whig, to Edward Denham in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Walker discussed life and politics in Reconstruction-era Richmond. Walker composed the earliest letters just before leaving his first term as Superintendant of Public Printing, and often referred indirectly to his work. Several letters bear the office's letterhead depicting a woman standing over a slain man, with the motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis." Much of his friendly correspondence with Denham focused on Walker's work with the Virginia Historical Society, of which Denham became a corresponding member (May 18, 1880), and on acquiring materials for Denham such as the Southern Historical Magazine.

Occasionally, Walker shared his views on contemporary Virginia politics, and opined, "This is not the Old Virginia we used to have! By the management of a Carpet-Bag Governor, our finances have been entirely turned over to 2-3rds of our creditors[,] leaving out in the cold 1-3rd, and no money to pay expenses of running the Government" (March 10, 1878). Walker also remembered the Civil War, and soberly stated, "To-day is the anniversary of the fall of Richmond! It brings up sad memories in my mind" (April 3, 1880). Local politics again became a focus after Walker's re-election to his public post, and he lamented the demise of the local Whig influence. "We are badly beaten," he said, "and I hope never to see another contest made for the Democratic Party. We have failed for 25 years, and it is time to stop batting a stone wall. The Northern Democrats encouraged us to go to war, and deserted us as soon as war was declared" (November 5, 1880).

Though Walker wrote the vast majority of the letters, other correspondents wrote to Denham, including Robert Alonzo Brock, secretary of the Virginia Historical Society, who wrote 3 letters, and Powhatan Bouldin, who sent a personal note on a printed postcard advertising his book Home Reminiscences of John Randolph, of Roanoke.