Montgomery County (Va.)

The Smithfield Preston Foundation collection consists of 200 letters written almost exclusively by two generations of members of the Preston family of southwest Virginia, Kentucky, and South Carolina, to James and Sarah Preston McDowell of Rockbridge County, Virginia.

The Ellison A. Smyth, Sr. collection contains papers including his correspondence with professional and amateur scientists, collectors, dealers and suppliers around the world concerning entomology and zoology, his publications, and field journals from his entomological work.

Letter written December 27, 1860, from an unidentified man at Solitude, the Preston home in Blacksburg, Virginia, to Miss Martha.

Historic home of Blacksburg, Virginia, built by the Preston family in the early 1800s. Purchased by the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Virginia Tech) in 1872, and remains the oldest building on campus. Photographs consist of thirty-four mounted photographs from Eleanor Stover McEver's collection of various views and details of Solitude, with identifying labels. Also includes other papers, such as newspaper clippings and postcards, with information about Solitude.

The Southside Garden Club started as a committee of the Blacksburg Women's Club. The Garden Club became its own separate organization in 1930 and the Southside Garden Club was formed in 1941. Materials in the collection include newspaper clippings, minutes and yearbooks from the Blacksburg Women's Club. Southside Garden Club materials include organization reports, minutes, pressbooks, yearbooks, and scrapbooks.

The Spahr Family Collection contains records of rent payments at the Hilltop Gardens Trailer Park and clippings about Joel Bush Spahr's landscaping hobby. Hilltop Gardens Trailer Park, run by the Spahrs, operated from 1959 to 1999 on property to the northwest of Blacksburg, Virginia.