The Flavia Reed Owen Special Collections and Archives Room at the McGraw-Page Library houses several significant historical and literary collections in addition to preserving the historic archives of the college. The room was named in honor of Flavia Reed Owen, the College Librarian from 1946-1984. PLEASE NOTE: Special Collections Hours can vary from those of the library, so we strongly encourage visitors to schedule an appointment to view the collections. Current hours can be found on the library's hours page.
For questions about materials contained in the Flavia Reed Owen Special Collections & Archives Room or to schedule an appointment to view materials, please contact:
Laurie Preston, Head of Reference
Email: lpreston@rmc.edu
Phone: (804)752-4718
Mary Virginia Currie, Archivist
Email: maryvirginiacurrie@rmc.edu
Phone: (804)752-3202
The Randolph-Macon College Archives include materials dating from the founding of the college to the present, including books, documents and papers, publications, newspapers, microfilm and microfiche, drawings, photographs, scrapbooks, blueprints, film and audio recordings, and objects and artifacts.
J. Rives Childs, a 1912 R-MC graduate, worked as a code breaker during WWI and his papers include correspondence, memoranda, and reports relating to deciphering of German codes during World War I. He also was a bibliophile and during his years in the Foreign Service, he collected extensively, bequeathing his personal collections of editions of Casanova, Henry Miller, and Restif de la Bretonne to the library.
The J. Rives Childs Collection of Casanoviana is one of the world’s most extensive collections of rare editions of Casanova’s Memoires. The collection consists of over 2000 items including numerous rare volumes in many languages. In addition to the Memoires and writings of Casanova, the collection contains numerous bibliographies, biographies, sales catalogs, correspondence, playbills, and illustrations.
Mr. Childs’ extensive correspondence with the author Henry Miller as well as a large collection of Miller’s works compose the core of this collection, which also includes other writers and artists who came within Miller's orbit.
The Library has the personal book and journal collection of Richard Beale Davis, an R-MC alumnus who won the National Book Award in 1978 for his seminal work, Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585-1763.
Special Collections houses the historic archive of the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. The collection documents the history and growth of the Church in Virginia starting in the colonial period through the present. This collection includes books, papers, documents, publications, diaries, photographs, maps, paintings, church silver, filmstrips and projectors, and numerous other types of objects and artifacts.
McGraw-Page Library holds the 40,000 piece archive of the local newspaper, the Hanover Herald-Progress, which includes primarily photographs, but also contains many documents, articles, histories, and memoirs documenting the history of Hanover County, Virginia, and the Town of Ashland from colonial times to the present.
The Living Legacies Oral History Project was begun as a way to honor donors and contributors to Randolph-Macon College, many of whom are alumni of the College, with an emphasis on capturing the essence of the student experience at the College over time. The project has expanded to include interviews with additional alumni and others involved with the College in meaningful ways whose stories need to be preserved.
The Macon Memories Oral History Project captures the stories of faculty, staff, and others with a long-time affiliation with Randolph-Macon College. This project records the personal reflections and experiences of individual people, in the belief that the collective memories will shed broader light on the College's history. This project was created with seed money from the Board of Associates.
The One Ashland, Many Voices Oral History Project was undertaken to record the memories of Ashland residents in celebration of the town's sesquicentennial anniversary.