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Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries (0434)LM Rozema, Archivist, and Caroline Harvey, Student Worker
The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials.
Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction . Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication . Please contact Special Collections and University Archives ( specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.
The collection is open for research.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Polly Ashelman Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family, Ms2019-017, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
This collection was donated to Special Collections and University Archives in April 2019.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Polly Ashelman Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family was completed in May 2019.
John McLauren McBryde (1841-1923) was the fifth president of Virginia Tech from 1891 thru 1907. He attended South Carolina College (later University of South Carolina) before the Unviersity of Virginia. In 1861, during the Civil War, he left the unviersity and joined the Confederate volunteer company. McBrdye later became a professor of Agriculture at the Unviersity of Tennesse, was the president of South Carolina College, and eventually became the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (later Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) president in 1891. He retired in Blacksburg in 1907.
John McLaren McBryde married Cora Bolton 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. John Bolton McBryde is the grandfather of Polly Ashelman.
The Polly Ashelman Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family contains five personal items given to McBryde and his wife Cora, arranged chronologically. The first item is the McMaster Medal, presented to McBryde for Distinguished Service to Mankind awarded by his alma mater, the University of South Carolina, in 1911. Three items from the University of Virginia relate to the 1912 Confederate Veteran Alumni Reunion, including a letter from W. M. Thornton, a medal presented to the veteran alumni, and list of veteran alumni. The final item, a handwritten book of congratulations for John and Cora McBryde's 50th anniversary in 1913, is hand embossed and signed by the faculty who served under McBryde during his presidency at VPI. A printed "at home" card for Mr. and Mrs. McBryde is inserted in the book.
This collection is arranged chronologically.
See also the following collections at Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives:
The guide to the Polly Ashelman Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your- work/public-domain/cc0/ ).