Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Cumming Family Papers, Accession 6922-aa, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Library on May 13, 1985, by the Honorable Hugh Smith Cumming, Jr., of Washington, D.C., and has no restrictions.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This addition to the papers of Ambassador Hugh S. Cumming, Jr. contains ca. 1800 items (4 Hollinger boxes, 1.5 linear feet), 1874-1984, chiefly correspondence of Hugh and Winifred Cumming and genealogical material. The collection is arranged into four series: correspondence, topical, genealogy, and photographs and printed material.

The correspondence includes: correspondence between Hugh and Winifred Cumming while he was away on diplomatic missions in England , Canada , and Iceland ; letters concerning a book, Recollections of a Childhood in Nottoway , by Lucy Booth Cumming ; and correspondence with St. Paul's Church , Washington, D.C. , and the University of Virginia .

In the topical files are papers relating to his diplomatic service, including Indonesian affairs and an interview for the John Foster Dulles Oral History Project .

Families represented in the genealogical material include the Ballentine , Blandy , Booth , Cryer , Epes , Forman , Canabiss , Gholson , Martiau , and Starke families .

The photographs are predominantly those of the University of Virginia Medical Class of 1891-1892 (with members identified) and the past Presidents and Board of Governors at the Metropolitan Club , November 3, 1969.