Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Henry Morgan Jacocks Papers must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Preferred Citation

Henry Morgan Jacocks Papers, Ms92-008 - Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Acquisition Information

The Henry Morgan Jacocks Papers were donated to Special Collections in 1992.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement and description of the Henry Morgan Jacocks Papers commenced and was completed in December 2007. Earlier processing of the collection had been done in 1992.

Biographical Information

Henry Morgan Jacocks, son of Jonathan Henry and Mary Katherine Harrell Jacocks, was born in Durant's Neck, North Carolina on December 31, 1878. He graduated from Berkeley Military Institute in 1895 before attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. A general science student at Virginia Tech, Jacocks was president of the Thespian and German clubs, vice-president of the Maury Society and served as literary editor of the Grey Jacket and editor-in-chief of The Bugle. (A younger brother, Jonathan Wilbur Jacocks, also graduated from Virginia Tech in 1900.)

Together with his younger brother Jonathan Wilbur, Jacocks graduated from Virginia Tech in 1900. He was hired by the Mathieson Alkali Works in Saltville, Virginia as an assistant draftsman. During his 17-year career at Mathieson, Jacocks would eventually rise to the position of assistant superintendent.

Around 1919, Jacocks moved to Craddock, Virginia, where he worked briefly for the Portsmouth Cotton Oil Refining Company before establishing H. M. Jacocks and Company. Selling fuel, feed and fertilizer, the business closed in 1933, a victim of the Depression and a warehouse fire. Following the closure of his business, Jacocks worked for the Virginia State Highway Department before retiring in 1950. He died in an automobile accident on August 20 of that same year and is buried in Norfolk's Magnolia Cemetery.

Scope and Content

This collection contains the papers of Henry Morgan Jacocks (1878-1950), graduate of Virginia Tech (class of 1900) and assistant superintendent of the Mathieson Alkali Works in Saltville, Virginia. The collection includes correspondence, operation notes, printed materials, and blueprints.

While Jacocks' papers contain a small selection of correspondence and records pertaining to Mathieson's operation, they largely consist of trade publications (both promotional and instructional). The catalogs promote steel products as well as various pieces of machinery and other products. The instructional materials consist of manuals for specific pieces of machinery as well as general technical publications. Within the collection is also a set of undated drafting standards for the Virginia Iron and Bridge Company (Roanoke, Virginia).

The papers also include a set of approximately two dozen blueprints and drawings, mostly for parts and machinery to be used at Mathieson. Except where otherwise noted, the drawings seem to have been completed in-house (a few were drawn by Jacocks himself). Among the drawings is a 1914 aerial view of Mathieson Alkali Works.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged by document type, then chronologically, with the exception of the printed materials. These are divided by function, with promotional materials arranged by corporation name and instructional materials arranged in bibliographical order.

Related Material

The following works were transferred to the Rare Book Collection in 1992:

The following works were tranferred to the Rare Book Collection in 2007:

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Separated Material

The following works were transferred to the Rare Book Collection in 1992:

The following works were tranferred to the Rare Book Collection in 2007: