Finding Aids to Special Collections in the VMFA Archives | R.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers SC-21
Special Collection 21 (SC-21)
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives
Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library200 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23220-4007
Business Number: 804-340-1495
library@vmfa.museum
URL: https://vmfa.museum/library/special-collections-archives/
Courtney Yevich Tkacz, VMFA Archivist
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Use
The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website .
Custodial History
The collection was created by the VMFA Archives in 2017 to bring together primary sources about the camp. The register and reunion ribbons were purchased by VMFA Library in November 2014 and July 2015. The postcards were donated by Elizabeth O'Leary in June 2015. The other materials were relocated from vertical files in the VMFA Library.
Preferred Citation
R.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Historical Note
In the 1830s through the 1850s, Anthony Robinson Jr. purchased over 170 acres in the center of what would become the city of Richmond, including the property on which VMFA now stands. The estate, comprised of woods and open countryside, was cultivated and improved, no doubt through the labor of the enslaved African Americans listed in Robinson's tax records and will. Little is known about the earliest Robinson residence, but the imposing farmhouse still standing on the museum property was built by Anthony Robinson Jr. in the mid-1850s. In April 1865, during the final weeks of the Civil War, Union troops occupied the house and grounds at the invitation of Robinson's widow, Rebecca, in exchange for protection from looting. In 1883, the couple's son Channing sold the residence and thirty-six surrounding acres to establish a Confederate soldiers' home.
Between 1885 and 1941 the property was the site of a large residential complex for poor and infirm Confederate veterans of the Civil War. Established by R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans, the camp was built with private funds, including donations from former Confederate and Union soldiers alike. At peak occupancy, residents numbered just over three hundred; altogether a total of nearly three thousand veterans from thirty-three states called the camp home. For the next half century, Robinson House, renamed Fleming Hall during the soldiers' home era, served as the compound's administration building and war museum. After the camp's closing, the Commonwealth granted use of the building to the Virginia Institute for Scientific Research in the 1950s and to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from 1964 to the present.
The green space in the central grounds of today's VMFA property was once the commons of the Confederate soldiers' home. Around the oak-filled park stood the administration building, barracks, dining hall, hospital, recreation hall, steam plant, and assorted outbuildings. The superintendent's house, nine residential cottages, and a chapel formed an arc to the west. With the exception of Robinson House and the Confederate Memorial Chapel, the structures were demolished or moved in the early 1940s. From the camp's earliest years, the Commonwealth of Virginia helped fund the institution. In 1892, Lee Camp No. 1 agreed that the property would revert to the Commonwealth in twenty-two years. A later agreement extended that transition to the time when the original purpose of the home was no longer needed. When the last resident died in 1941, the Commonwealth gained ownership of the site. By that time, it had been designated as the Confederate Memorial Park.
Dedicated in 1887 to the Confederate war dead, the nondenominational Confederate Memorial Chapel (also referred to as the Pelham Chapel) served as a place of worship for the residents of R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1. Funded by donations from veterans and private citizens of the Commonwealth, it was designed by architect Marion J. Dimmock in the Carpenter-Gothic style. In the postwar era of reconciliation, Union veterans from Lynn, Massachusetts, donated the organ. By the time the camp closed fifty-four years later, the chapel had hosted approximately 1,700 funeral services for the former soldiers.
The monumental limestone building to the west of the present museum grounds was built in 1932 as a residence for destitute female relatives of Confederate veterans. After relocating the final inhabitants of the Home for Needy Confederate Women to a nursing facility in 1989, the Commonwealth set aside the property for use by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Source: History of the VMFA Grounds
Scope and Contents
The collection's inclusive dates are 1885-1958, with the bulk of the material dating from 1885-1937. The collection is comprised of photographs, postcards, reunion ribbons, press clippings, and a guest register.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into three series, and items are arranged chronologically within each series.
- Series 1
- Images, 1907-1958, undated
- Series 2
- Publications, 1885-1914
- Series 3
- Realia, 1885
Subjects and Indexing Terms
- Confederate Memorial Chapel
- Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper
- Grand Army of the Republic -- Seward Post No. 37 (Auburn, N.Y.)
- Home for Needy Confederate Women (Richmond, Va.)
- Lee Camp Soldiers' Home (Richmond, Va.)
- Soldiers' homes -- Virginia -- Richmond
- Sons of Confederate Veterans (Organization). R.E. Lee Camp No. 1 (Richmond, Va.)
- United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files
VMFA: Building History: Confederate Memorial ChapelVMFA: Building History: Confederate Home for Ladies
VMFA: Building History: Robinson House: General
VMFA: Building History: Robinson House: Robinson Family, 1840s-1880s
VMFA: Building History: Robinson House: R.E. Lee Camp: Confederate Soldiers' Home (Fleming Hall)
VMFA: Building History: Robinson House: R.E. Lee Camp: Confederate Soldiers' Museum (Fleming Hall)
VMFA: Building History: Robinson House: "Confederate Memorial Park," Post 1934 and Controversy, 1954
Significant Places Associated With the Collection
- Auburn (N.Y.)
- Baltimore (Md.)
- New York (N.Y.)
- Richmond (Va.)
Container List
- SC-21-01.1
Series 1.1: Photographs1937-1958, undated
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.1.001 SC21.01.1.001
Aerial view of campus with Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Confederate Women's Home, Robinson House, Benedictine Catholic Church, Battle Abbey and Johnston Willis Hospital, taken by Dementi StudioDementi Studio1 item19378 x 10Black-and-white photographs
Aerial view of campus with Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Confederate Women's Home, Robinson House, Benedictine Catholic Church, Battle Abbey and Johnston Willis Hospital, taken by Dementi Studio
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108734980/ 108734986.jpgImmediate Source of AcquisitionGift of Elizabeth O'Leary
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
GeneralCopyright Dementi Studio
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.1.002 SC21.01.1.002
Certificate of Authenticity from the Baltimore Sun archives for the 1937 photograph, photo ID AEP-992-BSBaltimore sun1 itemundatedPaperCertificates
Certificate of Authenticity from the Baltimore Sun archives for the 1937 photograph, photo ID AEP-992-BS
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108735120/ 108735126.jpgImmediate Source of AcquisitionGift of Elizabeth O'Leary
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.1.003 SC21.01.1.003
Confederate Chapel, Negative 3184Virginia Museum of Fine Arts1 itemJan. 19588 x 10Black-and-white photographsImmediate Source of Acquisition
VMFA Photo Archives
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.1.001 SC21.01.1.001
- SC-21-01.2
Series 1.2: Postcards6 items1907-1934, undated
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.2.001 SC21.01.2.001
Aerial View, Confederate Women's Home, Richmond, Va.Capitol News Agency1 item[ca. 1934]PaperPicture postcards
Aerial View, Confederate Women's Home, Richmond, Va.
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108735333/ 108735339.jpgImmediate Source of AcquisitionGift of Elizabeth O'Leary
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.2.002 SC21.01.2.002
Headquarters, The Soldiers Home, Richmond, Va.Hugh C. Leighton Company1 item[1907]PaperPicture postcards
Headquarters, The Soldiers Home, Richmond, Va.
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108735474/ 108735480.jpgImmediate Source of AcquisitionGift of Elizabeth O'Leary
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseNo Copyright - United States: http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.2.003 SC21.01.2.003
Soldiers' Home, Boulevard Ave, Richmond, Va.Louis Kaufmann and Sons1 item[ca. 1913]PaperPicture postcards
Soldiers' Home, Boulevard Ave, Richmond, Va.
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108735616/ 108735622.jpgImmediate Source of AcquisitionGift of Elizabeth O'Leary
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseNo Copyright - United States: http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.2.004 SC21.01.2.004
Soldiers' Home, Boulevard and Grove Ave., Richmond, Va.Southern Bargain House1 item[1914]PaperPicture postcards
Soldiers' Home, Boulevard and Grove Ave., Richmond, Va.
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108735757/ 108735763.jpgImmediate Source of AcquisitionGift of Elizabeth O'Leary
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseNo Copyright - United States: http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.2.005 SC21.01.2.005
Soldiers' Home (Boulevard and Grove Avenue), Richmond, VASouthern Bargain House1 itemundatedPaperPicture postcards
Soldiers' Home (Boulevard and Grove Avenue), Richmond, VA
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108735898/ 108735904.jpgImmediate Source of AcquisitionGift of Elizabeth O'Leary
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseCopyright Undetermined: https://rightsstatements.org/page/UND/1.0/?language=en
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.2.006 SC21.01.2.006
Soldiers' Home, Boulevard and Grove Ave., Richmond, Va.Southern Bargain House1 itemundatedPaperPicture postcards
Soldiers' Home, Boulevard and Grove Ave., Richmond, Va.
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108736039/ 108736045.jpgImmediate Source of AcquisitionGift of Elizabeth O'Leary
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseCopyright Undetermined: https://rightsstatements.org/page/UND/1.0/?language=en
- Graphic Materials SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.01.2.001 SC21.01.2.001
- Text SC-21 Box 1 Item: SC21.02.0.001 SC21.02.0.001
"The Home for Ex-Confederate Soldiers and Sailors at Richmond, VA," Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, pages 5-6Leslie, Frank, 1821-1880Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper1 itemAug. 22, 1885PaperClippingsEnglish
"The Home for Ex-Confederate Soldiers and Sailors at Richmond, VA," Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, pages 5-6
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108736180/ 108736186.jpgImmediate Source of AcquisitionGift of Elizabeth O'Leary
Biographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Conditions Governing UseNo Copyright - United States: http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en
- Books SC-21 Box 2 Item: SC21.02.0.002 SC21.02.0.002
Register: Lee Camp Soldiers' HomeSons of Confederate Veterans (Organization). R.E. Lee Camp No. 1 (Richmond, Va.)158 pagesMay 17, 1912-Oct. 14, 1914PaperBooksEnglishBiographical / Historical
American--1
Conditions Governing UseNo Copyright - United States: http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Immediate Source of AcquisitionVMFA Library
GeneralRegistration ledger signature book for visitors to the Soldiers' Home. Commercially printed borders with advertising from Richmond area businesses. Includes a page signed by ten members of the Blackfeet Nation, including four Chiefs, with their pictograph inscriptions.
Exhibition HistoryThis item was removed on January 22, 2019 to be placed on exhibition in the Robinson House. The register was returned to the Archives on March 4, 2021 and a reproduction of the register is now on display in the exhibition.
- Realia SC-21 Box 3 Item: SC21.03.0.001 SC21.03.0.001
Reunion Ribbon, R.E. Lee Camp No. 1, C. V., Richmond, VA and Seward Post No. 37, G.A.R., Auburn, N.Y.Sons of Confederate Veterans (Organization). R.E. Lee Camp No. 1 (Richmond, Va.)Grand Army of the Republic. Seward Post No. 37 (Auburn, N.Y.)1 itemOct. 20, 1885RibbonTrimmingEnglish
Reunion Ribbon, R.E. Lee Camp No. 1, C. V., Richmond, VA and Seward Post No. 37, G.A.R., Auburn, N.Y.
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108736242/ 108736248.jpgBiographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Conditions Governing UseNo Copyright - United States: http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Immediate Source of AcquisitionVMFA Library
Exhibition HistoryThis item was removed by Objects Conservator Ainslie Harrison on January 9, 2019 to be placed on exhibition in the Robinson House. The ribbon was returned to the Archives on November 22, 2019.
- Realia SC-21 Box 3 Item: SC21.03.0.002 SC21.03.0.002
"Blue and the Gray Re-Union" Ribbon, Seward Post 37, G.A.R., Auburn, N.Y. and R.E. Lee Camp, C. V., Richmond, VAGrand Army of the Republic. Seward Post No. 37 (Auburn, N.Y.)Sons of Confederate Veterans (Organization). R.E. Lee Camp No. 1 (Richmond, Va.)1 itemJuly 4, 1885RibbonTrimmingEnglish
"Blue and the Gray Re-Union" Ribbon, Seward Post 37, G.A.R., Auburn, N.Y. and R.E. Lee Camp, C. V., Richmond, VA
https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/94061105-108736312/ 108736318.jpgBiographical / HistoricalAmerican--1
Conditions Governing UseNo Copyright - United States: http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en
Preferred CitationR.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans Papers (SC-21). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
Immediate Source of AcquisitionVMFA Library
Exhibition HistoryThis item was removed by Objects Conservator Ainslie Harrison on January 9, 2019 to be placed on exhibition in the Robinson House. The ribbon was returned to the Archives on November 22, 2019.