Administrative Information

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Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Charlton Gilmore Holland, Accession #2876, etc., Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These letters and other materials were loaned by Dr. Charlton G. Holland, Charlottesville, Virginia, to the University of Virginia Library on February 16, 1948.

Biographical/Historical Information

Charlton Gilmore Holland (Jr.), a psychiatrist by profession, was born in Danville, Virginia on 1911 September 22. His parents were Charlton Gilmore Holland, Sr., and Lillian Alma Holland née Reid. He was married to Louise Fraser Beckwith, and together they had a son, Charlton Gilmore Holland III. Holland attended the Danville Militar Academy, and later the University of Virginia. He graduated from the University of Virginia Medical School in 1935. Holland then completed a residency in neuropsychiatry at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, after which he completed training in and eventually became an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia’s Department of Psychiatry. After serving in US Army Medical Corps during World War II, Holland became Chief Psychiatrist for Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia, and later Chief Psychiatrist for Veterans’ Hospital in Fresno, California.

Upon the family’s return to Charlottesville from California, Holland began to devote his time to archeology, a passion he had desired to pursue when he was younger. Working with colleagues and various federal institutions (e.g.: Smithsonian Institution, National Park Service, etc.), Holland performed surveys and excavation across the Commonwealth of Virginia and worked on programs that supported the study and analysis of archeological findings. While Holland did not obtain a degree in the field of archeology, his active interest and engagement in archeological practices in Virginia led him to teach archaeology for ten years as a lecturer in the University of Virginia Departments of Sociology and Anthropology. He was identified in a 2024 NAGPRA program report as being one member of University of Virginia faculty to have removed the human remains representing, at minimum, five individuals from several archeological sites. Some collected objects were at one point turned over to the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. It is also important to note that C.G. Holland did receive help from private collectors, although his work focused on documenting his findings.

Reference list:

Clark, W. E., Norrisey, M. E., Reed, C., and Virginia Research Center for Archaeology (1978). A Preliminary Report on the 1977 Excavations of the Buzzard Rock Site. Williamsburg, VA: Virginia Research Center for Archaeology.

Chemists at UVA Probe Past: Relics Uncovering Virginia Indians’ Trade Routes (1974 November 28). Southwest Times, p. 13.

Department of the Interior National Park Service. (2024, November 14). Notice of Inventory Completion: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. Federal Register: The Daily Journal of the United States Government. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/11/14/2024-26454/notice-of-inventory-completion-university-of-virginia-charlottesville-va. Washington, D.C.: National Archives.

Hoffman, M. A., Cleland, J. H., Funk, T. C., Vernon, R. W., University of Virginia, and United States (1975). Shenandoah National Park as a Cultural Resource: An Evaluation of Past Archaeological Surveys and Work in the Shenandoah National Park. Charlottesville, VA: Laboratory of Archaeology, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Virginia.

Holland, C. G. (Charlton Gilmore) Jr., Speiden, S. D., Van Roijen, D., and Orange County Historical Society (Va.) (1982). The Rapidan Mound Revisited: A Test Excavation of a Prehistoric Burial Mound. Orange, VA: The Society.

Holland, C. G. (Charlton Gilmore) Jr. (1970). An Archeological Survey of Southwest Virginia. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press; [for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.].

Holland, C. G. (Charlton Gilmore), Jr. (III) (2019). Letters Home: A Psychiatrist in the South Pacific during World War II. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.

Legacy.com. (2006, April 16). Charlton Holland Obituary. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dailyprogress/name/charlton-holland-obituary?id=29459699. Charlottesville, VA: Daily Progress.

MacCord, H. A., and Buchanan, W. T. (1980). The Crab Orchard Site, Tazewell County, Virginia: Based on a Report Prepared for the Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation. Richmond, VA: Archeological Society of Virginia.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of ca. 1200 letters (3 Hollinger boxes, 1 linear foot) exchanged between Dr. and Mrs. Charlton G. Holland during World War II, 1943-1945, when Dr. Holland was on leave from the medical faculty of the University of Virginia on service with the Army Medical Corps in the Pacific, and contains information on psychiatric cases and the practice of wartime medicine. Also present are some newsletters, a diary kept by Dr. Holland during the war, and reports, articles, and other correspondence, 1949-1950, discussing archaeology.

Other correspondence, 1949-1950, includes discussions relating to Native American and American Indian land and history, specifically, archaeological activities at sites on lands of the Monacan, Powhatan, Patawomeck, and Saponi nations in the Virginia region. The correspondents discuss activities that have occurred on, or are occurring (at the time of the writing) on sites, such as Flowerdew Hundred, a Folsom site in Dinwiddie County, VA, the saltpetre diggings in Clarks Cave near Millboro Springs, and sites near the Buggs Island dam, as well as the Patowomeke, Coes Roanoke Island, Gala, and Falling Creek sites. There is mention of the recovery of skeletal remains, although the identity and possible origin of the remains is unclear. Relating to these discussions is the significant issue of understanding which site correlates to which group of burial mounds in the area, a question that is not easily reconciled. The correspondence also discusses several Native American languages and tribal vocabularies, including Siouan and Algonqin.

The The Native American Graves Protections and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990 is another important topic included, as well as the publication of the quarterly bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Virginia.

Miscellaneous items include a Tagalog translation by Eduardo Makabenta, of Poe's "The raven" and Japanese occupation money from the Philippines (Mickey Mouse pesos.)

Correspondents include Clifford Evans, Betty Jane Meggers, Henry B. Mulholland, Julian M. Robinson, the Smithsonian Institution, John Reed Swanton, Charles Frederick Vogelin, and David C. Wilson.

This correspondence mentions: a possible Dinwiddie County Folsom site (1949 Jul 5-Aug 10, Sep 19, Oct 11); the printing of the quarterly bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Virginia (1949 Aug 9, Sep 23, Nov 15 & 17; 1950 Jan 20, etc.); saltpeter diggings in Clark's Cave, near Millboro Springs (1949 Aug 10); Buggs Island project (1949 Sep 20; 1950 Mar 30; Apr 7); Madison County rock shelter (1950 Jan 18); Whitehall Shelter report (1950 Feb 3); organization meeting of the Danville Society of Natural History (1950 Feb 4; Mar 30); "The Utilization of Natural Fracture Planes by the Indian Stone Worker" (with 1949 Sep 15); Indian vocabularies (1950 Mar 13, Sep 11); stone artifacts in the District of Columbia (1950 May 21); discoveries of John Lederer (1950 Aug 26); and the Rappahannock Indians (1950 Sep 1).