Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from Garland D. Kite Correspondence must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Garland D. Kite Correspondence, Ms1987-038, Special Collections, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Garland D. Kite Correspondence collection was acquired by Special Collections in 1987.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Garland D. Kite Correspondence was completed in September 2013.

Biographical Information

Garland D. Kite was a native of Culpeper, VA, and a student at Virginia Tech in the 1930s. He was a Major in the United States Army and served in Europe during World War II.

Ralph Brown was the head librarian of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from 1926 to 1947. He was originally born in Fort Shaw, Montana, in 1878. He was an ambulance driver during World War I. He also worked as an editor for Rand McNally and Popular Mechanics before coming to work at Virginia Tech. The accomplishment he was best known for as head librarian at Virginia Tech was his compilation of the V.P.I Historical Index, 1872-1942. Among other things, he was a book collector and an amateur naturalist.

Scope and Content

This collection contains letters from Major Garland D. Kite to Ralph M. Brown. Kite wrote the letters while serving in Europe during World War II. The letters detail Kite's experiences during 1944 and 1945 when he was stationed in England, then France, Germany, and then France again. They follow Kite through the end of the war, and the final letters in the collection find him waiting with his unit to take a ship back to the U.S.

Index Terms

Persons:

• Brown, Ralph Minthorne

Subjects:

• Blacksburg (Va.)
• Montgomery County (Va.)
• University Archives
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• World War II