Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Polly Ashelman Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Polly Ashelman Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family, Ms 2019-017, Special Collections, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was donated in April 2019.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Polly Ashelman Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family was completed in May 2019.

Biographical Note

John McLauren McBryde (1841-1923) was the fifth president of Virginia Tech from 1891 thru 1907. He attended South Carolina College (later University of South Carolina) before the Unviersity of Virginia. In 1861, during the Civil War, he left the unviersity and joined the Confederate volunteer company. McBrdye later became a professor of Agriculture at the Unviersity of Tennesse, was the president of South Carolina College, and eventually became the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (later Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) president in 1891. He retired in Blacksburg in 1907.

John McLaren McBryde married Cora Bolton on November 18, 1863, and they had eight children: Janet McLaren; James Bolton; Anna Marie; John McLaren, Jr.; Charles Neil; Susan McLaren; Meade Bolton; and Waid. John Bolton McBryde is the grandfather of Polly Ashelman.

Scope and Content

The Polly Ashelman Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family contains five personal items given to McBryde and his wife Cora, arranged chronologically. The first item is the McMaster Medal, presented to McBryde for Distinguished Service to Mankind awarded by his alma mater, the University of South Carolina, in 1911. Three items from the University of Virginia relate to the 1912 Confederate Veteran Alumni Reunion, including a letter from W. M. Thornton, a medal presented to the veteran alumni, and list of veteran alumni. The final item, a handwritten book of congratulations for John and Cora McBryde's 50th anniversary in 1913, is hand embossed and signed by the faculty who served under McBryde during his presidency at VPI. A printed "at home" card for Mr. and Mrs. McBryde is inserted in the book.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged chronologically.

Related Material

Records of the Office of the President, John McLaren McBryde, RG 2/5

Larry McBryde Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family, Ms2013-024

Janet Barnhill Collection on Cora Bolton McBryde, Ms2016-019

McBryde House Specification Records, Ms1999-010

Index Terms

Subjects:

• University Archives
• University History
• Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute

Persons:

• McBryde, John McLaren, 1841-1923

Adjunct Descriptive Data