August 2005: Due to the fact that we are preparing the society's collection for the move to its permanent home in the R.R. Smith Center for History and Art, the Augusta County Historical Society's archives are closed except by special appointment and under extenuating circumstances. In the meantime, we will continue to post finding guides to the collection on this site as our archive volunteers complete them. Once the collection reopens, this should aid researchers in advance preparation before their arrival in Staunton to do research in the Smith Center's new reading room and library.
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The Augusta County Historical Society has been actively collecting paper documents, photographs, and books pertaining to the history of Augusta County, Staunton, and Waynesboro since the society’s inception in 1964. The collection now includes a great deal of social, architectural, and genealogical material. The scope of the collection spans the time period from the first European settlement in Augusta County until the present. Although there are some 18th century manuscripts, the bulk of the collection is 19th and early 20th century. Included in the collection are numerous letters, financial ledgers, diaries, and other paper ephemera from private individuals, businesses, and the many past and present educational institutions in the area like the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind and Augusta Military Academy.
Within the collection are several thousand manuscripts and other paper documents, including locally published newspapers and magazines. The archives also contains a particularly rich photographic collection. There are numerous architectural and landscape photographs of the area, including an extensive collection of mill photographs. Hundreds of portraits are included in the collection of Margo Kent, a studio photographer who worked in Staunton during much of the 20th century. This portrait collection will be a rich resource to historians and genealogists in the next century.
The archives also contains approximately 200 books and family histories pertaining to local history and genealogy. Many of the books are rare and out of print. The entire set of WPA papers completed on Augusta County is in the collection as well as the architectural survey work done by Ann McCleary through Virginia Landmarks in the 1980s.
The finding guides on this page represent a fraction of the materials found in the collection. The guides are the result of a generous grant from the Virginia Genealogical Society. As more guides are created, they will be posted on this site.
Our Archives
Click on a collection name to view the official finding guide for the specific Society's collection. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these pdf documents.
Collection Acc # Dates Size Arbor Hill Church of the Brethren 762 1916-1972 1 brochure Archibald Gerard Robertson 7 2 March 1874 1 folder (3 items) Augusta County Currency 2 25 May 1862 1 folder (4 items) Charles Catlett Collection 297 1923-1942 10 folders Eidson Family History 35 1765-1894 9 pages Fitzhugh Elder Photograph 25 1964 one photograph Glebe Burying Ground 32 1934 1 pamphlet Guy Fisher Collection Acc. # 150 1862-1932 [bulk 1873-1931] 0.45 cubic feet (1 legal Hollinger box) J.R. Hildebrand 282 c. 1950s 1 cubic ft. (2 legal Hollinger boxes) James H. Skinner 354 1861-1984 1 folder James M. Stout 331a 1835-1941 40 cubic feet Jefferson Kinney 237 1829-1868 2 inches (3 folders) King's Daughters' Hospital 312 1928-1957 3 inches McCutchen Family Descendants 16 Compiled 1965 for 1750-1964 one 48-page manuscript Percy C. Manley Estate 331b 1773-1875 3 folders Robert E. Lee High School Drama 313 1937-1946 5 inches (12 folders) S. Moore Provence 35 1864-1868 1 folder Swoope Family Collection Acc. # 108 1802-1874 2 folders Vanpelt Papers 5 1790, 1823 1 folder (3 items) Virginia Hodge Armentrout Cohron Collection Acc. # 127 1824-1954 [bulk 1824-1879] 7 folders (approximately .10 cubic feet) William Henry Harman letters 3 1862-1863 1 folder (3 items) William Kinney letters 9 1839, 1842 1 folder (2 items)