Special Collections

First page of Colonel Neilson's diary to illustrate that this diary was "carried" by him from May 12-November 13, 1968 during the Vietnam War.
Posted on May 8, 2024

Rest in Peace, Colonial Clifford C. Neilson. We are honored to have your combat diary in our collections.

Jan 2022

  • January 20, 2022
    I was late, to begin with. I hadn’t written about my time at the Swem Library’s Special Collections Research Center, within The Chapin-Horowitz Dog Book Collection. I kept promising myself—and others—that I would do it. The work was imminent. Forthcoming, shortly. About to arrive.

Dec 2021

  • Stereoview of Santa
    December 17, 2021
    The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was first published in 1823 and attributed to Clement Clarke Moore as author in 1837.

Nov 2021

  • Covers of zines created by William & Mary students
    November 12, 2021
    Belonging is an ongoing goal for our archives, and our aim is to have collections that support and reflect the research and interests of students, faculty, staff, and the world.

Oct 2021

  • ca. 1872 stereoview of DoG street
    October 20, 2021
    I am old enough that several of the places that I have lived over the years have been torn down, including the house on South Boundary Street that I lived in for two years as a W&M student. To all those who wander up and down DoG Street: think about the street's very different appearance before Colonial Williamsburg and many buildings were removed during its development. The stereoview below shows a very familiar building (the powder magazine), which had a very different setting prior to CW.
  • TikTok
    October 8, 2021
    April 13th, 2021 marks the entry of the first TikTok into William & Mary’s Special Collections web archives.

Jun 2021

  • June 30, 2021
    Recently, I began a process to show my appreciation to William & Mary, in a modest way, for my education and to give something back to the College as I approached the 50th anniversary of my graduation in 1970.

May 2021

Apr 2021

  • Admission sign at Stockade Theatre
    April 28, 2021
    Over the winter and spring of early 1941, a towering landmark rose on the rural landscape less than two miles from downtown Williamsburg. The structure housed the screen for the Stockade Theatre Auto-Torium at Casey’s Corner, where Richmond and Ironbound Roads intersect.

Mar 2021

  • Recipes and household tips taken from newspapers and pasted into the back of The Virginia House-wife.
    March 29, 2021
    My favorite kinds of materials in archives are the ones we might describe colloquially as “well-loved,” where you can tell that someone—or perhaps more than one someone—spent hours writing, reading, and thinking about a topic.
  • First page of Lady Jean Skipwith's ledger
    March 25, 2021
    Sometime between 1795 and 1826, Lady Jean Skipwith made an account of the flora on her property. [i] A pocket-sized notebook, now in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), contains her handwritten list of plants.