A superb resource of considerable size on the history of Rockbridge County is the Rockbridge Historical Society Collection. It has been on permanent deposit at Washington and Lee since 1978 and comprises over 280 linear feet of shelf space. The collection is particularly rich in nineteenth century county history. There are several journals and sets of letters from Civil War soldiers. Business records are another strength of the collection. There is a large photograph collection of people and places. Special Collections maintains several indexes to the collection. For more information see the Guide to the Manuscripts Collection of the Rockbridge Historical Society written by Betty Kondayan and kept on file in Special Collections. Rare Book Collection The Rare Book collection of Special Collections includes over 20,000 volumes. The collection is particularly strong in Virginia local histories with an emphasis on the western half of the state. There is a large collection of family histories and genealogical studies with a focus on the Rockbridge County area. There are numerous volumes on Robert E. Lee, George Washington, "Stonewall" Jackson and other prominent historical figures who have been connected with Washington and Lee University and the local area. There is a large collection of volumes from the library of the Franklin Society, a nineteenth century literary and debating society in Lexington. There is a collection of volumes surviving from the library of Liberty Hall Academy, an eighteenth century incarnation of Washington and Lee. There are many works collected for their historical, bibliographical or artistic value with the oldest volume in the collection dating to 1488. The Shenandoah Valley is a focus with works by Valley authors and from Valley presses included. The Rare Book collection is cataloged on "Annie," the Leyburn Library's online catalog. Faculty and Alumni Publications There are well over 2,000 items in Special Collections written by faculty (past and present) and alumni of Washington and Lee University. This material spans the range of printed literature from fiction to highly technical textbooks and in some cases includes journal articles. The items in our Faculty and Alumni Publications Collection are cataloged on "Annie," the Leyburn Library's online catalog. University Archives Special Collections contains a large collection of archival material from Washington and Lee University throughout its long history. There are Trustees' papers, W&L Presidents' papers, student matriculation books and registers, and faculty minutes dating to the eighteenth century. University publications such as the Alumni Magazine, Shenandoah, Ring-tum Phi, and Calyx are included in their entirety. Various other student publications and student honors theses and architectural history papers are part of the collection. Photograph Collections Special Collections houses a large number of photographs depicting the history of Washington and Lee University as well as that of Rockbridge County. There is a unified index to the photograph collections maintained in Special Collections. There is a fine collection of glass plate negatives taken by Rockbridge County photographer, Michael Miley (1841-1918). There is an index to this collection depicting Rockbridge County people and places of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For more information on Miley see Marshall Fishwick, General Lee's Photographer: The Life and Works of Michael Miley, in our Rare Book collection. There is also a collection of photographs of Rockbridge County homes and other buildings photographed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the late 1930s. There is an index to this collection maintained in Special Collections.