Archives and Special Collections
Welcome to the Averett University Archives & Special Collections
The Averett University Archives, housed in the Mary B. Blount Library, serves the teaching and research needs of the institution and its constituents by preserving and administering institutional records, university publications, faculty papers, historic treasures of the university, and materials by and about former students and faculty, as well as material on the history of Danville, VA and the surrounding area.
The University Archives is divided into four major areas of concentration:
- Averett Collection: Institutional records and local history materials
- Baptist Collection: gifts from local ministers and / or religious organizations
- Personal Papers: manuscript collections from local politicians or individuals of prominence
- Genealogical Research Materials: numerous printed volumes for use in researching regional genealogical history
Treasures from the Archives:
Literary Society Trophy, indicating the winners from 1937-54 of the yearly competition between the Mnemosynean and Philomathian societies. To the right is a photo from the 1957 Pendulum yearbook showing the Nemos in possession of the trophy.
A collection of yearbooks for the Averett College "Faculty Club," ranging from 1936 to 1967. This club would hold social and scholarly get-togethers for faculty roughly once per month during the academic year.
A gathering of students in a dorm room in 1913.
(Donated by Catherine B. Fetzer.)
The Averett College Handbook for students for the academic year 1928-1929.
A wooden tennis racket used by Roanoke College student Noland (Hubbard) Bowling in 1904-1905.
(Donated by Noland Hubbard Bowling)
Galley proofs, on the right, for the novel A Nickel's Worth of Ice (1966), by Sam Patterson (class of 1948).
(Donated by Sam Patterson.)
The class of 1902, with college President C. F. James, when the school was known as Roanoke Female College.
A class ring from 1917, engraved B.I.D. on the interior for its owner Belva Inez Dudley.
(Donated by Harvey H. Bradley.)
The 1883 edition of J.W. Shoemaker's "Practical Elocution," used by Rosalia Fleetwood Powell at Roanoke Female College in 1884.
(Donated by Powell's daughter, Helen Powell Neal.)
A snapshot of a bed in a student dorm room in 1946.
(Donated by Lisa Baumann DeVaughn.)
A collection of children's books from the Tippeny-Tuppeny series from the early 1930s.
(Donated by Barry Jones)
President C.F. James' handwritten Commencement address from June 4, 1900.
Dining room china from the 1910s, when the school was known as Roanoke Institute.
Students playing video game cabinets in the Bottom Inn at Averett College in the early 1980s, during the waning days of the arcade boom.