Jane Chapman legal papers (will, deed), 1924-1951

This collection and addition consists of about 4.25 shelf feet (ca. 1500 pieces) and includes the legal, financial, genealogical, and personal papers of Jane Chapman Slaughter, a genealogical authority and one of the first women to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

These papers cover the years 1809-1951 and consist of the correspondence of both Miss Slaughter and her family, her M.A. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation, genealogical records, photographs, notebooks, drawings, newspaper clippings, and diplomas.

Jane Chapman Slaughter was born in Virginia in 1860. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1910. After teaching school for a number of years she returned to William and Mary where she obtained an M.A. degree in 1923. In 1935 she earned a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of Virginia at the age of 75. Her dissertation topic was "Louis Hue Girardin, Educator, Historian, and Man- Of-Letters."

While this collection is largely of a personal nature, it is useful for both the family historian and genealogist interested in studying a prominent Virginia family. It is important to collect the documents related to women in higher education from the twentieth century and earlier.

In addition, there are transcripts of 38 letters from Thomas Jefferson to Louis Hue Girardin covering the years 1809-1823, which Miss Slaughter used in writing her dissertation.

Included is a new addition to this collection (MSS 3700), Jane Slaughter's account ledger (February 1896- May 1915). The ledger covers her time living in New York and her eventual relocation to Alexandria, Virginia. The book records her receipts, expenses, and income with detailed information on the type of expense, date, and amount. Tipped in the ledger are receipts, clippings, calendar pages, letters, and a handwritten will for "Aunt Nannie from Ohio."

The Jane Chapman Slaughter papers (8.5 document boxes, 4.25 cubic feet) contain family correspondence, academic and miscellaneous works of Jane Slaughter, school notebooks, genealogical material, newspaper clippings, photographs, legal and financial papers, family crests, miscellaneous papers and diplomas earned by the Slaughter family.