Here is some exciting news for researchers from our friends at the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives:
Beginning June 20, 2018 the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives in the Handley Library will provide online access to some of its manuscript collections. Researchers will be able to search and view handwritten correspondence, business records, deeds, and other historic documents through the library’s website.
The first items placed online will be selections from the James Wood Collection and a number of account books from local businesses. The James Wood Collection contains the business and personal papers, legal and financial documents of Colonel James Wood, Sr. and other members of the Wood family from the 1730s to the late 1800s.
Later in the year the Archives plans to add Fairfax deeds, the account book of Dr. Robert McKay, a physician working in Winchester at the turn of the eighteenth century, and genealogical material from family Bible records.
The Archives digitization project is made possible by funding from the Robinson Fund, as well as support from the Handley Regional Library and the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society. These funds allowed the archives to pay for a part-time staff member to run the project, the purchase of a computer and CONTENTdm software to organize and display items online, and funds to pay for digitization of further materials in the Archives.
The Stewart Bell Jr. Archives hopes that the digitization project will provide historians, researchers, genealogists, and members of the community greater access to the rich history of Winchester, Frederick County and the Lower Shenandoah Valley region. Updates on the progress of this project will be posted to the Library’s Facebook page. Please email archives@handleyregional.org with questions.
You can find the portal to the digital collections online here. Happy researching!