Wood Glass Wednesdays

This hoard of papers, along with personal photographs, made its way into the MSV in 1996 as part of Julian Wood Glass Jr.’s estate. Since that time the materials have been sitting in collections storage with their contents largely unknown and inaccessible to researchers and staff members.

By Registrar/Collections Manager Lauren Fleming

Winchester founder Colonel James Wood and his descendants documented their everyday lives with receipts, letters, diaries, and recollections since 1735. This hoard of papers, along with personal photographs, made its way into the MSV in 1996 as part of Julian Wood Glass Jr.’s estate. Since that time the materials have been sitting in collections storage with their contents largely unknown and inaccessible to researchers and staff members.

That is changing this year! In 2017 the MSV received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences to digitize the Wood-Glass Family Papers. In October 2020 we will unveil the digitized Wood-Glass Family Papers in an online database accessible through our website. As we lead up to this exciting release, we will be sharing highlights from the collection across our social media platforms using the hashtag: #WoodGlassWednesdays.

The majority of the Wood-Glass Family Papers reflect ordinary family matters, including invoices and receipts for all sort of mundane items that are admittedly dull in terms of “viral” content. It is material only a historian could love. However, there are also many hidden gems including:

• The importance of bacon to Revolutionary War soldiers in Virginia.
• Romance games played by teenage girls during the Victorian Era.
• The time that Thomas Jefferson broke James Wood Jr.’s sword.
• Feminism in the 1800s.
• Vintage pictures of dogs and babies.

If anything on this list piqued your interest or made you scratch your head in confusion, be sure to catch our #WoodGlassWednesday posts every Wednesday!