Preston Family Resources: Home

New Theatre (the Lyric) and Store Building for the Blacksburg Realty Company

Hours: 
Monday-Friday 8am-5pm & By Appointment

Contact us:
Email: specref@vt.edu
Telephone: 540-231-6308
Twitter: @VT_SCUA
Information for Visitors

Find us online!
Our website
Our digital collections
Our blog
Our LibGuide (Information about us and our collections)

Welcome to the Special Collections and University Archives guide to Preston Family Resources! This guide feature tools and information to help you locate unpublished and published resources about the Prestons and many related families. We have original documents from the 18th and 19th centuries, books and journals, research files, genealogies, maps, photographs, and more! Some collections also document the history of Smithfield, Solitude, and other land around Blacksburg and SWVA. The "Manuscript Collections" tab highlights original documents. The "Research Collections" tab features manuscript collections containing information about the Prestons. The "Other Resources" tab will give you an introduction to vertical files, photographs, and maps, as well as help you locate books and other published holdings. "Researching Beyond Virginia Tech" includes a list of some online tools you can use to search for the Preston family at other institutions.

We'll be adding to this guide as new resources arrive, but we also encourage you to contact us with questions as your research or interests develop.

Not all our collections have been digitized, but scanning collections is one of our on-going projects. Some Preston family materials are available online. Throughout this guide, there are links to finding aids for collections. If there is digitial content for a collection, the finding aid will include links to the scanned images. You can also request scans of materials by contacting Special Collections and/or sending us the appropriate form for your needs:

• Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction 
• Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication
• Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.

Below are two sample items: A letter from William Preston at Smithfield to James McDowell, written December 5, 1801 and Robert Taylor Preston's pardon, signed by Andrew Jackson in September 1965.