A GUIDE TO THE

William G. Rennolds, Papers, 1906-1947

The Library of Virginia
800 E. Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia
www.lva.virginia.gov/

Processed by: Renee Savits
Date completed: June 13, 2001

Personal Papers Collection, Acc# 26832
Extent: 7 cubic feet; 15 boxes and 1 oversized folder; box numbers 1- 15

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance: 
Gift of William G. Rennolds, Jr., 7106 Wheeler Road, Richmond, Virginia, 8 September 1967.

Restrictions:
None

Preferred citation:
William G. Rennolds Papers, 1906-1947. Accession 26832. Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA 23219.

Separations:
None

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

William G. Rennolds was born in 1879 in Essex County, Virginia, to Albert and H.C. Trible Rennolds. He married Lily C. Phillips (b. 1879), daughter of J. W. and Mary Jeffries Phillips, on 1 October 1910 in Essex County. Rennolds was appointed division superintendent of the schools in Essex and Richmond Counties, Virginia in 1909. King and Queen County replaced Richmond County in the division in 1912. Rennolds served as superintendent for the schools of these two counties until 1949 when he retired.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

Papers, 1906-1947, of William Gregory Rennolds of Essex County, Virginia, documenting his forty-year career as school superintendent for Essex and King and Queen Counties, Virginia. The papers consist predominantly of correspondence with receipts, petitions, contracts, reports, and memoranda included. The papers are arranged strictly chronologically. Undated correspondence was placed in the general date range in which it was originally filed.

This collection includes both incoming and outgoing letters from Rennolds and reflect a variety of school related issues, including teachers, educational programs, agricultural programs, school buildings, school attendance and accreditation, health and safety issues for children, and school segregation. Included are letters from teachers inquiring about positions and renewal of teaching certificates, petitions from local communities in regards to hiring or firing of teachers, issues of school truancy, and the closing or opening of new school buildings. Correspondence from the Virginia State Board of Education relates to teacher examinations, required textbook readings, publications on Virginia school laws, workers compensation, employee pensions, establishment of physical education programs and school libraries, lists of Virginia General Assembly legislation affecting teachers, and travel expense vouchers.

The collection also contains financial information, including school budgets, teachers, bus drivers, and nurses salaries, costs for school repairs and school building supplies, price lists for textbooks, cost of school buses, sales of war bonds and stamps, and the amount of funds Essex and King and Queen Counties received each year from the state.

Of note within the collection are letters relating to social issues of the day, such as the policy of not hiring married teachers and firing female teachers if they became pregnant. The collection is also a good source on school segregation in the South during the early 20th century. Included are reports and statistics on salaries for African American teachers, statistics on African American schools, and letters from the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics in regards to the classification of Native American and African American students. The collection also contains applications for the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the Jeanes Fund, national grants used to fund African-American teachers and rural schools.

Also of note are letters dating from World War II, 1939-1945. Included are ration coupons, requests for gas from the War Production board, publications including "The Rural Child in the War Emergency," applications for National Youth Administration programs, and information on school lunch and home economics programs. Included are applications for OSYA (Out-of-School Rural Youth and Adults) programs implemented in the departments of Vocational Agriculture as part of the National Defense Program. The program consisted of classes on the repair and operation of farm equipment and the production, conservation, and processing of food for farm families. The OSYA applications include the date, time and purpose of the course, along with the salary, receipts, equipment needed, and names of those enrolled in the classes. After the war the collection includes information on the purchase of war surplus materials and employment of displaced war workers.

Personal correspondence includes information on Rennolds membership with the Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of Virginia. Includes correspondence and the Masonic directory of 1927, Richmond, Virginia. Also included are unfinished histories on the public schools in Virginia and Essex County, Virginia.

CONTAINER LIST

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