ABOUT THE COLLECTION
The Lytle Family Papers are composed of materials that chronicle Virginius Cornick Hall Jr.’s interests in Ohio and Virginia local history, and his and his wife’s family histories, plus it includes Hall’s own personal effects, correspondence, and research notes for his various published works and projects.
Materials in this collection that are specific to Hall’s personal life include: photographs of Hall and his family, transcripts of the talks he gave at various venues, essays he composed as a student or for national journals, memorabilia from his tenures at the Groton School, Princeton University and the University of Michigan, and an assortment of other ephemera. Hall also took an interest in the history of Murray Bay and Quebec, due to having cousins who resided there, and his wife’s interest in the French language and culture. His research notes and mementos from his travels there are included in the collection.
This collection also contains Hall’s notes for his “Fruits and Nuts” project, in which he created mini biographies about people he came across whom he found eccentric or odd in some way. These records provide insight into the social norms and customs of the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries that Hall was subject to.
The Lytle Family Papers collection also contains the combined research efforts of Hall, his mother, Josephine Lytle Livingood, and his grandfather, Charles J. Livingood, into their family history over several centuries. The extensive familial research in this collection covers the histories of the Lytle (namesake of Lytle Park in Cincinnati), Livingood, Foster, Ragsdale, McGuire, Jackson, Moodey, Cornick, and Hall families. Also included in the collection are several manuscript drafts of the published biography that Hall wrote about his ancestor, Captain William Lytle.
Other materials in this collection relate to Hall’s research into Cincinnati and Virginia architecture for both the Cincinnati Views and Virginia Views projects. In these projects, he drew connections between city prints and images and historical events in order to give them greater context and meaning. Hall believed that these places are beautiful and their beauty is enhanced when their scenery is connected to local history.
FINDING AID
