Guide to the Nan Netherton Reston history collection, 1962-1989

Nan Netherton Reston history C0147

Biographical Information

Nan Netherton was an author and historian who wrote books about the origins, growth and customs of communities in Northern Virginia. The books include pictorial and narrative histories of a dozen Virginia counties. Some of the books that she wrote are "Fairfax County Virginia: A History" (1978), "Clifton: Brigadoon in Virginia" (1980), and "Books and Beyond: Fairfax County Public Library's First Fifty Years" (1990). She died on June 9, 2003 in Arlington, Virginia.

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Scope and Content

The Nan Netherton Northern Virginia history collection contains Netherton's research and notes from her book "Reston: A New Town in the Old Dominion: A Pictorial History" (1989), as well as "Arlington County in Virginia : A Pictorial History" (1987) and "Fairfax County in Virginia : A Pictorial History," coauthored with Ross Netherton. Within the collection there are outlines for chapters, the copies of all the illustrations for the book, and the sources that Nan Netherton used during the writing process. The collection also contains oral histories, reports, brochures, photographs, executive budgets, and newsletters on historic sites in Northern Virginia.

Materials include brochures on the Woodlawn Plantation and Calvin Run Mill; comprehensive reports on plans for the Fairfax County Park Authority; audio tapes and transcripts of interviews with curators and historical preservationists, including an interview with former Gunston Hall curator Benny Brown and another with former Reston land developer Robert E. Simon, Jr.; newsclippings and an essay on Gunston Hall and a pamphlet calling for public opposition to the cutting of funding for Gunston Hall and the privatization of the Virginia Museum of Natural History; and eight boxes of images used in Netherton's pictorial histories of Fairfax and Arlington.

Series one is comprised of Nan Netherton's writings. The documents in this series are the outlines for her book in chapter format. There are ten chapters in order in the series. The books begins with the founding of Fairfax and ends with Reston, following the take over by the Gulf Oil Corporation in the late 1960s.

Series two contains the illustrations from Nan Netherton's book. Like the chapters, the illustrations are in order with pages numbers on the folders that correspond with the page numbers they would be placed in the book. Some of the illustrations are copies of documents from the 18th and 19th centuries. There are also slides and photographs from the 1960s and 1980s.

Series three is a general series of the sources that Nan Netherton used in her research. The series is organized in alphabetical order. The sources in this series are the more contemporary sources that deal primarily with Reston from the 1960s to the 1980s. Some of the sources include directories and maps from the Reston area.

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Arrangement

Organized into three series.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

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Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center also holds the Planned Community Archives and other personal papers and organizational records that document Reston, Virginia, and other planned communities.

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Index Terms

Persons:

Geographical Names:

Subjects:

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Nan Netherton Northern Virginia history collection, Collection #C0147, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Nan Netherton on November 16, 1989 and by Nan and Ross Netherton in 2001, 2002, and 2007.

Processing Information

Processed in January 2009 by Emily Martin. The Nan Netherton Reston history collection was originally attached to the larger Planned Community Archives collection currently in the Special Collections Research Center. In 2009 the documents were removed and organized into a separate collection still housed in the Special Collections Research Center at George Mason University Libraries. The old box and folder numbers are also included as part of the new arrangement. Later, fourteen more boxes of materials donated by Nan and Ross Netherton on other areas of Northern Virginia were added to the six boxes containing research materials and transcripts on Reston. Thus the finding aid does not yet list the folders in boxes 7-20, but a new finding aid will be forthcoming.

Processed in January 2009 by Emily Martin.

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Contents List