The materials from Washington and Lee University Special Collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and
private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including
but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used should be
fully credited with the source. Permission for publication of this material, in part or in full, must be secured with the
Head of Special Collections.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection came to us from the Trustees of the Mary Lee Bowman Estate in February 2024. Her collection of family papers
and art was distributed among several institutions in Virginia.
Mary Lee Bowman was the daughter of George Bolling Lee and Helen Keeney Lee and the great-granddaughter of Robert E. Lee.
She married A. Smith Bowman in 1960. She died in December 2022.
This collection primarily focuses on the W. H. F. "Rooney" Lee family. Rooney was the son of Robert E. Lee. Included are photographs,
correspondence among family members, invoices and receipts, and a couple of recipes. The primary recipient of the correspondence
was Rooney's wife, Mary Tabb Bolling Lee. Correspondents include G. W. C. Lee and Robert E. Lee, III. The photograph subjects
include George Bolling Lee, Robert E. Lee, Robert E. Lee, III, W. H. F. Lee, and the President's House at Washington and Lee
University. There is also a photograph of the Lee Recumbent statue.
Primary correspondence subjects include White House (Lee farm), Robert E. Lee, III's health, and other family matters. Of
particular note is a letter written by Mary Custis Lee in 1922 while on board a ship after spending the day in Athens, Greece.
This letter relates to the Mary Custis Lee travel scrapbooks housed in Special Collections (WLU-Coll-0576). Also of note is
a letter written by John D. Letcher in 1922 to Mary Tabb Bolling Lee which goes into great detail about how the remains of
her young children were reinterred in the Lee family crypt/mausoleum. There is also a typed 1923 letter to Washington and
Lee from Giles Buckner Cooke, "sole survivor of the staff of General Robert E. Lee," asking that the Chapel be left intact
and a separate auditorium be built elsewhere, if needed.
