Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

Physical characteristics and conditions affect use of this material. Photocopying not permitted.

Preferred Citation

Springwood Select Home School for Young Ladies, 1866 (SC 0019), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Acquisition Information

Loudoun County Historical Society, Loudoun County, VA

Alternative Form Available

None

Accruals

1988.0008, 2011.0125X

Processing Information

Processed by Austin A. Backus, 6 June 2007. Updated by Stephanie Adams Hunter 28 March 2011.

Historical Information

The Springwood Select Home School for Young Ladies was begun shortly after the Civil War in the home of Capt. George Washington Ball (1828-1889) and his wife Mary Beverley Randolph Ball (1826-1888). Springwood, near Leesburg in Loudoun County Virginia, was the estate of the locally established Ball family. The Ball Cemetery, where G.W. Ball and his wife are buried, still sits on the property.

Springwood and the Ball family have various connections to the Civil War. George Washington Ball obtained the rank of Captain in the Confederate army in October 1861, and was put on the staff of General Richard Griffith (1814-1862). Springwood is also near the location of the Battle of Ball's Bluff fought in the fall of 1861. Orphaned children of Confederate families were taken in for free at the home school. It is unclear how long the school operated or when it closed.

Scope and Content

This collection contains a four page brochure advertising the Springwood Select Home School for Young Ladies for the 1866-67 school year, and a transcription of the brochure. Its content is broken up into several sections including an outline of the rules and regulations, directions to the house, tuition and boarding rates, current faculty, and references on behalf of the Ball family. There are also three different sections of additional notes, hand-written in the margins. In whose hand the notes are written is not known. A photograph of the Ball home at Springwood is attached onto the front page.

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Bibliography