During these years, he corresponded widely for the entire Academy, maintained committee reports, compiled the yearly programs, and saw that formal records were published annually in the Proceedings. The strength of the VAS Archives lies largely in the historic intuition of such officers, section heads, or committee chairs who maintained the files. Some files are much more complete than others. The early records of the Research Committee, for example, contain applications, papers submitted for consideration for the annual award, and records of the efforts of J. Shelton Horsley to raise an endowment to support these awards which were later named in his honor.
More recent files are limited to minutes and annual reports.
The Geology Section has perhaps the most complete set of records of section activities, especially during the leadership of William M. McGill. The Virginia Academy of Science Archives includes VAS publications dating from 1939-present. The Academy has also published periodicals throughout its history. The Publications Committee records show that the Dismal Swamp series was the culmination of the work of many Academy members who had originally hoped for a separate work to be published like the James River Basin study. Throughout the Academy's history these records have been stored in various places around the state.