Via Family
name: label: Collection Collector
content: Robinson, Franklin A., Jr., 1959- (actor)
label: Collection Creator
content: Quinn, Terry (photographer)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Robinson and Via Family Papers
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1928-2010, undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0475, Series 5
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Via family papers deal with the Robert M. Via family. The Via papers are a particularly appropriate complement to the Robinson papers because they deal with a farming operation of a smaller size, approximately thirty acres to 115 acres.  In contrast to the Robinson operation that utilized many forms of outside labor, the Via farm was operated by one man, Robert, with family and occasional hired help.  An additional contrast is that, in the Via family both spouses worked off the farm full-time, until Robert began full-time farming in the mid-1950s.  The Via family did not have the familial history in the region and operated from a much different social perspective than the Robinson family. The Via family moved more frequently, the preponderance of material is 20th century.

The Via family papers are especially strong in regard to farming and social history in the latter half of the 20th century.  The papers of Robert M. Via are strong in material concerning his employment in public transportation in Washington, D.C., from 1928 to 1956.  The papers of Adina Via Robinson are particularly complete in documenting the life of a woman coming of age in the mid-1950s.  Her papers and correspondence with her future husband, Franklin A. Robinson, cover personal matters, as well as life on the farm, the surrounding community, and her senior high school life.  Especially rich is the correspondence exchanged during the period of Franklin's service in the United States Army, 1955-1956, at Camp Gordon, Georgia and Camp Handford, Washington State.  There are transcription discs of recordings done by Robert D. Via as country-western singer, "Bashful Bob."