The collection consists of correspondence, newspapers, miscellaneous items, research notes, and other materials collected by Richard A. Rutyna, professor emeritus in history at Old Dominion University. Some of the topics found in the collection include local, state, and federal politics, Freemasonry, the founding and operation of the Airlie Group, as well as research on enslavement in Colonial Virginia, early Virginia and US legal history, and church-state separation.