Series 4. Sketchbooks, 1838–1887

This series contains ten sketchbooks depicting the people and places Strother encountered as a correspondent for Harper's Magazine, hotel operator, traveling artist, and consul to Mexico.  Subjects of drawings include log cabins, barns, mills, wagons and coaches, railroad stations, trees, animals, and natural landscapes and features (Warm Springs Ridge, the Potomac River, the Alabama River, and the White Mountains). People rendered in sketches include fishermen, steamship passengers, railroad workers, newsboys, preachers, miners, and various prominent individuals, including Ambrose Burnside, Sitting Bull, John Brown, Shields Green, John Copeland, Aaron Dwight Stevens, and Edwin Coppock.  Places depicted include Berkeley Springs, West Virginia; Harper's Ferry, West Virginia; Martinsburg, West Virginia; Charleston, West Virginia; Arlington, Virginia; Mexico; Jefferson County, West Virginia; Kanawha County, West Virginia; Morgan County, West Virginia; Hampshire County, West Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Clarke County, Virginia; Yancey County, North Carolina; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Nantucket, Massachusetts.

A highlight of this series is found in Box 15, Folder 3, which includes sketches relating to John Brown's imprisonment, trial, and execution.