Varina Howell Davis: manuscripts, typescripts, and fragments

File — drawer: 66

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Sub-Series: [Individual folders to be listed soon.]

Many family members in the genealogical charts (Vols. 1 and 4 appendixes and online) do not have biographical sketches in the edition.

Divided into separate folders for Jefferson's parents and siblings in birth order (Matilda #8 died young). The folders are a hodge-podge of information, compiled over fifty years and derived from printed sources and primary documents; there are also primary documents in the files, such as gravestone photographs. Vertical files and the 3x5 slips (information and document control slips) also should be consulted about individuals.

Some family members--Joseph E. Davis, for example--have vertical files in addition to information in the genealogy folders. Joseph E. Davis' probate file is filed with genealogy since it involves so many relatives.

There are many repeated and similar names in the family: Mary Ellen, Ellen Mary, Lucinda Jane, Jane Lucinda, Hugh Robert, Robert Hugh, for example, as well as several namesakes of Joseph Emory and Jefferson Davis.

There are allied materials such as folders for the Howell family, on Davis' first and second marriages, Varina Howell Davis, Varina Anne Davis, [great-niece] Lise Mitchell's journal (Tulane), published and unpublished Davis family histories, and other collections of family papers, including contemporary letters.

Dates

1815-2015, bulk 1850-1880
Majority of material found within 1850 - 1880

Conditions Governing Access

This material is open for research.

Boxes 1-40 stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

All file drawers and card catalog stored onsite.