Jefferson Davis letters and related materials collection
Scope and Contents
Original handwritten letters between U.S. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his government and military colleagues, and his wife, Varina. Colleagues include General William H. Emory, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Sidney W. Burbank, Secretary of War John B. Floyd, General Joseph E. Johnston, Col. Abraham Myers, General James Chesnut, and William H. Sanders. The bulk of the letters date from the 1850s and 1860s. Additional materials are letters to and from other persons, U.S. and Confederate imprints, newspapers and other related ephemera.
Dates
- Creation: 1838 - 1890
Creator
- Davis, Jefferson (Person)
Access Restrictions
This material is open for research. Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.
Use Restictions
Permission to publish material from the Jefferson Davis Letters must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library.
Biographical Note
Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate (1828), army officer on the western frontier (1828-35), Zachary Taylor's son-in-law and confidant, a Mississippi enslaver, presidential elector (1844), United States congressman and senator in the 1840s and 1850s, gubernatorial candidate (1851), Franklin Pierce's secretary of war and personal advisor (1853-1857), spokesman for the South in the Senate (1857-61), president of the Confederacy (1861-65), a federal prisoner indicted for treason (1865-67), Memphis businessman (1869-73), Confederate apologist, and a notable symbol of the Lost Cause.
Extent
0.75 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Original handwritten letters between U.S. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his government and military colleagues, and his wife, Varina. Colleagues include General William H. Emory, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Sidney W. Burbank, Secretary of War John B. Floyd, General Joseph E. Johnston, Col. Abraham Myers, General James Chesnut, and William H. Sanders. The bulk of the letters date from the 1850s and 1860s. Additional materials are letters to and from other persons, U.S. and Confederate imprints, newspapers and other related ephemera.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
A portion of these letters were purchased by the Fondren Library in 1975 and the remaining materials were donated by the Jefferson Davis Project when its editorial work ended in 2015. Most are published in the Papers of Jefferson Davis, a 14 volume set available at many libraries and from LSU Press.
Processing Information
This finding aid was reviewed for harmful, offensive, and aggrandizing language in August 2021. Published titles and names of organizations with this language are not edited. Legacy finding aids are available by request. If you have suggestions, please email woodson@rice.edu.
Subject
- Davis, Varina Howell (Person)
- Floyd, John B. (John Buchanan) (Person)
- Douglas, Stephen A. (Stephen Arnold) (Person)
- Myers, Abraham C. (Person)
- James Chesnut, 1815-1885 (Person)
- Johnston, Joseph E. (Joseph Eggleston) (Person)
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the Jefferson Davis letters and related materials collection, 1838-1990
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Lynda Crist
- Date
- 2016
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Woodson Research Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas Repository
Fondren Library MS-44, Rice University
6100 Main St.
Houston Texas 77005 USA
713-348-2586
woodson@rice.edu