Jefferson Davis Association records

The Jefferson Davis Association was a non-profit corporation chartered in 1963, to collect, compile, edit, and publish a complete comprehensive edition of the papers and correspondence of Jefferson Davis. Rice University sponsored the association since the corporation's founding. The university supplied housing, research materials, and graduate student interns from the history department. The association's primary resources, however, were grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The association also received support from many other organizations and persons, including the Davis family.

The association was initially chartered by Frank E. Vandiver, Palmer Bradley, and Cooper K. Ragan. As a professor with Rice University at the time, Dr. Vandiver secured sponsorship and saw the first volume published in 1971 along with colleagues Lynda Crist and Mary Dix. Lynda Lasswell Crist was editor since the fourth volume. Mary Seaton Dix volunteered as coeditor emerita since retiring after twenty-six years with the project. The Papers of Jefferson Davis were published by the Louisiana State University Press in fourtenn chronological volumes and three revised volumes, 1971-2015.