Correspondence

Papers of Thomas Lindsey Blayney, a founding member of the faculty of Rice Institute (now University) and Professor of German there from 1912- 1924; materials include records of his military service during World War I (1917-1919), and later appointments as president of Texas State Women’s College (1924-26) and dean of Carleton College (1926-46); also included are family memoirs, correspondence, photographs, news clippings, and memorabilia.

This collection is bound into an 8”x11” spiral binder, and contains typed transcripts of letters and recollections of various members of the Thomson family, describing family business, moves to Texas, general health of Texas colonists, the Mier Expedition, the Texan war for independence. Some accounts are first hand descriptions of participation, such as James Monroe Hill’s account of the Battle of San Jacinto.

Photographs, correspondence, genealogical charts and notes, newsclippings and printed materials related to the Townsend and Burford families of Texas dating back to pre-Republic of Texas era. The town now known as Round Top, TX, on Cummins Creek, was previously known as Townsend, TX. Many of the Townsend family members participated in the Battle of San Jacinto. Both the Townsends and the Burfords have been very active in civic life.

Planning materials, board games, a scrapbook, press releases and other publicity materials document the activities undertaken by Estelle Panzer, Janis Odensky, and Judy Jordan between 1984 and 1989 to create the Tradition Jewish trivia board game. The collection also includes an oral history with Estelle Panzer and Janis Odensky conducted in 2019.

Physics course evaluations, grant funded research applications, experiment notes, related to the T.W. Bonner Lab at Rice University.

The records of the Twenty-Six Literary Club document the activities of this women’s social and philanthropic club established in 1909 by a group of Houston women residing in the Woodland Heights neighborhood. Some members’ daughters became students at the Rice Institute (later University) after it opened in 1912 and continued the Club, expanding its membership over the years and engaging in various community projects, including providing scholarships for young women entering Rice.

This collection is made up of eight boxes containing books, bulletins, correspondence, event materials, financial records, flyers, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, photographs, plaques, programs, scrapbooks, videos, and yearbooks from United Orthodox Synagogues spanning from 1935 to 2023.

While the letters are on a number of different topics, many deal with the Sterling Debenture Corporation and stock offerings in the American Telegraphone Corporation. The corporation was founded in 1903 to manufacture the Telegraphone, a magnetic sound recording device invented by Danish engineer Valdemar Poulson. Although several hundred machines were bought by curious scientists, the product was not a commercial success.

This collection consists of twenty-one letters from various U.S. Civil War military departments to other U.S. military departments, regarding various aspects relating to national cemeteries. These aspects include: the location, construction and inspection of national cemeteries, requests for materials and proposed costs, and reports of appointments and comments of national cemetery superintendents.

Letter written February 12, 1865, by General Horatio Wright (major general of volunteers in the Union Army), probably while at the siege of Richmond, Virginia, and addressed to “My dear Col[onel?]” (addressee's name is Col. Edward H. Wright, Newark, N.J., appearing below General Wright's signature), in which he tells of family news while on a recent leave, mentions troop activity following an unspecified ‘late movement’ of troops in the Army of the Potomac.