The Archives & Special Collections actively collects material related to the state of Mississippi, the University of Mississippi, and the Blues. Thus, most of the material below is primarily concerned with Mississippi. The collections are arranged by business type, followed by county records and miscellaneous material.
Banks:
Avent & Lyes Ledgers. 1866-1879. Oxford, Mississippi. Possibly a bank. 1 box.
Bank of Mississippi Ledgers. 1825-1834. The Bank of Mississippi was founded in 1876 in Verona, Mississippi. Originally named Raymond Trice and Company, the bank moved to Tupelo in 1886 and was renamed the Bank of Lee County, then the Bank of Tupelo, and the Bank of Mississippi in 1966. The Bank, through various mergers, eventually became Bankcorp South, Inc. 3 boxes.
Bank of Oxford Collection. 1880-1898. In addition to the ledgers of this Oxford, Mississippi bank, this collection includes a drug store account ledger from 1853. 6 boxes.
First National Bank of Oxford Ledgers. 1910-1963. Oxford, Mississippi bank. 1 box and 23 ledgers.
Natchez Bank Ledger. 1829-1830. Natchez, Mississippi bank. 1 box.
Southern Bank of Oxford Ledgers. 1876-1888. Oxford, Mississippi bank. 3 boxes.
Railroads:
Falkner Family Papers. 1887-1902. Contains material related to Colonel W.C. Falkner's various railroad interests, including the Kansas City, Memphis, and Birmingham Railroad Company; the Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Memphis Railroad Company, the Southern Express Company in New Albany, Mississippi. 3 boxes.
Sunflower & Eastern Railway Company Ledgers. 1905-1930. 1 box.
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company Ledgers. 1920-1925. 2 ledgers.
Stores/Merchants (see also Plantation/Agriculture):
Butcher's Ledger. 1902-1903. Columbus, Mississippi butcher. 1 box.
Chilton Collection. 1837-1882. Includes partnership agreements for a drug store business and other legal and financial papers of the Chilton family in Oxford, Mississippi. 1 box.
P.B. Furr Ledger. 1890s. Lafayette Springs, Mississippi store ledger. Location: Small Manuscripts 78-7.
Daniel Holland Ledger. The first portion dates from 1837 to 1845 appears to be for a store in Natchez, Mississippi. The latter section dates from 1865 and concerns a Madison County, Mississippi plantation store with freedmen's accounts. 1 box.
Holly Springs Ledger. 1837-1904. 1 box.
Kelley Family Collection. 1839-1987. Among the papers of this Port Gibson, Mississippi family are two financial ledgers from the general store of Robert Capers Kelley (Box 9) and a financial ledger of Joshua Kelley (Box 10). 15 boxes.
Owens & Archibald Ledger. 1872-1873. Oxford, Mississippi dry good store. 1 box.
Store Ledger. 1924-1925. Unidentified. 1 box.
Retail Ledger. 1881-1882. Unidentified Oxford, Mississippi store. 1 box.
Physicians/Pharmacies:
Steven Duncan Physician Ledger. 1804-1809. Natchez, Mississippi. 1 box.
Druggist/Mercantile Ledger. 1884-1885. George W. Boyett & Dr. T.G. Ivy's Drug & Dry Goods Store in Abbott, Mississippi. 1 box.
Metcalf Ledger. 1897. Pharmacist's or doctor's records in Coffeeville, Mississippi. 1 box.
Physician Ledger. 1885-1886. Unidentified. 1 box.
Dr. BB. Sayles Collection. 1908-1913. Coffeeville, Mississippi. 1 box.
Lumber:
Batson & Hatten Lumber Company Collection. 14 boxes plus ledgers. Patrons should provide notice at least two business days prior to prospective visits so that staff may transfer requested boxes from the Library Annex (an off-site facility) to the Special Collection Reading Room. Please contact Special Collections at (662) 915-7408 to specify requested material.
Andrew Brown and Son/R.F. Learned Lumber Company Collection. Contains business correspondence and financial records of the Andrew Brown and Son Lumber Company from 1831 to 1869, when it became the R.F. Learned Lumber Company, and thence to about 1958. In addition to lumber, the company also contains records for the Natchez Ice Company, the Natchez Department Store, and the Learned Plantations. 117 boxes and 611 ledgers. Patrons should provide notice at least two business days prior to prospective visits so that staff may transfer requested boxes from the Library Annex (an off-site facility) to the Special Collection Reading Room. Please contact Special Collections at (662) 915-7408 to specify requested material.
L.N. Dantzler Lumber Company Collection. One of the largest lumber manufacturers in the South, the correspondence and financial records for the Dantzler Company cover the period from 1894 to 1948. 60 boxes and 335 ledgers. Patrons should provide notice at least two business days prior to prospective visits so that staff may transfer requested boxes from the Library Annex (an off-site facility) to the Special Collection Reading Room. Please contact Special Collections at (662) 915-7408 to specify requested material.
Fernwood Industries Lumber Company Collection. 94 boxes plus ledgers. Patrons should provide notice at least two business days prior to prospective visits so that staff may transfer requested boxes from the Library Annex (an off-site facility) to the Special Collection Reading Room. Please contact Special Collections at (662) 915-7408 to specify requested material.
Mississippi Forestry Collection. 1920-1976. Assorted articles magazines, and documents related to forestry in Mississippi. 1 box.
J.J. Newman Lumber Company Collection. 6 boxes.
Ernest W. Pettis Collection. Contains correspondence between 1920 and 1945 between brothers Ernest and Charles Pettis, largely regarding the family businesses of Elton Lumber Company, Lowry Mercantile Company, and oil exploration on property where the family owned mineral rights. 1 box.
Lamont Rowlands Collection. A prominent Mississippi businessman during the early twentieth century, Rowlands was an early supporter of the tung oil industry in the United States (tung nuts produce an oil used in paints and varnishes). Collection includes business records for tung oil and timber concerns dating from 1928 to 1953. 30 boxes.
James W. Silver Collection. 1928-1986. Boxes 2 through 5 contain research notes of historian James W. Silver on the lumber industry. 50 boxes.
H. Weston Lumber Company Collection. Due to a fire, company records prior to 1913 are sparse, but are fairly complete thereafter until 1933. The collection also includes records for the Weston Sand & Gravel Company; the Louisiana-Mexican Timber & Investment Company; the Hotel Weston; the Logtown Utility Company; the Mississippi South-Western Railroad Company; and the United American Mechanics, Pearl River Council. 116 boxes and 83 ledgers. Patrons should provide notice at least two business days prior to prospective visits so that staff may transfer requested boxes from the Library Annex (an off-site facility) to the Special Collection Reading Room. Please contact Special Collections at (662) 915-7408 to specify requested material.
Music Industry:
Sidney Graves Collection. 1936-2008. Sidney Graves founded the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Collection includes business records. 25 boxes.
Red Tops Collection. Box 5 contains ledgers associated with the Fabulous Red Tops, an R&B dance band from Vicksburg, Mississippi who performed throughout the Mid-South from the 1950s through the 1970s.
Trumpet Records Collection. 1950-1991. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, Trumpet Records released blues, spirituals, country, pop, and rockabilly records in the 1950s. The collection includes the company's business records. 15 boxes.
Plantation/Agriculture:
Audubon Mississippi/Strawberry Plains Finley Collection. 1830-2002. Includes nineteenth- and twentieth-century financial documents and over one hundred ledgers of multiple Marshall County, Mississippi families connected with Strawberry Plains plantation. Includes 1930-1938 ledgers from Victoria Gin Company. 29 boxes.
S.H. Clark Collection. 1855-1873. Business papers of an Attalaville, Mississippi planter. Location: Small Manuscripts 78-7 (4 folders).
Cotton Record Books. 1959-1965. Six ledgers of crop records for The Bend Plantation at Swan Lake, Mississippi. Location: Small Manuscripts 2003-1.
Charles Dean Collection. This Holly Springs, Mississippi collection contains two boxes (18 and 19) of ledgers: a plantation expense ledger from 1956-1958; a 1963 plantation store ledger; an undated plantation crop ledger; a sharecropper ledger from 1906-1917; a store ledger from 1908-1914; and a personal estate valuation ledger for C.N. Dean circa 1930.
Thomas Henderson & Company Ledgers. 1847-1848 & 1861-1862. Cotton factor/merchants from Natchez, Mississippi. 1 box.
John F. Johnson Collection. Box 1 contains bound and loose ledger sheets concerned with agriculture in Mississippi and Alabama from 1849 to 1890. 4 boxes.
King and Anderson Plantation Ledgers. 1882-1982. Clarksdale, Mississippi. Seventeen ledgers on the plantation and one on the Yazoo Delta Mortgage Company. 4 boxes.
Locust Grove Plantation Slave Ledger. 1825-1845. Records of cotton weight picked each day on a Jefferson County, Mississippi plantation; also containing a list of slaves on the plantation. 1 box.
Andrew McCrery Ledger. The first portion of the ledger dates from 1813-1814 and includes the accounts for McCrery's two Adams County, Mississippi plantations, a general store, and a medical practice. The second section dates from 1865 and tracks the cotton production of freedmen on a plantation.
Mitchell Family Marshall County Collection. 1812-1984. Includes R.L. Mitchell's Farm Ledgers from 1942 to 1984 documenting crop production. 7 boxes.
Robb Farm Journal. 1836-1865. Photocopies of a [Mississippi] ledger with entries recording weight picked by slaves each day, along with other notes on produce, purchases, and activities. Location: Small Manuscripts 93-2 (4 folders).
Mrs. A.B. Robinson Plantation Ledger. 1871-1876. Albin Place Plantation in Tallahatchie, Mississippi. 1 box.
Seed Cotton Ledger. Circa 1909. 1 box.
County Records:
Jasper County, Mississippi Register of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles. 1925-1927. 1 box.
Jones County Assessment of Personal Property, Polls, and Commutation Road Tax. 1924-1925. 1 box.
Lafayette County [Mississippi] Records. 1902-1963. Includes 1935 Cash Disbursement, Warrant Register; Chancery Court Cost Bills from 1936-1940; Personal Assessment Rolls from 1880 to 1946; Real Estate Assessments from 1917 to 1951; and more. 1 box and 135 ledgers.
Miscellaneous:
Account Books. 1852-1872. Adams County, Mississippi. Possible records of a lumber company. Two books: one dated 1856-1872 and another 1852-1857. 1 box.
Aldrich Collection. 1798-1972. Family papers of Aldrich and Treadwell family who settled in northeastern Mississippi around Lamar and Davis Mills (now Michigan City). Include business correspondence and documents. Various family vocations included attorney, cotton farming, animal husbandry, ferry management, postal work, mercantile shop keeping, real estate, and railroad investments. Includes labor contracts. 25 boxes. A portion of the collection is available as a digital collection.
Kathleen Baldwyn Collection. 1914-1919. Includes a 1919 account book of Baldwyn's activities as local representative for Frontier Press based in Buffalo, New York. 1 box.
Beckwith/Yerger Collection. 1869-1930. Includes correspondence and business documents related to the Woodbridge Canal & Irrigation Company in California, among the state's first successful irrigation projects. 7 boxes.
Juanita Brown Collection. 1829-1948. Includes business records from 1829 through 1904. 7 boxes.
Business Ledger. 1897-1900. Unidentified. 1 box.
Business School Collection. 1933-1987. Papers and Publications of the University of Mississippi Business School. 6 boxes.
Chilton Collection. 1837-1882. Legal documents and business records for the Chilton family in Mississippi and Texas. 1 box.
C.E. Colbert Collection. 1826-1953. Mississippi family papers including an undated book with notes and details of expenses; 1832-1835 notebook on items sold; 1829 list of items sold including slaves; miscellaneous receipts; and appraisal values. 1 box.
Edmondson/Bray/Williams/Stidham Collection. 1834-1987. Papers of families of North Mississippi and Tennessee. Includes account books dating from 1830 to the twentieth century. 43 boxes.
Eugene B. Ferris Collection. 1830-1971. Includes business records of Eugene B. Ferris (1873-1954) who owned and operated farms in Warren County, Mississippi. He also worked for N.V. Potash Export Company in Jackson, Mississippi from 1928 to 1937. 4 boxes.
Gage Family Collection. 1830-1937. Includes an account book of A.G. Dabbs dating from 1888 to 1903. 3 boxes.
Gravel Company Ledgers. 1926-1929. Charleston, Mississippi. 1 box.
Kavanaugh Collection. 1853-1858. Tavern ledgers [Aberdeen, Mississippi]. 1 box.
Kraus/Overstreet Collection. 1809-1967. Collection of promissory notes, receipts, drafts, and bank checks documenting Mississippi's early financial history. 1 box.
Ray and Ellie Lum Collection. 1943-1963. Business records of Ray Lum who owned a horse and mule trading business in Vicksburg, Mississippi and of his wife Ellie Lum who operated a real estate business in the city and founded Sky Farms (Vicksburg's first subdivision). The Lums also owned an antique store and a funeral home. 12 boxes.
Maddux Family Account Book. 1898-1920. [Panola County, Mississippi]. 1 box.
C.L. Marquette Collection. C.L. Marquette taught history at UM from 1946 to 1972. Includes research material and his thesis "The Business Activities of C.C. Washburn" on the founder of General Mills. 15 boxes.
Christopher Maurer Research Collection on Walter Anderson and Shearwater Pottery. 1863-2003. Includes accounts and business records of Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. 22 boxes.
McAlexander/Marshall County Collection. 1838-2009. Includes financial and business documents from several Holly Springs, Mississippi families and businesses, including copies of the Alexander family account book dating from 1857 through 1877. 24 boxes.
Mississippi Industries Collection. 1926-1999. Assorted articles, magazines, and annual reports related to various industries in Mississippi. 7 boxes.
Andrew McCrery Ledger. The first portion of the ledger dates from 1813-1814 and includes the accounts for McCrery's two Adams County, Mississippi plantations, a general store, and a medical practice. The second section dates from 1865 and tracks the cotton production of freedmen on a plantation.
News Scimtar (Memphis, Tennessee) Subscription Ledger for Oxford, Mississippi. Circa 1910. 1 box.
Natchez Library Institute Accounts. 1842. Coexists with an 1870s scrapbook. 1 box.
Park Hotel Ledgers. 1933-1941. Amory, Mississippi. 1 box.
Ernest W. Pettis Collection. Contains correspondence between 1920 and 1945 between brothers Ernest and Charles Pettis, largely regarding the family businesses of Elton Lumber Company, Lowry Mercantile Company, and oil exploration on property where the family owned mineral rights. 1 box.
Earnest A. Powell Collection. 1929-1939. Business papers of Earnest A. Powell and the Powell Cooperage Company of Memphis, Tennessee. 1 box.
Ann Rayburn Collection of Paper Americana. 1858-1997. Series 3 includes a large assortment of trade cards advertising businesses, products, and services dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Series 4 holds vintage postcards from the same era, including advertising postcards. 84 boxes and 35 binders.
Jack Reed Collection. 1962-1994. Jack Reed owners Reed's store in Tupelo, Mississippi and has served as chair of the Mississippi Economic Council and the Mississippi American Enterprise Center as well as president of the Mississippi Retail Merchants. 1 box.
Splash Casino/Gambling Collection. 1992-1996. Assorted material related to Splash Casino and other casinos in and around Tunica, Mississippi. 2 boxes.
Watson Family Collection. 1843-1912. John Watson was a Texas businessman. Collection contains correspondence discussing among other topics, Texas Real Estate & Collecting Agency land leasing, corn deals, and other business matters in Texas. 1 box.
