Transportation (Archives): Manuscript Collections

Thomas G. Abernethy Collection.  1924-1975.  Abernethy represented Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1943 to 1975.  The collection contains numerous files on Mississippi and national railroad, air, road, and waterway topics (particularly the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway) (454 boxes).  Note:  This collection is stored at an off-site facility.  Researchers interested in using it must provide advance notice two business days prior to their intended visit.

Aldrich Collection.  1798-1972.  Mississippi family papers includes nineteenth-century material on investments in railroads as well as items related to the "Know Mississippi Better" Train from the early twentieth century (25 boxes).

Annual Report of Southern Railway Company in Mississippi to the Interstate Commerce Commission for the Year Ended December 31, 1918. (1 box).

Artifacts (UM) Collection.  Includes a 1951 Illinois Central medallion and a 1927 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company 100 Years medallion (4 boxes).

Jeff Balfour Collection.  1949-1999.  Includes 1971 railway guide and Natchez Trace pamphlets as well as negatives and slides on Mississippi railroads (4 boxes).

Marge Baroni Collection.  1955-1985.  Includes a 1924 Natchez, Mississippi newspaper clipping "Bishop Gerow to Arrive Here Today on Special Train" (20 boxes).

Beckwith/Yerger Collection.  Includes files related to attorney L.P. Yerger's client the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company (essentially a branch of the Illinois Central Railroad).  Also contains documents related to Woodbridge Canal & Irrigation Company in California, among that state's first successful irrigation projects (7 boxes). 

Roane Fleming Byrnes Collection.  1854-1969.  Byrnes worked diligently as president of the Natchez Trace Association for over 25 years encouraging completion of the parkway (46 boxes).

Grover H. Catt Collection.  1939-1987.  During World War II, Grover H. Catt served as a supply specialist for the 509th Bomb Wing of the U.S. Air Force (the unit formed to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan).  He flew home on the Enola Gay, the plane that delivered the bomb.  Collection contains his wartime letters and photographs (16 boxes).  

Chancellors Collection/Andrew A. Kincannon. University of Mississippi chancellor from 1907 to 1914.  Box 6, Folder 6 contains railroad receipts (16 boxes).

David L. Cohn Collection.  Papers of Greenville, Mississippi author David L. Cohn, who wrote Combustion on Wheels:  An Informal History of the Automobile Age (1944) (25 boxes).

J.P. Coleman Collection.  Judicial papers of U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J.P. Coleman between 1965 and 1984.  Includes a number of legal cases concerning railroads (79 boxes).  Note:  This collection is stored at an off-site facility.  Researchers interested in using it must provide advance notice two business days prior to their intended visit.

Ross A. Collins Collection.  1930-1939.  Includes a scrapbook created by Ross A. Collins who served in the U.S. House of Representatives 1921-1935 and 1937-1943.  The Mississippian chaired the House Subcommittee for War Department Appropriations and advocated greater funding for air power.  Collins receives credit for passage of legislation that funded the Flying Fortress B-17 bomber (2 boxes).  Note:  This collection is stored at an off-site facility.  Researchers interested in using it must provide advance notice two business days prior to their intended visit.

Confederate Currency Collection.  1861-1864.  Includes various scrip or currency for Mississippi railroads (1 box).  Also available as part of the Civil War Archive digital collection.

Charles Nunally Dean Jr. Memorial Collection.  1837-1930.  Includes 1859 certificate shares for Mississippi Central Railroad and 1862 dividend note from the Mississippi Central Railroad (Box 1, Folder 7); also a file on the history of the Mississippi Central Railroad (Box 1, Folder 15) (32 boxes).  

James O. Eastland Collection.  James O. Eastland represented Mississippi in the U.S. Senate in 1941 and from 1943 to 1978.  Correspondence with congressional colleagues on the subject of railroads appears in File Series 1, Subseries 18.  Files on local railroads, highways, roads, and airports appear in File Series 3, Subseries 4: State/Local Files.  File Series 3, Subseries 1 holds issue correspondence on transportation.   Note:  This collection is stored at an off-site facility.  Researchers interested in using it must provide advance notice two business days prior to their intended visit.

Falkner Family Collection.  1887-1902.  Colonel W.C. Falkner (great-grandfather to author William Faulkner) formed the Ship Island, Ripley, and Kentucky Railroad Company during Reconstruction.  Contains railroad business records (3 boxes).

Faulkner Postmaster Letters Collection.  1921-1924.  Includes a 1923 letter from University of Mississippi Chancellor J.N. Powers regarding a number of uncanceled letters sent on the train by university students (Folder 26) (1 box).  

Featherston Collection.  Papers of Featherston family of Holly Springs, Mississippi.  Includes railroad scrip as well as financial, legal, and political documents related to railroads in the nineteenth century (16 boxes).

Freedom Riders 40th Anniversary Oral History Project.  Oral interviews conducted in 2001 with former Freedom Riders who risked their lives in 1961 challenging the system of segregation in interstate travel in the South.  Available as a digital collection

Tyrus C. Gibbs Collection.  1942-2008.  Tyrus C. Gibbs served in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot during World War II.  While flying over Belgium, his plan was shot down, and he became a prisoner-of-war (1 box).

Kenneth F. Goldstein Collection.  Includes a collection of 1700s to 1900s British, Irish, and Scottish ballad broadsides documenting social and political life.  Several contain references to railroads.  The broadsides are available as a digital collection and the finding aid for the entire collection is available in Special Collections (44 boxes & 24 ledgers). 

Evans B. Harrington Collection.  1950s-1990s.  Includes a typed manuscript dated 1978 by Mississippi novelist Howard Bahr "A Brakeman in Arcadia:  Reflections of a Railroad Man" as well as a 1985 letter from Bahr containing railroad anecdotes (Box 9, Folders 18 & 19) (42 boxes).

Pat Harrison Collection.  1883-1943.  Pat Harrison represented Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1911 to 1919 and in the U.S. Senate from 1919 to 1941.  His papers include a 1928 pass for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad Company (Box 100) (116 boxes).  Note:  This collection is stored at an off-site facility.  Researchers interested in using it must provide advance notice two business days prior to their intended visit. 

Rev. Graham Hodges Collection.  1797-1999. Includes a typed manuscript entitled "Down the Mississippi in a Rowboat:  An Account of Two Small Town Mississippi Boys' Trip to the 'Century of Progress' World's Fair in Chicago in 1933" as well as a 1940 TWA flight record and token (7 boxes).

Jasper County, Miss. Register of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles.  1925-1927. Ledger (1 box).

Jiggitts Collection.  1917-1925.  Includes a scrapbook of a May 1925 boating disaster. (2 boxes).

John F. Johnson Collection.  Includes a copy of an 1890 letter by Greensboro, Mississippi resident John F. Johnson to the general manager of the Georgia-Pacific Railroad as well as a copy of a petition to the Board of Supervisors on granting the town a public road (4 boxes).

Jones County Assessment of Personal Property, Polls, and Commutation Road Tax.  1924-1925.  Ledger. (1 box).

Key Brothers Scrapbook.  Album documents the activities of Fred and Al Key who set a flight endurance record with their plane "Ole Miss" in 1935 to promote the Meridian, Mississippi airport (1 box).

Kraus/Overstreet Collection.  1809-1967.  Includes receipts for Mississippi Central Railroad tax as well as drafts on various Mississippi railroad banks (1 box).

Lafayette County Records.  1880-1951.  Includes 1941 and 1951 Automobile Registers as well as a ledger for Road and Bridge Privilege Tax License for 1927. Lafayette County, Mississippi (1 box and 135 volumes).

L.Q.C. Lamar Collection.  1860-1885.  Includes a photocopy of an 1875 letter from U.S. Senator L.Q.C. Lamar of Mississippi regarding his chairmanship of the Committee on the Pacific Railroad (Folder 21) (1 box).  Location:  Small Manuscripts 76-6 (Folder 21). 

Alan Lomax Recordings.  Folklorist Alan Lomax recorded blues and gospel music in America and elsewhere between 1945 and 1965.  Several lyrics reference railroads.  The recordings are available as a digital collection only on J.D. Williams Library computer terminals. 

Map Collection.  1687-1998.  Primarily maps of Mississippi which often feature railroads, canals, steamboat routes, airports, and roads.  Includes a 1965 map of NASA's Mississippi Test Facility. 

C.L. Marquette Collection.  C.L. Marquette taught history at UM from 1946 to 1972.  Includes a draft of Eron Rowland's "The Presentation of the Natchez Trace" and Lena Mitchell Jamison's thesis "The Natchez Trace" (15 boxes).

McAlexander/Marshall County Collection.  1838-1960.  Includes files on the Holly Springs, Mississippi depot and the Mississippi Central Railroad (23 boxes).

George McLean Collection.  1904-1983.  Includes a 1973 letter from George McLean, a Tupelo newspaper publisher, to Glen Brock of the Illinois Central and Gulf Railroad (Box 8, Folder 9) (16 boxes). 

James H. Meredith Collection.  1950-1997.  Includes service records of James Meredith in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1960, including a three-year tour of duty at Tackikawa Airforce Base in Japan.  Meredith became the first African American student to register at the University of Mississippi in 1962. 

Bill Miles Collection.  1962-2011.  The voters of Itawamba and Monroe counties elected Bill Miles to the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1996 where he served for the next twelve years, in time becoming chair of the powerful Transportation Committee (7 boxes).

Mississippi Cities & Counties Collection.  1914-1980.  Contains postcards and tourist publications on locales across the state of Mississippi.  Includes images of highways and railroads (8 boxes).

Mississippi Conservation & Recreation Collection.  1938-1984.  Includes file on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and other water systems in Mississippi.

Mississippi Economic Council Collection.  1955-1980.  Includes 1957 printed piece "Announcing Six Public Forms to Answer Your Questions about the New Federal Aid Highway Program" (1 box).

Mississippi Education Collection.  1924-2000.  Includes a 1950 printed piece "Rural School Kids Enjoy Faster, Safer Bus Service" (1 box).  This collection is available as a digital collection.

Mississippi Industries Collection.  1926-1999.  Includes a 1926 letter from president of the Illinois Central System to the managing editor of the Vicksburg Evening Post; a 1964 pamphlet "Welcome to America's Fastest Growing Seaport...Pascagoula"; 1958 material related to Rivers and Harbors Association; items from the 1980s related to NASA in Mississippi; and the reprint "The Deep South Turns to Shipbuilding" from Machinery (1942) (7 boxes).

Mississippi Landmarks Collection.  1968-1983.  Includes a number of printed pieces about the Natchez Trace Parkway as well as a scrapbook of clippings, photographs, and pamphlets (2 boxes).

Mississippi Law Collection.  1938-1980.  Includes a 1953 "Digest of the New Mississippi Motor Vehicle Safety-Responsibility Act" and a 1938 "Mississippi Motor Carrier Regulatory Act" issued by the Public Service Commission (1 box).

Mississippi Organizations Collection.  1920-2003. Includes 1971-1972 material on Mississippi Model-A Restorers Club and 1973 newsletters of the Mississippi Trucking Association (2 boxes).

Mississippi Periodicals Collection.  1921-1982.  Includes "Corinth Is Historic Rail Point" in Illinois Central Magazine (April 1949); "From Piney Woods to the Moon" on Mississippi Test Facility in Mid-South (7 August 1966); "The Ole Men and the River" on Mississippi boat captains in Mid-South (23 April 1967); "The Blessing of the Shrimp Boats" in Mid-South (28 May 1967); "Home Sweet Depot" on Holly Springs railroad depot in Mid-South (3 March 1968); "A Flight into Memory" about Payne Field in West Point, Mississippi in Mid-South (29 September 1968); "The Freedom Riders and the Future" in The Reporter (22 June 1961); "Steamboat 'Round the Bend" in South: The Magazine of Travel (August 1946); and "The Space Age Comes to Mississippi" in U.S. News & World Report (15 February 1965) (6 boxes).

Nash and Taggart Collection.  2004-2007.  Oral interviews conducted by Jere Nash and Andy Taggart while writing their book Mississippi Politics:  The Struggle for Power, 1976-2006 and the subsequent 2008 edition.  Interviewees include governors, members of the U.S. Congress, state legislators, and state officials.  One of the main topics under discussion is the state highway program. Recordings available as a digital collection.

Ida Newsom Collection.  1910-1929.  Includes a scrapbook kept by Ida Newsom while a student at the University of Mississippi that includes images of the railroad (1 box).

Ken Oilschlager-Julliette Derricote Collection.  1924-1950.  Material related to the life and death of Juliette Derricote (1897-1931), an advocate for African American education.  After an automobile wreck in Georgia, the local hospital denied treatment because of her race.  Her subsequent death created a national outrage and became the focus of civil rights activists (4 boxes).

Oxford Depot Collection. 1901-2008.  Material related to the railroad depot in Oxford, Mississippi (3 boxes).

Charles J. Pettibone Collection.  1921-1958.  Includes correspondence related to Hancock County resident Charles J. Pettibone's railroad pension (1 box).  

Clarence Pierce Collection.  1946-1995.  Pierce represented Carrollton County in the Mississippi House from 1952 to 1984.  From 1974 to 1984, he chaired the Highway Financing Committee and from 1983 to 1984 he chaired the Transportation Committee of the Southern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments (1 box).   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 Collections Reading Room.  Please contact Special Collections at (662) 915-7408 to specify requested material.

Mrs. R.E. Price Collection.  1859-1973.  Includes the 1949 booklet "Colonel Roscoe Turner, Knight-Errant of the Air" (Folder 1-4); a 1973 letter about railroad robbery in Mississippi (Folder1-10); a letter from Rosco Turner (Folder 1-20); an article "Memoirs of an Ace, Lt. Charles D'Olive" (Folder 1-25); and posters commemorating Thompson Trophy air race winners 1929-1939 (Folder 2-1) (3 boxes). 

Ann Rayburn Collection of Paper Americana.  1858-1997.  Series 4 includes postcards from 19th and 20th centuries focusing on Mississippi towns, historic landmarks, and transportation including ships, railroads, and roads.  Series 5 contains a large array of sheet music from the turn of the century which will often feature popular songs on modes of transportation.  84 boxes & 35 binders.  The postcards are available as a digital collection.  84 boxes & 35 binders. 

John C. Satterfield/American Bar Association Collection.  1928-1974.  Includes a 1962 letter on reform of railroad retirement (Box 33, Folder 201) (51 boxes).  Note:  This collection is stored at an off-site facility.  Researchers interested in using it must provide advance notice two business days prior to their intended visit. 

Sheet Music (Miscellaneous) Collection.  1846-1974.  Includes 1909 and 1937 souvenir editions of the sheet music "Casey Jones (The Brave Engineer)" and the 1928 "My Husband Casey Jones" (1 box).

Sheldon Harris Collection.  Minstrel songs from the late 19th and early 20th century are available as a digital collection and lyrics contain references to railroads (71 boxes).

Small Manuscripts 1976-5.  Papers of H.W. Walters include a journal of travel through North Mississippi in 1856 (Folder 7).

Small Manuscripts 1976-8.  Papers of General Absalom West include photocopies of material on the Mississippi Central Railroad dating from 1857-1870 (Folders 12 & 13).

Small Manuscripts 1977-1.  Includes a railroad company document in Hunter Family Documents (Folder 9). 

Small Manuscripts 1977-3.  Sheet music "Steamboat Bill" with words as sung by Mrs. John Pearson Jr. of Rosedale, Mississippi (Folder 10).

Small Manuscripts 1978-5.  The J.W. Clapp collection contains a handwritten volume with accounts of Clapp's travels between 1834 through 1892 in the United States and Cuba, including a description of his representation of the Kansas City Railroad Company to obtain a charter from the Mississippi legislature in 1886 and with regards to a bill in the Tennessee legislature in 1889.  Clapp also served as a Tennessee delegate to the Executive Committee of the Mississippi River Improvement & Levee Convention in Washington, DC (Folders 8, 10, & 11).

Small Manuscripts 1979-3.  Program for 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh dinner in London (Folder 14).

Small Manuscripts 1979-6.  Illustration of "The Civil War in America:  Train with Reinforcements for General Johnston Running off the Track in the Forests of Mississippi" from the 8 August 1863 issue of The Illustrated London News (Folder 8).

Small Manuscripts 1979-7.  Civil War newspaper illustrations "Rail-Road Junction Near Corinth [Mississippi]" and "Railroad Depot" (Folder 6).

Small Manuscripts 1982-1.  Bound volumes of correspondence, notes, and other material related to Landon Cabell Garland, president of North East & South West Alabama Railroad Company.

Small Manuscripts 1993-1.  Photocopied documents regarding the Key brothers' record-setting 653 hour endurance flight in 1935, including aircraft and engine logs (Folder 15).

Small Manuscripts 1994-1.  Broadside advertising fairs on the Kansas City, Memphis, & Birmingham Railroad to the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas, Texas in 1894 and an 1894 broadside advertising local round-trip fares (Folder 18); pamphlet "Memphis Area Alternatives for a Multi-State Transportation System" prepared for the Mississippi Research & Development Center (Folder 33).

Small Manuscripts 1994-2.  "Articles Relating to Mississippi and Mississippians in Illinois Central Magazine, June-June 1901-1931" (Folder 1); variety of documents related to Casey Jones, the engineer killed in a railroad accident near Vaughan, Mississippi in 1900 (Folder 7); various pamphlets related to Mississippi highways and roads dating from 1956 to 1982 (Folder 13).

Small Manuscripts 1995-1.  Amtrack railroad guide from Chicago to New Orleans dated 1994 (Folder 2); Lauderdale County History Project material including a speech by Jack Pace (retired Vice President of Southern Railroad) and two 1988 interviews with retired engineer Oscar Kent and retired Bridge Foreman John N. Cole (Folder 25).

Small Manuscripts 1995-2.  Various railroad items including a 1888 Oxford Eagle article, a Georgia Rail Road Conductor's Check, two 1975 issues of Sandhouse (newsletter of the Mississippi Great Southern Chapter, National Railway Historical Society), a manuscript by John W. Brannon on the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, and a pamphlet on the Illinois Central Railroad in Mississippi (Folder 17).

Small Manuscripts 1995-3.  Brief description of the three ships that have borne the title "USS Mississippi" (Folder 6).

Small Manuscripts 1995-4.  Advertisements and schedule for Fourth Annual Mississippi Highway Conference at the University of Mississippi in 1958 (Folder 8); July 1972 issue of The Michigan Railfan with cover story on Col. W.C. Falkner's Ripley, Ship Island and Kentucky Railroad (Folder 12).

Small Manuscripts 1998-1.  Illinois Central tour brochure for 1931 Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana (Folder 5); circa 1911 printed document "Private John Allen Write Open Letter to James K. Vardaman:  Offers to Donate $1,500 to Charity if Vardaman Will Answer Questions Suggested by the Records" regarding Mobile & Ohio Railroad and a free pass on the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad (Folder 6); information about the life of pilot Col. Roscoe Turner and a lapel pin commemorating the commissioning of Corinth, Mississippi's first airport in 1936 (Folder 13); an 1891 bill of sale receipt from the Missouri Pacific Railway Company (Folder 8).

Small Manuscripts 98-2. The papers of General W.S. Rosecrans includes a copy of an 1878 letter from Roberto R. Symon to Rosecrans discussing efforts in the East to interest businessmen in the Sonora railroad project, progress of railroad development in Mexico, and efforts to obtain investment in railroad enterprises abroad (Folder 2).

Small Manuscripts 2001-2.  Telegram from August 1917 to all passenger conductors of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company, requesting that B.L. Cliner ride and learn the duties of a railroad flagman (Folder 18).

Small Manuscripts 2003-1.  Envelope with Charles Lindbergh imprint and Spirit of St. Louis stamp mailed June 1927 (Folder 5); broadside "Excursion to Ship Island Every Sunday Via The Cavalier" (Folder 6); graduation invitation for Class 44-F from Columbus Army Flying School on 27 June 1944 in Columbus, Mississippi (Folder 10); New Orleans detective agency broadside with a blotter advertisement for the Columbia & Gulf Railroad Company (Folder 17); Fernwood, Columbia & Gulf Railroad blotter (Folder 18).

Small Manuscripts 2005-1.  Seven timesheets for the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company from December 1921 (Folder 11); Gulf, Mobile, & Ohio Railroad Company Situation Report for Laurel, Mississippi dated 17 June 1943 (Folder 25); fifteen letters from Neville Buck of Greenville, Mississippi regarding his work for the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company dated January 1915 through August 1916 (Folder 30); a 1911 letter from J.E. McQueen describing his train trip from Texas to Meridian, Mississippi(Folder 21).

Small Manuscripts Broadsheets & Broadsides.  Broadside announcing Gulfport Land Sale where railroads will be built (Folder 17); Broadside "Lumbermen's Excursion to Jackson, Miss. via the Illinois Central Railroad" dated December 1883 (Folder 28).

Small Manuscripts Oversized Broadside.  Broadside "Engineer's Report; To the President and Directors of the (1833-1840) Grand Gulf Rail Road and Banking Company" by John Thompson (Box 1).

Dr. Robert Speth Collection of Illinois Central Railroad Records.  1916-1944, 1965.  Contains oversize train dispatch sheets from the Illinois Central Railroad in Water Valley, Mississippi and a map of the Oxford, Mississippi depot (4 boxes).

William Forbes Stearns Collection.  1837-1993.  Includes an 1850 letter to the Jacksonian newspaper regarding Memphis and Charleston Railroad construction (Folder 1-28) (2 boxes).

Alfred H. Stone Collection.  1786-1795, 1834-1956.  Includes several items related to railroads (4 boxes).

Sunflower & Eastern Railway Company Ledgers.  1905-1930.  Ledgers (1 box).

Hilton Waits Collection.  1923-1964.  Includes a 1927 Mississippi Railroad map (Box 1, Folder 12) and an undated map of the Illinois Central Railroad (Box 1, Folder 21) (23 boxes).

E.C. Walthall Collection.  Includes an 1862 Mississippi Central Rail Road Company 5 cent scrip (Box 1, Folder 79) and an 1870 newspaper clipping regarding Walthall's legal representation of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad Company against the Illinois Central Railroad Company (Box 1, Folder 117) (1 box).

General Absalom West Papers.  1857-1870.  Includes papers related to the Mississippi Central Railroad.  Location:  Small Manuscripts 76-8 (Folders 12 & 13).

Weston Lumber Company Collection.  1913-1933.  Includes records for the Mississippi South-Western Railroad Company (116 boxes and ledgers).

William M. Whittington Collection.  1897-1962.  Whittington represented Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1925 to 1951.  The collection includes numerous files on railroad topics (316 boxes).  Note:  This collection is stored at an off-site facility.  Researchers interested in using it must provide advance notice two business days prior to their intended visit.

John Sharp Williams Collection.  1862-1943.    Collection contains research material accumulated by historian George Coleman Osborn while conducting research for biographies on John Sharp Williams (U.S. House of Representatives 1893-1909, U.S. Senate 1911-1923) and James Kimble Vardaman (Mississippi Governor 1904-1908, U.S. Senate 1913-1918).  Includes several files related to the railroads (11 boxes).  Note:  This collection is stored at an off-site facility.  Researchers interested in using it must provide advance notice two business days prior to their intended visit.

Sally Kate Winters Memorial Collection.  1965-1966.  Collection contains letters, telegrams, and cards received by the Winter family after the death of University of Mississippi student Sally Kate Winters in a car accident (4 boxes). 

Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company Ledgers.  1920-1925.  2 ledgers.