Book Description

Collection consists of autograph and typed letters, postcards, photographs, and ephemera related to the life of James E. Edmonds and his family. The letters James E. Edmonds wrote as a student at the University of Mississippi cover a wide array of topics. He discusses University affairs such as professors, students, fraternities, athletics, course work, and production of yearbooks. He also chronicles local events of interest, such as an outbreak of typhoid fever at Union Female College. National and international issues also did not escape his interest. He writes of the 1896 election and local reaction to the defeat of William Jennings Bryan, whom he supported, and he writes passionately of the oncoming of the Spanish-American War. His letters from New Orleans are equally interesting, covering topics ranging from squalid conditions in charity hospitals to the outbreak of yellow fever in 1905. The collection contains a significant number of letters written by James Edmonds, Jr., to his parents during his time at Northwestern Military and Naval Academy. Both James Edmonds, Jr., and his wife Rosaleen wrote letters to his parents describing their life in Paris, including the birth of their daughter Roseanne in 1925.