James family correspondence
Overview
This collection includes letters sent to and from the relatives of Wallace and Dorothy (MacIvor) James. Letters are from family members and friends on both sides of the family, particularly Dorothy's MacIvor family. The collection also includes various newspaper clippings and ephemera that had been included with the letters.
Dates
- Creation: 1906-1978 (bulk 1928-1953)
Creator
- James, Wallace McNeil, 1901-1978 (Author, Person)
- James, Dorothy Marcea, 1901-1945 (Author, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
No access restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.
Biography of Wallace And Dorothy James
Wallace McNeil James and Dorothy MacIvor James were both born in 1901 in Kansas. Wallace was the son of William Frederic James (1873-1957) and Araminta Palmer James (1874-1957) and had five siblings: Joel P. (1908-1980), Florence Phelps (1905-1986), Esther "Billie" Dudgeon (1899-1996), Elsabeth Spalsbury (1913-?) and Margaret Evers (1910-2001).
Dorothy (formerly Dorothy Marcea MacIvor) was the daughter of Donald Herbert MacIvor (1866-1931) and Anna Alberta Taylor MacIvor (1869-1908). She had six siblings: Donald H. MacIvor (1896-1978), Ailene Foster (1894-1981), Florence Ehling (1899-1976), Merle Ernestine MacBurney (1908-1989), Alberta Bowles (1906-1988) and Robert Richards (1889-1966).
Wallace and Dorothy attended the University of Kansas together in the 1920s before marrying. They had three children of their own, Alberta June Daw, Dorothy Jean Crawford and Donald James. The James family lived mostly in New Jersey but visited their Kansas relatives in 1941, and daughter Alberta attended KU from 1948-1953 (in one letter, she mentions the completion of the Campanile).
In 1945, Dorothy MacIvor James died at age 44. Wallace James remarried in 1947, to Mary Lois Ruppenthal Hibbard, and died in 1978, aged 77.
Extent
3 Linear Feet (3 boxes + 1 oversize folder)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Letters are grouped together by correspondent; miscellaneous correspondents are organized alphabetically by family name at the end of the letters. Photographs have been filed at the end of the collection.
Physical Location
RH MS 1320
Physical Location
RH MS R353
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift, Alberta James Daw, 2013.
- Title
- Guide to the James family collection
- Subtitle
- James family correspondence
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by hc, 2014; revised by eear, 2015; revised by mwh, 2018.
- Date
- 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Finding aid written in English.
- Finding aid permalink
- http://hdl.handle.net/10407/7781570018
- Preferred citation
-
James family correspondence, RH MS 1320, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository