Lois Foster Blount Papers

Collection

Identifier: A-0107

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Lois Foster Blount Papers consist mostly of historical research materials with an emphasis on early Texas history, the Texas Revolution, and the Republic of Texas. About a fourth of the collection pertains to Thomas J. Rusk. Included are correspondence, biographical and genealogical materials, notes and excerpts from manuscript and printed sources, calendars and translations of some Bexar and Nacogdoches Archives. Also included are copies of legal papers and land papers, manuscripts of historical papers and scripts for historical pageants. There are also materials on Indians, petroleum, and the academic freedom controversy at University of Texas at Austin in the 1940s. Places associated with the collection include Nacogdoches and Pattonia, Texas and East Texas rivers during the steamboat era. Prominent names include David G. Burnet, Samuel Davenport and family, Dumville/Dunville family, Haden Edwards, Lemuel Dale Evans, John Forbes, James Grant, Lewis G. Harman and family, John T. Harmon, Sam Houston, Vicente Michelli, Col. Henry Millard, Jose Miguel del Moral, Miguel Musquiz, Edmund Norris and family, Pan Chao and family, Moses and Robert S. Patton, Raguet family, Homer P. Rainey, James H. Starr, Starrett/Starritt family, Charles S. Taylor, Amasa Turner, Walters family, and Antonio Gil Y'Barbo.

Dates

Creation: 221 BCE-1980
Event: Donated in 1982

Creator

Blount, Lois Foster, 1896-1980 (Person)

Language of Materials

The collection is in English and Spanish.

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Biographical or Historical Information

Lois Fitzhugh Foster, daughter of Fitzhugh and Willie Swann Foster, was born in Huntsville, Texas on May 24, 1896. A teacher, historian, librarian, and museum curator, she held a B. A. from University of Texas at Austin and an M. A. from Columbia University. She joined the faculty at Stephen F. Austin State University in 1923, the year the college opened, teaching Social Sciences and History. She married Guy Arthur Blount on June 22, 1925 and they had four children. After her husband's death in 1937, Mrs. Blount returned to SFA and until 1966 served as Director of the Rare Book Room or East Texas Collection (later called Special Collections and then East Texas Research Center). During this same time period she was also sometimes Curator of the Stone Fort Museum and on the History faculty. She was a life member of the Texas State Historical Association, a director of the East Texas Historical Association, and a member of the American Association for State and Local History as well as other historical and genealogical societies. She died in Nacogdoches, Texas on September 2, 1980. ("Blount, Lois." Vertical Files: Biography. East Texas Research Center. Ralph W. Steen Library. Stephen F. Austin State University).

Extent

12.20 Cubic Feet

Additional Description

Arrangement

This collection is described in 730 folders, originally housed in 36 clamshell boxes, and one oversize bundle. The clamshell boxes were consolidated into eight banker's boxes. The original folder numbering for boxes 1-36 remains in place.