Collection documents the lives of the extended family of Dr. James H. Dunn and his wife Rebecca Micheaux who filed for bankruptcy in Virginia in 1873 and subsequently moved to Texas where they and their children lived in various parts of the state.
Personal and business correspondence including financial and legal papers, postcards, greeting cards, domestic material, newspaper clippings, and photographs, arranged chronologically by subject. .
Collection includes letters written by Dunn's sons and daughters and their aunts, uncles, and cousins still residing in Virginia, especially those from the Micheaux (sometimes spelled Michaux) and Dickinson branches of the family, make up the bulk of the collection. Included is material dealing with postbellum life on the Virginia plantation (Cork) belonging to the Micheaux family; the affairs of Hampden-Sydney College and the town of the same name in Prince Edward County, Virginia; land concerns in Texas relating to crops, rentals, and oil leases; alcohol and drug addiction treatments; and the daily affairs of life and death.
In addition the papers include letters from a West Point cadet (1874-1875), from members of the Dunn family during a stay in Los Angeles, and from cousins who have emigrated to northern California (1870-1884).
James H. Dunn Family Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.