Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

MARY DEAN WILLIAMS
PAPERS, 1850-1986

Collection #
M 0460
OM 0181

Table of Contents

Collection Information
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Folder Listing
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Paul Brockman
July 1989
Charles Latham
28 November 1994

COLLECTION INFORMATION

VOLUME OF COLLECTION:

1 manuscript box, 1 oversize folder

COLLECTION DATES:

Inclusive 1850-1986; bulk 1922-1986

PROVENANACE:

Mary Dean Williams, Indianapolis IN, 6 June 1986

RESTRICTIONS:

None

REPRODUCTION RIGHTS:

Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society

ALTERNATE FORMATS:

None

OTHER FINDING AIDS:

None

RELATED HOLDINGS:

None

ACCESSION NUMBER:

1986.0392

 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Mary Dean Williams (ca 1902 - ca 1990) was born Mary Dean Whitmer in Geneva, Shelby County, Indiana. She graduated from business college and was employed in several office jobs in Indianapolis; after her marriage in 1925 to businessman Russell Williams, she was a homemaker and mother as well.

In 1943 Williams stayed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her brother Charles Whitmer while his wife was fatally ill. In her later years, 1975-1986, she methodically wrote an account of her life experiences, as well as a careful inventory of her family heirlooms.

Source: Materials in collection

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This collection, filling one small manuscript box and one oversize folder, contains correspondence, photocopies of memoirs, a scrapbook, and a birth certificate. It is arranged by category, and chronologically within category.

Folder 1 contains the Shelby County birth certificate, in German, of Maria Louisa Witmer, as well as a scrapbook of clippings of a newspaper series on Indianapolis's "first century, 1836-1936."

In Folder 2 are photocopied excerpts from the diaries and letters of Williams and her female relatives, 1901-1928.

Folders 3-6 contain correspondence 1922-1943 between Williams and members of her family.

In Folders 7-8 are photocopies of the memoirs Williams wrote at the end of her life, and in Folders 9-10 photocopies of the inventory of heirlooms, with comments, which she wrote at the same time.

FOLDER LISTING

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

(OM 0181) Birth certificate 1850; Indianapolis scrapbook 1936

2

Diary and letter excerpts 1901-1928

3

Whitmer-Williams letters 1922-1928

4

Letters from MDW-- 1925

5

Letters from MDW-- 1926-1927

6

Correspondence 1942-1943

7

Memoirs 1975-1986-- pp. 1-93

8

Memoirs 1975-1986-- pp. 94-187

9

Heirloom inventory 1975-1986-- pp. 1-110

10

Heirloom inventory 1975-1986-- pp. 111-210

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

  1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog
  2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
  3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
  4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

END