Lillian Cunningham and Daphne Cunningham Papers

Contains love letters and friendly correspondence addressed to Lillian Cunningham of Tuscaloosa, with the bulk of the contents originating in the latter part of the 1910s. While there is a small collection of letters from Cunningham’s mother and from a girlfriend, Neavis Quarles, the majority of letters represent the love interests of young men of Alabama and Mississippi, from such towns as Tupelo, Mississippi; Shannon, Mississippi; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Birmingham, Alabama; and Mobile, Alabama. One young man, Miller Allen, moved to Fresno California, and wrote a majority of his correspondence from there. A few of the young men, prominently including Miller Allen and Tip Robins, were enlisted during the Great War (World War I), with Miller Allen serving as a sergeant in France and Germany, and Tip Robins training at naval air force bases around the East Coast and Southeast.

This collection also includes a small collection of similar letters addressed to Lillian Cunningham’s older sister, Daphne (nee Cunningham) Smith. Among the miscellaneous papers are Lillian’s notice of acceptance into the Kappa Delta social sorority of the Univeristy of Alabama, a 1911 Certificate of Confirmation for Daphne (nee Cunningham) Smith’s husband, Merrill Pratt Smith, and assorted snapshots of unidentified girls and boys, dated 1905. There are also a handful of postcards and greeting cards; most letters are handwritten, though a few are typewritten.