DeGolyer Library Archival Collections: M

Lewis MacAdams is a Texas-born modern poet and journalist who grew up in the Dallas area. He later moved to California, where he is known for his political and environmental activism. This collection covers the first thirty-nine years of his life. Included are correspondence, scrapbooks, interviews, his editorial files for the magazine Wet , and poetry and manuscripts from the 1970s-early 1980s.

This collection contains two letters addressed to Emma McDonald of Auburn, Nebraska. These two letters describe the Dallas weather, family, and the Democratic convention. One letter addressed to Mr. W.L. McDonald from T.L. Bradford, a Dallas grocer, describes his "eating house" at the fairgrounds and business and taxes in Dallas. Also included is a Sanger Brothers receipt. Part of the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas image collection.

Norman Macht is the author of over thirty books, and the vast majority of this collection is material for a three-part biography of baseball player and manager, Connie Mack, published 2007-2015. This sports research collection contains notes, drafts, clippings, scrapbooks, baseballs, oral histories, audio cassette tapes, sound reels, posters, and photographs.

J. A. Majors started selling medical books to rural doctors while attending medical school in Nashville in 1898. J.A. Majors Company grew with the expansion of medical and nursing schools until it had five warehouses and six bookstores. The wholesale business was sold to Baker & Taylor in 2004. The retail stores were closed over a period of years until the last one in Dallas was sold to Matthews of St. Louis in 2010. The collection contains publisher contracts and correspondence, employee correspondence and training materials, customer contracts and correspondence, photographs, property leases, financial records and legal documents.

Allen Maxwell (1915-2012) was the editor of the Southwest Review and SMU Press, as well as book editor for the Dallas Morning News . This collection contains personal and professional correspondence with contributors, including J. Frank Dobie, John McGinnis, Henry Nash Smith, Margaret Hartley, Sarah Chokla Gross, William Goyen, and Lon Tinkle. The bulk of the collection contains business files regarding SMU Press, Texas Institute of Letters, and the Texas Folklore Society.

The Mayer family operated Mayers Garden, a beer garden, from 1881 through the first quarter of the twentieth century at Elm and Stone streets in Dallas, Texas. The family also ran a taxidermy business. This collection contains a 5 cent drink token and a 12 1/2 cent drink token for Mayers Garden; one token for Bismarcks; two folders of material about Simon and W.A. Mayer; a taxidermy catalog; a wooden Mayers Garden sign measuring less than five feet; and a large wooden horse's head that is on display in the library. Part of the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas image collection.

The William E. McGrain family papers consist mostly of letters between members of the McGrain family who lived in Kentucky, Missouri, and Texas from the 1840s through the 1970s. The collection includes hundreds of family letters , a small amount of financial data, and some photographs.

This collection contains the professional papers of Benjamin Starr Melton, a Dallas-born geophysicist. Included are his patents, subject files, photographs and notes of his work with proximity fuze, spark photography, seismometers, and stable platform.

Charles Mercer began advertising for settlers in 1844 for his colony in North Texas. Mercer writes to United States Attorney General John Mason about the colony and encloses a newspaper clipping of Mercer's letter to the editor. Included is the dealer description of these items. Part of the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas image collection.

Written by Merrill in Coloma, Cal. to his friend, George S. Dow in New York, relating his experiences as a prospector turned merchant in the gold fields of California. Merrill discusses the economic climate, justifies his reasons for leaving New England and describes moral lassitude in California.

William D. Middleton was a civil engineer, noted railroad historian, and author. He retired as a commander from the United States Navy before serving as chief facilities officer for the University of Virginia. This collection includes his manuscripts, correspondence, personal papers, and train ephemera.

This diary contains entries written December 4, 1848 through March 2, 1849, the last three months of Dallas' Vice-Presidency under James K. Polk. Dallas describes activities in the Senate, especially the Tariff of 1846 controversy and the Wilmot Proviso. Other topics include the California gold rush, relations with Mexico, Great Britain, and France, and other matters concerning territorial expansion. Also, Dallas discusses the difficulties of public life and mentions the following political figures: James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, John C. Calhoun, Thomas Hart Benton, and Robert Walker.

The Mill Creek Cannel Coal and Oil Company incorporated in 1865 in Kanawha County, West Virginia. This collection includes the certificates of incorporation, mortgage papers, deeds, shares, receipts, letters of proxy, two volumes of stockholder meeting minutes, one ledger, and a chancery bill of complaint from Cyrus Woodman against the company.

The collection illustrates the life and times of Lt. Jack Miller, a United States Marine from Dallas, Texas, who served in the Pacific theater during World War II. Records cover the years between 1920 and 2004, with the bulk of materials from 1920 to 1945. The collection provides insight into conditions and operations during military action on the island of Guadalcanal. Content related to Jack Miller's military service accounts for two-thirds of the collection and includes photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, transcripts, audio recordings and video recordings. Additionally, there is information about the U.S.S. Jack Miller (DE-410), a United States Navy Destroyer Escort that was launched in early 1944 in honor of Miller. The remainder of the collection is divided between material on the Miller family's unsuccessful quest to locate Miller's remains over more than sixty years and material on the World War II Memorial Plaza at Southern Methodist University.

This collection contains the family papers of Juanita Miller and her husband, Henry S. Miller, Jr. of Dallas, Texas. Henry S. Miller Companies, founded in 1914, grew from a small one-man office into one of the largest real estate services corporations in the United States. It is now run by the fourth generation of the Miller family. The Millers were active in arts, civic, and social activities in Dallas. The collection includes civic and political correspondence; material from both of the Millers' service during World War II; Henry S. Miller Jr.’s business papers; and Juanita’s personal papers.

Chleo Misemer (1909-2013) was born Alma Chleo McDearmont in Craighead County, Arkansas. She spent her childhood at the Buckner Home in Dallas, Texas and later was Minister of Music at Calvary Baptist Church in Oak Cliff, Texas. This collection includes her birth certificate, school report cards, and Buckner Home diplomas. Part of the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas image collection.

This collection contains the papers of Edmund Duncan Montgomery and his wife Elisabet Ney. Montgomery, who trained in Germany as a medical doctor but subsequently gravitated toward philosophy and science, and Ney, a sculptor, immigrated to the United States in 1871, settling in Texas two years later. The papers include biographical material, copies of Montgomery’s published articles and books, deeds to the Texas cotton plantation that Montgomery and Ney owned, wills of Ney family members, letters to and from Montgomery, correspondence between friends of Montgomery and his chief biographer, SMU philosophy professor Ira K. Stephens, photographs, and Stephens’s research notes.

This collection contains the papers of two Texas poets and publishers, Whitney and Vaida Stewart Montgomery. It includes the business correspondence of the Montgomerys, poems written by both Whitney and Vaida, newsletters, the papers of poetry societies (including the Poetry Society of Texas), photographs, newspaper clippings, and poetry magazines. Much of the material concerns the Dallas-based Kaleidoscope (later Kaleidograph) Press, its 350 published volumes, and its monthly poetry magazine, Kaleidoscope .

Ruth Prouse Morgan served as a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University for 20 years and as the University’s first female provost from 1986–1993. Her papers reflect her activities as a civic leader in the Dallas Summit, the Dallas Forum, Charter 100, and the Hockaday School. Also included are academic papers, books, articles, talks, and speeches related to political science as well as an extensive amount of travel related materials. For papers related to her position a professor and provost, see the Ruth P. Morgan faculty papers, SMU 2000.0350.

Ruth Muse was a musician who was known for both her classical music and vaudeville performances on Dallas radio shows in the 1920s. Included in this collection are family photographs, correspondence, financial documents, receipts, and clippings. Photographs include her studio portraits, as well as a few family photographs. Part of the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas image collection.

This collection contains records related to the Muskogee Company, a holding company which directed several small railroads in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Most of the collection concerns the Muskogee Company: company history, finances, correspondence, and the smaller companies under its direction including the Midland Valley Railway, the Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka Railway, the Cherokee Construction Company, and the Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad. Records on the Osage Railroad and the papers of Charles Edward Ingersoll—the Philadelphia businessman who helped create and direct the Muskogee Company—are also included.

Jack Myers was the director of the creative writing program at Southern Methodist University, and a co-founder of The Writer's Garret in Dallas, Texas. In 2003 he was named Texas Poet Laureate. The bulk of this collection contains manuscripts and correspondence related to his publications.