The Texas papers of Michael Reed find a new home in Southwestern University's Special Collections archive.[/caption]
Southwestern University was recently gifted a set of historic papers that students and researchers at the university, as well as the general public, will be able to utilize, according to a university news release.
The university received the Michael Reed papers, a collection consisting of 204 documents dating from 1818-1932 that focus on the Reed family, which moved to Texas in the early 1830s. The papers were a gift from Reed descendants and Southwestern alumni Will Reed, Class of '75, and J.P. Reed, Class of '79.
The papers cover the financial and legal affairs of Michael Reed and his estate and add information about the Robertson Colony, a competitor to the colony built by Stephen F. Austin. The collection was added to the university's Special Collections, an archive that holds books, manuscripts and objects of historical and scholarly value to be used by students, faculty and the public.
According to the university, the Reed Papers will add to the resources Southwestern University has available for students and researchers to use. Ron Tyler, a former director of the Texas State Historical Association and former director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, said in a news release the papers are an important collection that adds to Southwestern's holdings of Texas-related materials.
"The breadth of these papers will make them of great interest to not only scholars of Texas History, but also scholars of economic and Civil War history," he said.
The documents will be digitized and posted online for scholars, and interested individuals worldwide can utilize them, according to the university.