Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Preferred Citation

Frances Leigh Williams papers, Collection # M 20, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Biographical / Historical

Frances Leigh Williams (1909-1978) was born in Richmond on March 20, 1909, the daughter of Francis Deane and Mary Mason Williams. She was a cousin of the Virginia novelist Ellen Glasgow. After graduation from St. Timothy's in 1926, she attended Smith College for a year. On leaving college, she accepted a position with the Richmond News Leader as a reporter and columnist. In 1935, she left the News Leader to become a research assistant for Douglas Southall Freeman. She worked with him on the biographies of Robert E. Lee and George Washington. During this period, she wrote and published Historic Richmond: Her Story and Her Spirit. In 1951, she wrote They Faced the Future, a brief history of the State-Planters Bank of Richmond. In 1949, Williams had become, with her partner Winifred Hanigan, co-owner and executive manager of the Sea Horse Hotel in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This career led directly to her first book for young people entitled Welcome to Dunecrest, published in 1955. This was followed by The Shawnee Trail in 1958, a book based on an historic tale of Indian capture in late 18th century Virginia. Williams noted that this was the story Ellen Glasgow wanted her to tell. In 1863, Rutgers University Press published her celebrated Matthew Fontaine Maury: Scientist of the Sea. Her biography of the noted Naval Scientist was well-received and won acitation from the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Four more historical works followed the biography of Maury: A Century of Service(1965); Ocean Pathfinder(1966); Plantation Patriot(1967); and A Founding Family: The Pinckneys of South Carolina(1978). Williams was well-known for an abiding interest in history, particularly Virginia history, and she was a popular after-dinner speaker for a number of organizations. She died in 1978.

Scope and Contents

The Papers of Frances Leigh Williams includes Miss Williams' major published works, in manuscript and proof form, as well as letters from Ellen Glasgow and Carl Van Vechten.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged as it was donated. Oversize material can be found in Drawer 27.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Authors, American -- Archives -- Virginia
• Biographers -- Archives -- Virginia
• Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson, 1873-1945 -- Correspondence
• Van Vechten, Carl -- Correspondence