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  Christmas card from Bessie Crump to Henry Humphreys, 1954

  A Christmas card sent by Bessie Crump, the widow of former Memphis mayor and Tennessee congressman, Edward Hull Crump, to Henry Humphreys of Sohm, Humphreys and Ling, Attorneys, in 1954. Mrs. Crump notes that it was the last card her husband selected before his death in October that year. The card was cut into two pieces for framing, and subsequently reframed. The pieces were removed from their frame for preservation reasons.

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  E.H. Crump letter to Chancellor R.B.C. Howell, 1940

  Letter from E.H. Crump, Memphis, Tennessee, to Chancellor R.B.C. Howell, Seventh Chancery Division, Nashville, Tennessee, dated June 13, 1940. Crump refers to his opposition to U.S. Communist Party leader Earl Browder whom he describes as a traitor. From August 1939, Browder (1891-1973) was an outspoken opponent of American involvement in the Second World War. He was charged with passport fraud in early 1940 and was appealing his conviction when Crump wrote this letter. Browder's conviction was finally upheld by the Supreme Court in February 1941 and he was sent to prison for four years. His sentence was commuted by President Roosevelt in 1942.

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  E.H. Crump letter to Commercial Appeal staff, 1939

  A letter from former Memphis mayor E.H. Crump to the staff of the "Commercial Appeal" newspaper dated May 23, 1939. The letter acknowledges the condolences of staff at the newspaper on the death of his son John (1910-1939) in a plane crash in Mississippi on May 2, 1939, while on a promotional tour for the Cotton Carnival. The plane was owned by the newspaper, and a reporter and the pilot were also killed.