This collection contains the papers of William Campbell Binkley, chair of the Department of History at Vanderbilt University from 1930-1953. Binkley's research interests involved the history of the American West, especially the early history of Texas.

This collection contains a diary written by a woman working on a cotton and peanut farm in south Alabama at the beginning of the Great Depression in 1931. The diary details daily farming life in rural Alabama.

This collection contains a handwritten daily diary dated 1915-1916 by Ranson Griffin. Griffin is 74 year old woman that details her life, family, and friends in rural Alabama.

The Owsley Charts were compiled at Vanderbilt University circa 1939-45 through the combined efforts of Harriet Chappell Owsley, Blanche Henry Clark, and Chase Mooney, under the direction of Frank Lawrence Owsley, Professor of History. The charts themselves represent a composite of Schedules I (land ownership), H (slave ownership), and IV (products of agriculture) of the unpublished Federal Census for Tennessee, 1850 and 1860.

This collection contains the papers of John Seigenthaler, journalist, writer, and longtime editor of The Tennessean. Seigenthaler was a prominent advocate for First Amendment rights and founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. Seigenthaler also worked for Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and was a longtime friend of the Kennedy family.