Z 0546.000 Phelps (Dawson A.) and Jennings (Jesse D.) Manuscript

Z 0546.000 F
PHELPS (DAWSON A.) AND JENNINGS (JESSE D.) MANUSCRIPT

Dawson A. Phelps was born in Wheatland, Wyoming. He received a bachelors degree from the University of Wyoming in 1920, a masters degree from the University of Chicago in 1921, and a doctoral degree from the University of California at Berkley in 1932. Phelps taught at Memphis State University, Mississippi Southern College, the University of California at Berkley, and the University of Missouri before he was appointed as a National Park Service historian in 1938. He lived in Tupelo, Lee County, Mississippi, from at least 1942 to 1962. Phelps also worked at the Vicksburg National Military Park and on the Natchez Trace Parkway during his career with the National Park Service. He was named an honorary ambassador of the Chickasaw Nation in 1958. Phelps moved to Pasadena, Texas, after retiring from the National Park Service in March of 1965, and he taught at the University of Houston from 1970 to 1972. He served as president of the Mississippi Historical Society and as assistant editor of the Journal of Mississippi History, and he received a meritorious service award from the United States Department of the Interior. Phelps died in Houston, Texas, on July 14, 1981.

While working as a National Park Service historian, Phelps published a number of works on the Natchez Trace and other subjects. Congress approved a survey of the Natchez Trace in 1934, with a view toward constructing a highway along the historic route. As a Work Projects Administration assignment, Phelps and others conducted an archeological survey of the Natchez Trace Parkway between 1940 and 1941. The United States Government Printing Office published the Natchez Trace Parkway Survey, Senate Document Number 148, in 1941. Dawson A. Phelps and Jesse D. Jennings compiled "A Preliminary Study of the Natchez Trace, Proposed Locations of the Natchez Trace Parkway, and Historical and Archeological Sites in and Near Natchez, Mississippi," in January of 1943. The volume was apparently written in order to establish the most viable options for the route of the Natchez Trace Parkway. In 1937, construction began on the Natchez Trace Parkway, which would eventually become a four-hundred-fifty-mile historic route stretching from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee.

This collection consists of one volume entitled "A Preliminary Study of the Natchez Trace, Proposed Locations of the Natchez Trace Parkway, and Historical and Archeological Sites in and Near Natchez, Mississippi," which was prepared by Dawson A. Phelps and Jesse D. Jennings. Dated January 12, 1943, the volume is paginated and has seven maps, fifty-one illustrations, and an extensive chronology and bibliography. It includes an oversized, annotated map of the Natchez, Mississippi, area. In the text, Phelps and Jennings establish several route options for the construction of the Natchez Trace Parkway.

1. Manuscript (original). 1943. 1 folder. Restricted.
2. Manuscript (reference photocopy). 1943. 1 folder.