Skip to main content

Menefee-Timmons-Mitchell family visual arts collection

 Collection
Collection number: ahc.VIS211

Scope and Content

This collection consists of photographs, postcards, greeting cards, ambrotypes, tintypes, daguerreotypes, albumen prints, cyanotypes, and negatives of the Menefee-Timmons-Mitchell families. Also included are images of related families including the Benedicts, the Middletons, the Seamans, the Hunnicutts, the Sweets, and the Deakins. There are images from family trips to St. Simons Island, Georgia, and Tallulah Falls, Georgia, as well as images from El Paso, Texas, where Jessie and Russell C. Mitchell, Jr. lived. Other materials include views of the Menefee family home in Palmetto, Georgia; the Mitchell home on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia; and the Middleton family home in Hollywood, Georgia.

Dates

  • 1883-1963, undated

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use

This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.

Administrative/Biographical History

George Menefee (1597-1655) came to Virginia from Wiltshire, England, in 1623. His relation to the rest of the Menefee family mentioned in this collection is undetermined.

William Menefee, Sr. (1723-1797) and Mary W. Strother’s children include George (1760-1840), a Revolutionary War soldier; John (1747-1824); and William Menefee (1750-1791). George Menefee married Elizabeth Tatum and had seven children including William Christian Menefee (1796-1875) who went on to be one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. George’s second marriage to (Anne) Nancy Collier Hardeman (1771-1852) in 1807 produced five children, including Major Willis Pentecost Menefee (1814-1855) who is recognized as the “Father of Palmetto,” Georgia. Major Willis Pentecost Menefee married Jeannette Leonard Watts (1820-?), and their five children included Margaret (Menefee) Wiley (1839-1917); Lucy Colquit Menefee (1853-1886); and Willis Pentecost Menefee (1844-1863). Major Willis Pentecost Menefee’s brother, Richard Alexander Menefee (1809-1893) and his wife, Mary B. Collins, also named one of their sons Willis Pentecost Menefee (1838-1912).

The Timmons family line joined the Menefees when Lucy Colquit Menefee married Reverend Benson Ellison Lane (B. E. L.) Timmons (1845-1907). Their children included Willis Menefee Timmons (1882-1962) who married Aline Eliza Mitchell (1882-1956). Willis and Aline's children were Aline Mitchell (Timmons) Nelson (b. 1914); Willis M. Timmons, Jr. (1907-2000); and Russell Mitchell Timmons (1908-1981). Willis M. Timmons, Jr. married Carolyn Benedict (1913-2007), and they had a daughter, Carolyn Benedict Timmons.

Aline Eliza Mitchell was the daughter of Russell Crawford Mitchell (1837-1905) and Margaret Deborah Sweet (1847-1887). Russell and Margaret had eleven children: Eugene Muse Mitchell (1866-1944); Gospero Sweet Mitchell (1869-1888); Edward Russell Mitchell (1869-1870); Jessie Mitchell 1871-1918); Gordon Forrest Mitchell (1872-1956); Mary Leila Mitchell (1874-1891); Robert McKenzie Mitchell (b. 1876); Deborah Sue Mitchell (1878-1908); Russell Crawford Mitchell, Jr. (1880-1916); Aline Eliza Mitchell (1882-1956); and Irene Caroline Mitchell (1885-1908). Eugene Muse (1866-1944) was the father of Gone With the Wind author, Margaret Mitchell.

Extent

509 image(s) (421 photographs, forty-five postcard images, five greeting card images, four clippings, two ambrotypes, three tintypes, one daguerreotype, seventeen albumen prints, three cyanotypes, and eight 35 millimeter negatives)

Language

English

System of Arrangement

This collection is arranged alphabetically according to titles supplied by staff.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift, 1956 with subsequent additions

Related Archival Materials

Menefee-Timmons-Mitchell family papers, MSS 142, Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center.

Title
Menefee-Timmons-Mitchell family visual arts collection
Author
Laura Starratt
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center Repository

Contact:
130 West Paces Ferry Road
Atlanta GA 30305
404-814-4040