The Tartts One of the key factors that contributed to Beauvoir’s successful operations was the influence of the Tartt family. From 1916 through 1945, with the exception of only four years, Elnathan and Helen Tartt served as superintendent or assistant superintendent of the home. Their close supervision represented a New South bureaucratic efficiency that allowed…
The Unusual Case of James Burney, Nathan Best, and Frank Childress
Three African-American Residents at Beauvoir: The Unusual Case of James Burney, Nathan Best, and Frank Childress [This essay — revised for length — was taken from the article by Susannah J. Ural, ““Every Comfort, Freedom and Liberty”: A Case Study of Mississippi’s Confederate Home,” The Journal of the Civil War Era 9 (March 2019), 55-83.…
Data
Beauvoir Veteran Project Data Over a three-year period, researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi studied the Jefferson Davis Soldiers’ Home in an effort to understand the experiences of the 1,845 men and women who lived there from 1903 through 1957. The team created a random representative ten-percent sample from a list of residents, and…
If These Walls Could Talk: The Beauvoir Veteran Project at the University of Southern Mississippi
In 1953, Nancy Hawkins Sellers entered the Jefferson Davis Soldier Home in Biloxi, Mississippi, known more famously as “Beauvoir.” It was created to care for impoverished Confederate veterans, as well as their wives and widows, who had been approved for military pensions. Oddly enough, Nancy Sellers had no direct memory of the American Civil War.…
How to Contribute Data to the Beauvoir Veteran Project
If you would like to help us record the history of the Beauvoir veteran’s home, please read and follow the instructions below. Due to the large number of men and women who lived and worked at Beauvoir, we welcome the participation of anyone who would like to assist us in research and data entry. Thank you…
