2026-05-10T00:13:50Z

Dora and Cara Armistead Papers

Creator

Armistead, Dora Travis, 1890-1979

Abstract Or Scope

Papers from the household of Dora Travis Armistead (1890-1979) and Rowland Cara Armistead, sisters of Williamsburg, Virginia. Includes letters, personal, financial and business papers of Cary Peyton Armistead (1856-1901), father of Dora and Cara, Steward of Eastern Lunatic Asylum (now Eastern State Hospital), and prominent local Episcopal Church and school leader; Eudora Ester Armistead (d. 1940), mother; Cary Champion Armistead (d. 1944), brother, and lawyer for a time in Detroit, Michigan; Meriwether Irving Armistead (d. 1945), brother, and lawyer in Williamsburg; and Dora and Cara Armistead, elementary school teachers; along with materials related to relatives in the Armistead family, most notably Gregory Armistead, brother, who died at an early age; and Julia Maria Armistead (1858-1897), sister of Cary Peyton. The papers pertain primarily to Armistead family finances, health and personal affairs, the financial operation of the asylum/hospital, and school and church issues. Also included are a number of undated and unlabeled photographs, schoolwork of the Armistead siblings as children and college students, letters to Cary Peyton from College of William and Mary Presidents Benjamin S. Ewell and Lyon G. Tyler, and a long series of letters to Cary Champion from girlfriend Ruth Conkey.