Biography:

Lily Wilkinson Thompson was born in Crystal Springs, Mississippi. She was the daughter of William Clements Wilkinson, a native of Ireland, and Gabrielle Flowers Gaines Wilkinson, who was born in this state. Her education was completed at Whitworth College. She was married to Charles Henri Thompson, who was a prominent insurance man in Jackson.

As the ex-president of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, she is known as one of the pioneer organizers of the state, and was chosen as one of the few women of Mississippi who addressed the state legislature in the interest of the bill proposing to grant full suffrage for Mississippi women. Her contributions to newspapers on social and political questions have been widely read.

This collection contains the following materials:

• Personal correspondence (March 3, 1865–May 15, 1959)
• Correspondence certifying church membership (August 11, 1817–April 6, 1868)
• Annual reports of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Mississippi Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1930–1934)
• Printed material concerning the Galloway Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1836–1936)
• Blueprints of unsold plots in Cloverhill Subdivision
• Purchase account from Lotterhos and Huber by Mrs. Thompson (December 1891–July 1892)
• Legal agreements
• Certificates
• News clippings
• Introduction of James K. Vardaman
• Eight published books