The William Edward Foster Family Papers are organized into two series by material type. Series I: Correspondence contains four subseries.

Subseries I: From William E. Foster, c.1850-1884 consists of letters from William E. Foster, mostly to various family members (especially his mother) from about 1850/1851 to 1884. The bulk of these letter were written to his mother in the time leading up to the Civil War and during his service. These letters document his leaving Princeton to return to the south due to his Confederate sympathies and his experiences in North Carolina infantry and cavalry regiments around Yorktown, Suffolk, and Richmond, and parts of North Carolina (among other places). Several letters after the war recount his experiences in Texas, and the letters after the early 1870s are more about his family life. This subseries is arranged in chronological order.

Subseries II: To William E. and/or Cora E. (Beves) Foster, 1850-1921, n.d. include letters to William prior to their marriage (1850), and then later letters to one or both of the couple (after 1874). Letters are largely from family members—William’s sisters, his mother, Cora’s family, and her friends. Most contain family and personal news. This subseries is arranged in chronological order.

Subseries III: About William E. Foster contains a small collection of letters about Foster from various sources. This includes a letter to his guardian while he was a child at school (1856), a letter to accompany him back to the south after leaving Princeton in 1861, and several professional letters of preference (1896). This subseries is arranged in chronological order.

Subseries IV: Other Family Correspondence, 1800-1892, n.d. consists of letters written by related families or other generations than William E. and Cora Foster. There are letters among the Wiatt family (Mary E. Wiatt, later Foster, was William’s mother) from the early 19th century. A collection of 1830s letters document some of the relationship between William’s parents, William Edward Foster [Sr.], and Mary E. Foster while William [Sr.], traveled. There are two late 19th century letters to Mary E. Foster, one from her daughter Cecilia, and one condolence letter Cecilia’s death in 1894. There is also a small set of letters to two of William and Cora’s daughters, Dora and Willie. This subseries is organized by correspondent and then chronologically within each folder.

Series II: Family Papers includes three subseries. Please note: the majority of the materials in this series are undated.

Subseries I: Genealogy Materials, 1843, 1921, n.d. includes several pages from a family bible, indicating birth and marriage information for Wiatts and Fosters, and a selection of newspaper clippings and photocopies of clippings for William Edward Foster [Sr.], William E. Foster, and Cora Beves Foster. In addition, this subseries contains more contemporary genealogy research collected on the Foster, Wiatt, and Yarborough families. This subseries is arranged by material type.

Subseries II: Images includes original photographs of William E. and Cora B. Foster. It also includes print outs of photographs of their gravestone and portraits of William’s sisters, Eleanor Foster Yarborough and Cecilia Dabney Foster Lawrence. This subseries is arranged by material type.

Subseries III: Papers contains some family papers and ephemera, especially some handwritten essays and poems (likely the work on William E. Foster and William Edward Foster [Sr.]), a memoir fragment by William E. Foster regarding his religious experiences, including his baptism in 1870, and an 1843 almanac. This subseries is arranged by material type.