William Starling Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS-17

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Papers of William Starling (1839-1900), Union soldier and engineer for Mississippi River levee systems. Content includes: diaries containing descriptions of Starling's activities as a planter and engineer and of a tour of Holland; manuscript of a chapter of a novel, draft of a book on the U.S. Government, and index to literature and literary and historic figures; notebooks pertaining to Starling's student days at New York University and presenting observations on the Mississippi River and a trip to San Francisco; Starling's commission in the Kentucky Volunteer Militia; muster rolls of the Kentucky State Guards, and case of United States vs. Lieutenant Thomas F. Murdoch, 13th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 1862. Includes material on Edwards Pierrepont, and several unidentified photographs, including two by Matthew Brady. Addition: microfilm of a scrapbook concerning the Starling family, including Civil War letters of William Starling, 1862-1863; original at the Arkansas History Commission.

Starling's sheet music collection has been incorporated into the Manuscripts Sheet Music Collection and is cataloged separately. Starling's rare book collection has also been separated and cataloged separately.

Dates

1854 - 1900

Biographical Note

William Starling was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1839. He was educated at what is now New York University and earned two degrees in Civil Engineering. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War, where he attained the rank of Major.

He moved to Chicot County, Arkansas after the war, and farmed with his father until 1882. When his father sold the farm, Starling moved to Greenville, MS, where he went to work for the Mississippi Levee Board for several years. While employed by the Levee Board he wrote extensively about the river and flood control for engineering journals, but was probably best known for his article “Some Notes on the Holland Dikes” which appeared in the Transactions of American Society of Civil Engineers in 1892.

Six years later, the Mississippi Levee Board fired him after he expressed support for the use of levees for flood control. Starling then left Greenville and went to work for the Mississippi River Commission in New Orleans, LA. In 1899, the President of the United States appointed Starling to the Southwest Pass Commission to look into creating a new navigable outlet for the Mississippi River. Starling died in Greenville, MS, in 1900, leaving behind one of the finest private libraries in the state of Mississippi at that time. He was unmarried, and had no children.

Extent

2 Cubic Feet

1 Reels

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Immediate source of acquisition

Major William Starling's collection of rare books was donated to MSU Libraries by the Greenville Public Library in 1948. Starling's papers and sheet music collection were also later donated by the Starling family.