These papers document the work of Birmingham author Elizabeth Van der Veer during the 1930s and 1940s. The collection includes correspondence with publishers, newspaper articles written by and about Van der Veer, magazines in which her stories appear and photographs.

John "Stewart" Van der Veer was born in Frankfort, Kentucky in 1893. He was raised in Kentucky and New Orleans. Van der Veer joined the Washington Artillery of New Orleans in order to participate in the Pershing Expedition into Mexico. When the United States entered World War I, Van der Veer joined the American Red Cross and went to the Italian Front as an ambulance driver. He wrote about his experiences in correspondence with his family during the war and later in his autobiography Walk in My Moccasins. In his letters, Van der Veer mentioned taking a member of his squad to a hospital in Milan. In Walk in My Moccasins, he related an encounter with this man and identified him as Ernest Hemingway. After the war he worked for the New Orleans The Time-Picayune and other newspapers before establishing an advertising agency in Birmingham in 1924. He published short stories in pulp fiction magazines and published three novels, Death For the Lady, Remembered April and Interlude at Pelican Bend. John Stewart Van der Veer died on December 27, 1966. This collection contains Van der Veer’s correspondence and writings, newspaper articles written about him, photographs, and a scrapbook.

McClellan "Ted" Van der Veer was born in Frankfurt, Kentucky in 1895. He attended the University of Kentucky and Tulane University. In 1919, after serving in the Naval Reserves during World War I, Van der Veer became the city editor of the Lexington Herald. In 1920, he moved to New Orleans and served as city editor of the New Orleans Item. Before moving to Birmingham in 1925 to work with his family's advertising firm, Van der Veer also worked at the Enid, Oklahoma Daily News, the Kansas City Journal, and the New York Evening Post. He made his return to newspapers in 1933 and became the chief editorial writer for the Birmingham Age-Herald. In 1943, he was transferred to the Birmingham News as editorial editor. Van der Veer was named editor of the Birmingham News in 1955. He retired from the News in 1960 and died in New York City in 1961. This collection includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, biographical sketches, an unpublished play entitled “Gaust” and an unpublished novel entitled “No Other Victory.”

Alf Van Hoose, Jr. was a reporter and sports editor for The Birmingham News. He joined the News in 1947 and served as sports editor for 21 years until his retirement in 1990. He died in Birmingham in 1997. In 1966 Alf Van Hoose and Birmingham News photographer Tony Falleta spent about 60 days in Vietnam with the First Infantry Division, known as the “Big Red One.” This collection includes one scrapbook of newspaper articles written by Van Hoose reporting on the war and describing the daily activities of American soldiers and the Vietnamese people. Also included are five copies of Golfing Alabama, a magazine for which Van Hoose was a contributing editor.

Attorney David Vann served as a special assistant to Birmingham mayor Albert Boutwell and was elected to the Birmingham city council in 1971. He helped lead an unsuccessful campaign, known as "One Great City," to consolidate the city governments of Birmingham and its suburbs into a single countywide municipal government. Vann was elected mayor of Birmingham in 1975 and served one term, losing his bid for reelection to Richard Arrington, Jr. In 1980 Vann became a lobbyist and special council to Arrington, and served two terms as chair of the Birmingham Water Works and Sewer Board and was a founding board member of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. This collection contains office files from David Vann's term as a member of the Birmingham, Alabama City Council (1970-1975) office files from Vann's term as mayor of Birmingham (1975-1979), and personal files covering the period 1959 to 1974. The collection is arranged into five series: city council correspondence; mayoral correspondence; reading files; reports, booklets, and pamphlets; and personal files. The files include material relating to the operation of the city government and departments (including extensive files on the police department), economic development, legislative reapportionment in Alabama and the One Great City campaign.