The Rex N. Webster Collection includes personal, family, and professional correspondence and other materials related to the career of Rex N. Webster, a Butler graduate who later became a Butler professor of botany. The bulk of this collection is correspondence. The correspondence is divided into three categories: professional, family, and personal. It is arranged alphabetically by correspondent and chronologically for each correspondent. For those correspondents known only by first name, letters are arranged chronologically; first-name-only correspondents represented by more than a single letter are separated. There are only a few letters written by Webster. The most voluminous correspondence is that of his mother, Anna C. Webster. Many of the letters are from former students and friends who had become members of the military and were preparing to fight in World War II. The collection also includes letters from participants in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The correspondence reveals how much Webster loved his home in Middlebury; he maintained this home even after moving to Indiana. The rest of the collection includes various personal papers, among them those relating to the draft during World War II, employment records, financial records, and business papers. There are also various printed materials, photographs, and slides.

A wallet and its contents were found among Dr. Webster’s papers. This wallet appears to belong to David Newey, who has an unknown connection to Dr. Webster. As future research may uncover if and what that connection is, the items are preserved in the collection.