Murray Sullivan was a prominent civil engineer in Utah from the 1910s to the 1930s. This collection includes letters from Sullivan's wife and children while he was on business in China and California, letters from his sisters, brother, and father, and a few letters from Sullivan to his family. The letters were found in the attic of the garage at 5340 S. Cottonwood Lane, the last residence of Murray Sullivan

Murray Sullivan was a prominent international and local civil engineer.

Murray was born into privilege and raised his own children in the upper echelons of Utah society. He was born in Oxford, Mississippi, 29 October 1881, to William Van Amberg Sullivan (also known as William V. Sullivan or W. V. Sullivan) and Belle Murray Sullivan. William V. Sullivan (1857-1918) was an attorney who became a U.S. representative from Mississippi from 1897-1898. In 1898, he was appointed as a senator to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Edward C. Walthall, a position in which he served from 31 May 1898 to 3 March 1901. He did not run for reelection. A graduate of the University of Mississippi engineering school, Murray married Edna Bumiller Sullivan (b. 24 December 1881 in Los Angeles) on 25 April 1906. Shortly thereafter, Murray joined the Oregon Short Line in Utah after doing railroad work in New Mexico and Mexico. The couple eventually settled at 1341 Second Avenue.

In 1916 Murray became the senior engineer for the American Railway Enterprise, American International Corporation, with headquarters at Peiping, China. Murray helped build 3,100 miles of railroad in China. His main objective was to build a railroad line from the eastern coast of China to the Szechwan province. Access to this large and rich province had been limited to the Yangtze River, which could be unreliable and perilous to navigate. Murray also assisted in reconstructing the Grand Canal while in China. During World War I, Murray was the general purchasing agent in northern China for the Siberian commission of the allied powers. The collection includes letters from Murray during his first few years in China.

The Sullivans ensured that their two children, Arthur and Nancy, were highly educated. Arthur studied at Yale in the mid-1920s; Nancy boarded at Rowland Hall and finished her high school education at the Low and Heywood School, a boarding school in Stamford, Connecticut. She pursued her college education at Vassar College, an elite female college. The collection includes letters from Nancy and Arthur as they experienced college life in the East during the 1920s.

While visiting their daughter, a motorcyclist struck Murray and six other people as they were leaving a dinner party at Vassar College. On 20 February 1930, a motorcycle with a sidecar drove into the crowd as they were crossing the street, injuring seven people, two of whom were in critical condition. Three of the injured were Vassar students. The motorcyclist had two passengers in the sidecar, one of whom sustained injuries when the motorcycle hit a tree 175 feet beyond the crowd. The driver, Edward Terrell, was driving too fast, and the lights on the vehicle were too dim, disabling the driver and preventing the pedestrians from seeing the motorcycle until it was too late. Murray suffered a compound fracture of the skull, a fractured left leg, left pelvis, collarbone, and sustained internal injuries. When one of the students died because of the injuries she sustained in the accident, Terrell's charge of Third Degree Assault was raised to Second Degree Manslaughter. After his recovery, Murray was able to return to work at the Salt Lake and Utah Railroad as general manager until 1939. Murray's files concerning the accident, including newspaper clippings, legal files, correspondence, and medical documentation, are also included in the collection.

In the late 1930s Murray and Edna moved into their home at 6310 S. Cottonwood Lane (now 5340 S. Cottonwood Lane), where the letters were found almost sixty years later. Murray died of a heart attack on 14 December 1941. Edna moved out of the Cottonwood Lane home soon after Murray's death. From 1942 to 1955 Edna lived in her own apartment. She died at Nancy's home on 18 March 1955.

Nancy married Arthur's Yale friend, Alexander D. Moffat, on 31 August 1931. A graduate of Yale, where he received his B.A. and his L.L.B. degree, Alexander was a partner at the firm of Parsons, Behle, Evans & Moffat. He was found dead on 23 May 1961 in a room at the Desert Inn of Salt Lake City, at the age of 52. He left behind two children, a Rev. A. D. Moffat, Jr. in Wichita Falls, Texas, and a daughter, Mrs. William G. (Adair) Langston, Jr., in Brooklyn, NY. Nancy stayed in Salt Lake City until 1962, a year after her husband's mysterious death.

Edna's obituary located Arthur in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Presumably, he had two children.