John Thomas Milam, known as "Big Ben Milam" by his friends at UNT, graduated in 1908.  He married in 1912, in Canton, Texas and became a school teacher that taught in many places in Texas including DeSoto, Mesquite, and Dallas County. John Thomas Milam, eventually left teaching and moved his family to the city of Dallas, where he found work in a Ford motorcar factory. However, the Crash of 1929 resulted in the Great Depression, John Thomas Milam started his own laundry business and later delivered food to work crews for a living.

The collection contains photograph prints of John Thomas Milam, his senior class, his family, printed material of a program for the Van Zandt County Teachers' Institute and "The Yucca" yearbook of 1909.