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Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) was a Southern Presbyterian theologian and educator. He was born in Virginia in 1820 and studied theology at Union Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1847 and served several churches in Virginia before becoming a professor at Union Theological Seminary. In 1883, he moved to Austin, Texas to serve as a professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at the University of Texas. He was a cofounder of the Austin School of Theology, a predecessor to Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and was a professor there from 1884-1895. In addition to his work regarding theology, Dabney briefly served as a chaplain to the Stonewall Brigade due to his marriage to Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s wife’s first cousin. He authored an early biography on Jackson and lectured frequently about the Civil War and the Confederacy until his death in 1898.

The Robert Lewis Dabney publications collection is an artificial collection compiled in 1993 by former Stitt librarian Genevieve Luna, together with additional donations. This collection consists of six inches of photocopies of published writings by Dabney from various sources, some original and reprinted publications, as well as several reviews of his writings by other authors. Dabney’s works generally concern Southern Presbyterianism during the Civil War era or the Confederacy and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The complete collection can be accessed at the Archives at Austin Seminary.