David Yancey Thomas was one of the most influential academic historians in the field of Arkansas history. He was a driving force in the re-establishment of the Arkansas Historical Association in 1941, was the first editor of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, and was the chair of the Department of History at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County). On June 21, 1905, he married Sarah Janney of Conway (Faulkner County), with whom he had two children, Mary Elizabeth, born in 1907, and Albert Janney, born in 1909.