Julia Keese Nelson Colles (1840–1913) was an American historian, lecturer, and writer who lived in and studied Morristown, New Jersey.
In 1893, she published a collection of Morristown, New Jersey history in Authors and Writers Associated with Morristown. Colles also helped found the women's branch of the New Jersey Historical Society, and served as the chair of social science at Rutgers Female College in New York City. She was also a member of the Women's Town Improvement Association, and the American Historical Association.
She gave educational lectures in private homes in Morristown, New Jersey. She gave in-depth lectures focused on the lives of famous literary figures, including Shakespeare, Spenser, Coleridge, Byron, Milton, Goethe, and Chaucer. Other topics included German literature, Russian literature, drama, the art of conversation, Alfred the Great, Marie Antoinette, Martha Washington, Marie Louise, and Hortense de Beauharnais.
