Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Atcheson L. Hench Autograph Collection, Accession #6435,etc, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The majority of the collection, which consists of accessions MSS 6435,-a, was given to Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, on December 30, 1960 and November 27, 1961. Hench continued to donate additions to the autograph collection during his lifetime through MSS 6435-bg and MSS 6435-bi. MSS 6435-bh was given by bequest through his estate on August 23, 1974.

Funding Note

Biographical/Historical Information

Atcheson Laughlin Hench (1891-1974), Linden Kent Memorial Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Virginia, was born in Orange, New Jersey, and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, attending college at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1912. He received both his Master's (1917) and Doctorate (1921) degrees from Harvard University, before he began his teaching career as an associate professor at the University of Virginia in 1922. Hench was to remain at the University for forty years, becoming a full professor in 1925 and the Linden Kent Memorial Professor in 1940. Also in 1925, he married Virginia Bedinger Michie (d. 1971), and they had two daughters, Margaret Hench Underwood and Clare Showalter Hench.

Dr. Hench was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and the Raven Society, and received the Algernon Sydney award I 1966. He was well-known for his work as a consultant in compiling dictionaries, contributing to the Oxford English Dictionary, and served as a frequent contributor and editor of American Speech . He also served as a visiting professor at the New York University and a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. His interest in local history and public affairs was reflected in his presence on the Charlottesville School Board and his contributions to the Magazine of Albemarle County History . Hench was well-known for his varied and wide interests and everyone who knew him seems to have their own favorite Hench stories.

Scope and Content

The Atcheson L. Hench Autograph Collection consists of material collected by Hench, ca. 870 items (12 Hollinger boxes, 5 linear feet), from the mid 9th century to the 20th century, some for an autograph collection and others for use in his classes at the University of Virginia with examples of various periods.

The collection includes material reflecting his interest in Old English, Middle English and Elizabethan script; letters by associates of Edgar Allan Poe; Civil War letters; papers relating to Virginia history; correspondence of writers, poets, politicians, and other correspondence, including both American and English literary and historical material. People with significant amounts of material associated with their name include George Cary Eggleston, Paul Hamilton Hayne, William Ernest Henley, William Cabell Rives, and Edmund Clarence Stedman.

Many of the descriptions of items in Box 1 benefited from the expertise and notes of Consuelo Dutschke who examined these documents in 2007.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in two series: Series I: Medieval and Early European Manuscripts (Boxes 1-6) and Series II: Collection of Modern Autographs (Boxes 7-12). Longer runs of correspondence (like Paul Hamilton Hayne) are arranged as usual under the name of the writer, then alphabetically by name of the recipient, with the letters to unidentified recipients or simple autographs arranged chronologically after the identified ones.