. . . to return an overdue library book!
Last week a visitor to the Woodson brought us a volume that he had recently acquired:
It was due on April 28, 1956:
One of the librarians made a note inside the book’s cover indicating that it had been given to Fondren by one Galen C. Hartman on May 31, 1950, which means that it spent far more time in box in someone’s attic than it did in the library.
Nonetheless, we are glad to have it back!
Bonus:
I wonder what Galen Hartman’s connection to Rice was.
He was a long-time attorney in Pittsburgh, Pa., who had attended Bethany College in West Virginia and the University of Michigan, where he got his law degree in 1885. He established funds supporting libraries at both schools and was also a major donor to the Western University of Pennsylvania (now University of Pittsburgh). After his September 11, 1951, death, his surviving nephews donated his 7,000-volume library to Bethany.
(Sources: https://books.google.com/books?id=1AHiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142&dq=“Galen+C+Hartman”
(https://books.google.com/books?id=ceVLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP2&lpg=PP2
(https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/142958688/
(https://books.google.com/books?id=JkRGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA978&lpg=PA978&dq=“galen+Campbell+Hartman” )
I looked everywhere I could think of and couldn’t find any connection at all. I bet one exists, though.
Did he donate any other books to Rice? Or funds supporting the Fondren Library?
Perhaps the Journal of Southern History being at Rice was a factor?
I notice that the Friends of Fondren held its first meeting in June 1950. But there’s no mention of Galen Hartman’s donation in the first several issues of the Flyleaf, which started quarterly publication in October 1950.
I don’t see anything else — but there may be something buried in the Fondren records. I’ll rummage around a bit, just for the fun of it. You never know.
Lovett also graduated from Bethany College but a few years later. Hartman may have been supporting a fellow alumnus, especially if he was known for supporting university libraries.
That’s a very good guess. I’m going to look in EOL’s personal papers on the off chance that they might have corresponded.