Title: Charles William Dabney Collection

Date/Date Range :   1884-1920

Extent: 1.5 linear feet

Abstract:

The papers of Charles W. Dabney, noted entomologist, were extracted from the James D. Hoskins Collection. The material consists of several folders concerning the Association of Urban Universities, addresses and speeches, and his Brotherhood Principles.

Call number: MS-0325

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

This collection is property of the University of Tennessee Special Collections Library.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Charles William Dabney Collection, MS-0325. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of one box.

Charles William Dabney was born on July 19, 1855 in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia to Robert Lewis and Lavinia Morrison Dabney. He completed his undergraduate education at Hampden-Sydney College and continued on to the University of Virginia, graduating with his Master's degree in chemistry in 1877. He taught for a year at Emory and Henry College, but quickly became disillusioned and enrolled in the University of Goettingen, Germany in 1878 to continue his education. He graduated with his Ph.D in 1880 and returned to the United States. Dabney settled in North Carolina, married Mary Chilton Brent, and began working as the director of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station.

Dabney became president of the University of Tennessee in 1887. Frustrated with what he considered the University's reactionary nature, he quickly embarked on a campaign of radical reform. He made agricultural and mechanical courses mandatory, added six new four-year courses in science, updated the physics curriculum, admitted the University's first female students, began the Summer School of the South, ended the military regimen, doubled the size of the faculty, and formed both the home economics and law departments. Dabney left the University of Tennessee to take office as President of the University of Cincinnati in 1904. He died on June 15, 1945.

The papers of Charles W. Dabney, noted entomologist, were extracted from the James D. Hoskins Collection. The material consists of several folders concerning the Association of Urban Universities, addresses and speeches, and his Brotherhood Principles.

• Dabney, Charles William, 1855-1945.
• Education, Higher -- United States.
• University of Tennessee (System). President.