Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

William Gordon McCabe Papers, 1757-1920, Accession # 10568, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Provenance

The William Gordon McCabe Papers were placed on loan in the Library by Mrs. WilliamGordon McCabe, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina, on November 1, 1984. They were made a gift on February 29, 1984.

Biographical/Historical Information

William Gordon McCabe was born on August 4, 1841, in Richmond, Virginia, the son of the Rev. John Collins and Sophia Gordon (nee Taylor). After graduating from Hampton Academy in 1858 he became a tutor for the Selden family of "Westover." He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1861 and later received honorary degrees from a number of institutions, including: Master of Arts degree, 1868, and Doctor of Laws degree in 1906 from the College of William and Mary; a Master of Arts degree from Williams College in 1885; and a Doctor of Letters degree from Yale in 1897. McCabe served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of captain of artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of Colonel William Johnson Pegram. After being paroled in 1865 he founded University School in Petersburg, Virginia; it was eventually moved to Richmond.

He remained its principal until he retired in 1901 and closed the school. McCabe served on the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia, 1888-1892, and as vice-rector, 1892-1896. He was associated with various organizations during his lifetime including: the Virginia Historical Society, the Society of the Cincinnati in Virginia, Sons of the American Revolution, Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, the American Philological Society of the Modern Language Association, the Virginia Gettysburg Monument Commission, Pegram Battalion Veteran Association, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, the Head-Masters' Association of America, Phi Beta Kappa, the University Club, the Westmoreland Club, and the Southern Historical Association. He also served as Commissioner and Director of the Jamestown Exposition. McCabe was a frequent traveler and was well known as a speaker and author. He was the editor of various works of poetry and essays, and he published several original books including: A Grammar of the Latin Language, 1884; Latin Reader; Caesar's Gallic War, 1886; Virginia Schools Before and After the Revolution, 1890; and Memoir of Joseph Bryan, 1903. He was married to June Pleasants Harrison Osborne on April 12, 1867, and had three sons: Edmund Osborne, William Gordon, Jr., and Edward Raynsford Warner. After his wife's death, he married Gillie Armistead Cary on March 16, 1915. McCabe died on June l, 1920, at age seventy-eight.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of ca. 1,016 items (7 Hollinger boxes; ca. 2.3 linear shelf feet), l757-l896 and l836-l920, chiefly letters to William Gordon McCabe (l841-1920), author, educator, and a member of the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia. The collection also contains a few newspaper clippings, printed material, genealogical material, memorabilia and other related papers. Some of the letters are addressed to persons other than McCabe and there are a few letters written by him. Topics of interest in the letters include: the University of Virginia, the Civil War, the Confederacy, Confederate veterans organizations, the destruction of Hampton, Virginia in l861, education in Virginia, Negro suffrage, World War I, life in the 3l8th Virginia Infantry, 2nd Battalion, 80th Division during l9l8, Latin studies, Egypt in l9l6, Swedenborgianism, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and British literature. Due to his literary and scholarly activities, McCabe was acquainted and corresponded with prominent individuals in Europe and America. The names of these correspondents may be learned from the list of folder headings that forms part of this guide. Letters by the following individuals may be found in the folders headed "Miscellaneous": William Noland Berkeley, William Edgar Borah, Philip Alexander Bruce, James Lawrence Cabell, Noah K. Davis, Westmoreland Davis, Chauncey M. Depew, William Everett, Charles W. Kent, Thomas S. Martin, George H. Moses, Beverley Bland Munford, John M. Page, John S. Patton, William Peters, W.C.N. Randolph, Maximilian R. Schele de Vere, Henry C. Stuart, Claude A. Swanson, William P. Trent, Anna Seeley Tuttle, Charles S. Venable, and Richard M. Venable.

The collection also contains carbon copies of transcripts of a few letters for which originals are not present. These include: an l836 letter from Edgar Allan Poe, as editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, to the Rev. Dr. John Collins McCabe; an l874 Robert Browning letter to Ann Thackery [Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie?]; three 1884 Henry James letters to McCabe; and letters from Robert E. Lee, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Other persons represented by miscellaneous items in the collection include: Joseph H. Choate, Basil L. Gildersleeve, John Richard Green, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Catesby Ap Roger Jones, Philip W. McKinney, Fitzhugh Lee, William Charles Macready, Thomas R. Price, Amelie Rives Troubetzkoy, and George Taylor. Taylor was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and McCabe's great- great grandfather through his mother, Sophia Gordon Taylor. His papers, 1757-1796, consist of letters, including two from Charles Stewart and Joseph Galloway, both members of the Continental Congress, and several papers pertaining to his financial and legal activities in Easton, Pennsylvania. Items of interest in the collection include: a scholarship medal awarded to McCabe from Hampton Academy in 1857; an autograph book; a 19ll replica struck from the "Great Seal" of the Confederate States of America; a list of books and manuscripts from his library, some of which were donated to the University of Virginia; copies of class rolls from his University School, commissions appointing McCabe to the Board of Visitors; accounts of his visits at the home of Alfred Lord Tennyson; a l9ll letter of introduction for him to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and three pages from the manuscript of William M. Thackeray's The Virginians. There is a considerable amount of correspondence pertaining to the University of Virginia and its faculty and staff. Topics discussed include: a proposed degree program requirement changes; the replacement of books lost in the Rotunda fire of 1895; the illness of Professor John B. Minor as it related to the survival of the Law School; the resignation of William Howard Perkinson as the result of an anonymous letter claiming his activities injured "Dr. S." (Maxmilliam R. Schele de Vere?) both professionally and financially; and other related matters.

Organization

The collection is divided into two series: I. Main Files and II. Miscellaneous. Series I contains folders of letters and related papers from individuals and organizations which are arranged alphabetically by the name of the correspondent. Series II is arranged chronologically.