Conditions Governing Use

There are no restrictions.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Henry H. Hibbs paper, 1890-1977, Collection # M 539, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accessions were gifted by Alumni relations and Jessie Hibbs Hawke, 1976, 1983, 1990, 1993, 2017, and 2022.

Processing Information

Accession 1993-08-023: Henry H. Hibbs papers, statement dictated to Ruth Hibbs Hyland is missing

Biographical / Historical

Henry Horace Hibbs, Jr. was born in Smithland, Kentucky on November 25, 1887, and was one of eight children. In 1908 he graduated from Williamsburg Institute in Kentucky. He attended Brown University and majored in Sociology after becoming interested in the problems of urban communities, receiving his A.B. degree in 1910 and the A.M. degree in 1911. In 1910-12 he held a Fellowship in the research department of the Boston School for Social Workers. While in Boston he was a resident of the St. Mary's House for Sailors and also of South End House and in addition was a member of Conference 7 of the Associated Charities. In 1912-13 he taught history and social science in Tarleton College (Texas) and in 1914-15 sociology and statistics at the University of Illinois. In 1915 he was a lecturer in the Summer School for Social and Religious Workers conducted by the Biblical Department of Vanderbilt University and the American Interchurch College. He was registered at Columbia University in 1913-14 and 1915-16, attending courses under Professors Giddings and Tenney in sociology, under Professors Seligman and Seager in Economics, under Professor Devine in Social Economy, and Professor Chaddock in Statistics. In 1916 he completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University. His dissertation was entitled "Infant Mortality: Its Relations to Social and Industrial Conditions."

In 1917, a group of Richmond community leaders organized what became the Richmond School of Social Work and Public Health to address urban social and health concerns. It would train social workers and public health nurses, becoming the first school of its kind in the south. They hired Hibbs as the director. In 1925, the school began an affiliation with the College of William and Mary. In 1939 the school was renamed the Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) of the College of William and Mary. In 1968, The Richmond Professional Institute merged with the Medical College of Virginia to become Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

Hibbs retired in 1959 after 42 years of heading the school, and by the early 1960s he and his wife, Jessie R. Persinger Hibbs, retired to Lexington, Virginia. After his retirement, Hibbs was paid a consultant fee to write the history of RPI. He intended for the school to solely profit from the book. Both the alumni group of VCU and the RPI Foundation were involved in the editing of the book before it was finally published in 1973. Hibbs died on April 4, 1977 at the age of 89. Henry Hibbs and Jessie Hibbs had two daughters, Mary Sue and Jessie.

Content Description

The Henry H. Hibbs papers contains correspondence, photographs, news clippings, scrapbooks, articles, book drafts, and other materials relating to Hibbs's personal and professional life, as well as the publishing of his book History of Richmond Professional Institute: From Its Beginning in 1917 to Its Consolidation With the Medical College of Virginia in 1968 to Form Virginia Commonwealth University.

The first series, Personal and family life, primarily consists of letters from Henry Hibbs to his wife, Jess (or Jessie) Hibbs (née Persinger). Her replies are not included. This series also contains materials from Jess Hibbs, such as a copy of her master's thesis, resume, personal will, and letters of recommendation she received. There are also a few items from or by other members of Henry Hibbs's family, such as his mother, Susie A. Hibbs, as well as his sister, Cora Hibbs Grant. Correspondence in this series is to or from Henry Hibbs, unless noted otherwise.

The second series consists of pages from photo albums and other photos of Hibbs's family, childhood, and travels.

Series three, education and career contains course notes, course catalogs with Hibbs's annotations, class writing, a yearbook, letters of recommendation, materials related to Hibbs's being drafted into the army, Hibbs's resume, academic regalia, and professional writing (with the exception of his work on the History of Richmond Professional Institute).

Series four contains materials related to the writing and creation of the book History of Richmond Professional Institute: From Its Beginning in 1917 to Its Consolidation With the Medical College of Virginia in 1968 to Form Virginia Commonwealth University. This includes correspondence related to the book, research notes, drafts, manuscripts, and printer's plates for book illustrations.

Series five contains news clippings collected by Hibbs, largely about his own professional career and about Richmond Professional Institute.

The final series, series six, contains various scrapbooks created by Hibbs and his children that include his family's favorite paintings, poems, and ephemera collected over the years.

This collection contains an image of an unidentified student in Blackface in one of the photo albums.

Arrangement

Series 1: Personal life and family

Series 2: Photos

Series 3: Education and career

Series 4: History of the Richmond Professional Institute book

Series 5: News clippings

Series 6: Scrapbooks

Separated Material

Some accessions for this collection have been separated and added to the University Archives, as they consist of correspondence, architecture plans, or other materials created by Henry Hibbs in his capacity as Dean of Richmond Professional Institute.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Education, Higher -- Virginia.
• Hibbs, Henry H. (Henry Horace), 1887-1977
• Richmond (Va.)
• Richmond Professional Institute
• Social work education -- Curricula -- United States.