Margaret and Charles Buchanan Collection

Collection

Identifier: MSS.0060

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Margaret and Charles Buchanan Collection include an autograph album, a bound copy of the Vanderbilt Observer, newspaper clippings, reminiscences and various ephemera.

The autograph album belonged to Margaret Gwin Baskette, “Maggie” as her friends called her. The V.U. Alumni Directory (May 1923) lists her years of matriculation as 1881-1883. She was embarking on a career in journalism and was publishing articles and stories in the Nashville Banner. Women were not admitted to Vanderbilt at that time, but she was given special permission to attend these classes. She became the wife of Charles Henry Buchanan, a ministerial student; they were married on October 21, 1885. They had one daughter, Pearl Leigh Buchanan. One of their classmates was Charles Soong of China (one of Soong’s daughters became Madame Sun Yat Sen and another became Madame Chiang Kai-Shek). Another classmate was John Orr, who became a librarian in the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C. Autographs of many other students are found in the album.

Dates

1880 - 1942

Biographical Sketch

Margaret Gwin Baskette

The autograph album belonged to Margaret Gwin Baskette, “Maggie” as her friends called her. The V.U. Alumni Directory (May 1923) lists her years of matriculation as 1881-1883. She was embarking on a career in journalism and was publishing articles and stories in the Nashville Banner. Women were not admitted to Vanderbilt at that time, but she was given special permission to attend these classes. She became the wife of Charles Henry Buchanan, a ministerial student; they were married on October 21, 1885. They had one daughter, Pearl Leigh Buchanan. One of their classmates was Charles Soong of China (one of Soong’s daughters became Madame Sun Yat Sen and another became Madame Chiang Kai-Shek). Another classmate was John Orr, who became a librarian in the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C. Autographs of many other students are found in the album.

Charles Henry Buchanan

Charles Henry Buchanan (1858- ) attended the Vanderbilt Academic School and Biblical School from 1881 through 1884. He was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, first spending 20 years as a pastor in Choteau, Oklahoma and subsequent years as a pastor in Central Texas and Baltimore, Maryland.

Rev. Buchanan was the author of A Gospel for the New Age; being the reality of religion as Jesus taught it, published in 1925 and Wanted: The Old Puritan Spirit as well as articles and editorials for the Texas Advocate and other church papers.

In 1882-1883, Rev. Buchanan helped organize and played on the first football team in Tennessee, made up of young Vanderbilt Academic and Biblical School students.

Extent

.42 Linear Feet (1 Hollinger box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Margaret and Charles Buchanan Collection include an autograph album, a bound copy of the Vanderbilt Observer, newspaper clippings, reminiscences and various ephemera.

Physical Location

Special Collections & Archives

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The autograph album of Margaret Gwin Baskette was given to the Special Collections Department of the Joint University Libraries on April 11, 1968. The donor was Pearl Leigh Buchanan, a graduate of Peabody who received an M.A. in 1929 and who, at the time of the donation, was a Professor at Eastern Kentucky University.