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Collection Overview
Scope and Contents of the Materials
The Hanger Family papers came to Eastern Kentucky University from the Hanger family ancestral home, Arlington, when the University acquired the property in the late 1960s. The collection documents the Hanger family of Richmond, KY and their activities. The activities of Elizabeth Arnold Hanger Elliot are especially well documented through her scrapbooks. The correspondence in the collection touches on social customs and financial interests of an elite Central Kentucky Family. The family traveled widely and the children all attended boarding schools in the East and there are numerous records documenting this. Some material originallly acquired from Arlington were transferred to the Mason and Hanger Records as they were clearly business records. The family papers still include some scattered materials that are likely business records. The collection was divided into four series -- correspondence, financial, photograph albums and scrapbooks, and publications.
Collection Historical Note
Harry Baylor Hanger of Virginia and Elizabeth Arnold of Richmond, Kentucky were married on January 18, 1893. They lived at Arlington, a gracious home owned by Mrs. Hanger's parents, William and Pauline Arnold. Arlington was named in honor of Robert E. Lee's ancestral home in Virginia. Mr. Hanger was born in Staunton, Virginia on November 1, 1864 and died of a heart attack on October 17, 1925. He was an engineer and joined a construction firm which he later headed: Mason-Hanger Company. Some of his achievements were construction work on the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City, Camp Zachary Taylor, Lake Charles Aviation Field, Old Hickory Powder Plant, Catskill Aqueduct, and various subways, terminals, and canals. He was also associated with the State Bank and Trust Company in Richmond, Kentucky from 1897 to 1925.
Elizabeth Arnold Hanger was born on January 18, 1870 and died on October 10, 1921 after having been mistress of Arlington for twenty-eight years. She was reared a devout Methodist and received the finest education and upbringing that a young woman of that time had available. She traveled extensively and spent a great deal of time in New York City and Florida. Harry Baylor Hanger, Jr., the first son, was born on February 21, 1894 and died on January 19, 1956. He married Martha Shelby who was a descendent of Governor Isaac Shelby. They had one daughter, Margaret. The second son, William Arnold Hanger, was born on February 5, 1896 and died on May 31, 1976. After his father's death, Arnold assumed many of his father's responsibilities. He and Hal Price Headly were the founders of Keeneland Race Track in Lexington, Kentucky. According to family friends, he was married briefly. It was he who gave the Arlington House to Eastern Kentucky University.
The youngest son, Paul T. Hanger, was born on March 31, 1897 and died tragically in a motorcycle accident July 18, 1916, at the age of nineteen. The only daughter of Harry and Elizabeth Hanger was named Elizabeth Arnold Hanger. She was born on April 16, 1905 and died on January 3, 1944. She, too, received the finest education possible. She traveled extensively abroad and had many friends. She was married first to John Marshall of Louisville, and their wedding was one of the most extravagant Richmond had ever witnessed. Her second husband was Shelby Elliott of New York City. They adopted a daughter, Shelby Elliott Roberts who now lives in New York City. Elizabeth Hanger Elliott's death was very sudden and tragic. At least two of the Hanger sons, Arnold and Paul, attended Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Elizabeth was educated at the Cathedral School of St. Mary in New York and National Park Seminary, Forest Glen, Maryland. All the members of the family are buried in the Richmond Cemetery. The Hanger Family name ended with the death of William Arnold Hanger in 1976.
Arlington serves as a social club for EKU alumni and associates. The grounds have been landscaped as a golf course. Much of the original decor of the house remains as it was when the Hanger family was in residence.
Information gleaned from these items, together with a sketch of Arlington by Thomas H. Tudor, Richmond Cemetery records, and certain clippings from printed sources were helpful in writing the biographical sketches of the family members.
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository:
Eastern Kentucky University - Special Collections and Archives
Acquisition Source:
Hanger Family (via Arlington)
Acquisition Method:
Donation
Other Note:
Photographs were initially numbered with the accession number; however, a decision was made to change to collection number. The database was changed, but the numbers written on the images were not changed.
Box and Folder Listing
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- Box 3
- Barcode: 31234013798291
- Folder 1: History of The Lawrenceville School, 1810-1935, 1935
- Roland J. Mulford. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1935). Sparsely illustrated history of the school attended by Arnold Hanger and Harry Hanger Jr. Covers history of academics as well as sports, with chapters specifying the school's role in the American Civil War and the Great War (World War I).
- Folder 2: Blue Jay Music Book.
- Small booklet of staff paper (music paper) that was barely used.
- Folder 3: Spiritual Songs for Social Worship, 1881
- Rev. Charles S. Robinson. (New York: The Century Co., 1881). Protestant hymnal owned by Mrs. Elizabeth Hanger ("Bettie Arnold", her maiden name, is embossed on the front cover).
- Folder 4
- Item 1: Evangeline by H. W. Longfellow, 1896
- H. E. Scudder, Ed. (Houghton Mifflin Co, 1896). Owned by Paul Hanger. The front blank page actually has the signatures of all the Hanger children written in pen and/or pencil. Several notes are made in the text. This volume is lightly bound (staples in the spine) and small.
- Item 2: Notebook, undated
- Containing Mrs. Elizabeth Hanger's recipes, hymns/song lyrics, and notes.
- Folder 5
- Item 1: Quarterly Bulletin of the National Park Seminary Alumnae Association, 1928
- Missing cover.
- Item 2: Annual Dinner of the General Contractors Association, 8 Dec 1917
- Seating list for the 9th Annual Dinner of the General Contractors Association. Found seated together are Mason-Hanger Co. heavyweights Francis Donaldson, A.J. Sackett, and John J. Watts, as well as Mr. Harry Hanger Sr. This document is torn and quite fragile.
- Item 3: Olympic Equestrian Trials, 1947
- Details events and has diagrams of the tracks to be run/shown on. A hand-written note in the margin is unfortunately rather blurred, but may contain the name of the horse owned by Mr. Hanger designated for the trials.
- Folder 6: Thoroughbred Sale, 1937
- Annual Sale of Thoroughbreds at the Lexington Sales Paddock. Presumably owned and perhaps participated in by Mr. Arnold Hanger. Lists the parents of horses for sale and may possibly be useful for tracking the horses involved in Churchill Downs and other tracks for the 1940's. Contains an index at the front of the volume. The right corner is slightly curled; care should be taken when turning the pages so as not to rip the corners.
- Folder 7: Gounod's Faust., ca. 1892
- Arthur Sullivan, Ed. (London: Boosey and Co.) Contains the choral score and piano accompaniment of the opera Faust with Italian and English lyrics. This volume has sustained damage to its spine and is extremely fragile. Some pages are loose.
- Folder 8: The Lawrence School Song Book, 1906
- Howard Roe Wood. (New York: G. Schirmer, 1906). Lyrics, music, and piano accompaniment to school songs. Owner unknown; this may have resided at Arlington with Mrs. Hanger as there is no name in it and she was so fond of music.
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