Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Virginia Wooding Papers #4636, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from John M. Rivers, Jr., of Charleston, S.C., in November 1992 (Acc.92171) and November 2001 (Acc. 99133).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Denver (Colo.)--Social life and customs.
• Diaries.
• Family--Colorado--Social life and customs.
• Hanks family.
• Massachusetts--Social life and customs.
• Physicians--Colorado.
• Teenage girls--United States--Social life and customs.
• United States. Army--Surgeons.
• University of Colorado (Boulder campus)--Students--History--20th century.
• Women college students--Colorado--Social life and customs.
• Women--Colorado--Social life and customs.
• Women--Diaries.
• Wooding family.
• Wooding, Benjamin Franklin, b. 1863.
• Wooding, Emma Shepard.
• Wooding, Virginia, b. 1896.

Emma Abigail Shephard, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., married physician Benjamin Franklin Wooding (b. 1863) on 9 February 1897, in Denver, Colo. They had one daughter, Virginia Wooding (b. 1896). It is likely that Benjamin Franklin Wooding was graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago, Ill., in 1890. He then worked for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in Trinidad, Colo. Upon losing that position in the early 1890s, he moved to Denver to establish his practice. He was a member of the State Board of Health and was a cavalryman in the Denver City Troop. In 1898, he served as acting assistant surgeon in the United States Army, and, in September 1898, he reported to Josiah Simpson General hospital near Fort Monroe, Va., for several months duty. He was honorably discharged in 1899. Following Emma's early death, Wooding and his daughter moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., and then to Montclair, N.J., before returning to Denver.

Virginia Wooding attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, where she met Bryan Hanks. The son of Lillian Cayce and William Hanks, Bryan Hanks grew up in Coryell County, Tex., and was drafted into the United States Army in 1917. He then attended the University of Colorado in Boulder to obtain his law degree. Virginia and Bryan Hanks were married in 1921. They had two children. Nancy Hanks (1927-1983) became a national arts administrator. Larry Hanks was three years younger than Nancy and died in an automobile accident as a teenager. Following law school, the Hankses lived in New York for a brief period. They then moved to Miami, Fla., where Bryan Hanks worked for Florida Power and Light Company. The Hanks family then moved to Montclair, N.J., where Bryan Hanks worked with the speculator, Wallace Groves. Following Groves's indictment for fraud, the family moved to Fort Worth, Tex.

The Virginia Wooding collection contains the diary of Virginia Wooding and the personal and business papers, chiefly correspondence, of her parents, Emma Shephard Wooding and Benjamin Franklin Wooding, a physician. The diary of Virginia Wooding is approximately 100 pages long and is divided into two sections. The first, 29 June-17 August 1914, has almost daily entries regarding her summer spent in Massachusetts, near Boston. The second section, 11 September 1915-2 May 1916, documents Virginia's academic and social life during her sophomore year as a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo.

Correspondence, 1895-1924, of Emma Shepard Wooding and Benjamin Franklin Wooding relates to their business, family, and personal lives. In October 1896, Emma Shepard wrote her uncle William Shephard about her upcoming marriage. She received several letters from relatives and friends discussing life in New York and multiple letters from Eleanor Manville Ford of New York concerning Ford's daughter Helen, who was boarding with the Woodings. Also included are letters to and from Benjamin Franklin Wooding relating to his position as acting assistant surgeon in the United States Army and his time spent at Josiah Simpson General Hospital near Fort Monroe, Va., in 1898 (no items relate directly to the Spanish American War). Wooding also corresponded with his parents about politics and everyday affairs. Also included are several acknowledgements from the White House of letters, 1920-1921, that Wooding sent to President Woodrow Wilson.

The collection also contains invitations to weddings, including that of Emma and Benjamin Franklin Wooding, and an invitation to the 1890 graduation of Rush Medical College in Chicago, Ill. There are a few financial papers, most of them dating from 1898. Also included are 23 color and black and white photographs and one negative. Most of the photos are of unidentified individuals, some of whom may be Hanks family members, and landscapes. The color photographs were developed in 1946 and 1947.

Items separated include photographs (P-4636).