Margaret and Charles Buchanan Collection

Biographical Sketch

Margaret Gwin Baskette

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. The autograph album belonged to “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.

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 Collection consists of one Hollinger box (.417 linear feet).

File Listing

1. A typescript letter to Margaret Buchanan, dated June 19, 1942, signed with an illegible signature by the Secretary to Dr. T.V. Soong, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Republic of China.

2. Autograph album of Margaret Gwin Baskette which contains autographs collected while she was a student at Vanderbilt University, 1880-1883.
3. Bound copy of the Vanderbilt Observer, dating from February, 1883 to June 1886, in which an index to the writings of Charles H. Buchanan is included.
4. Newspaper clippings, 3 relate to Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, the other clipping is an untitled, anonymous poem.
5. Reprint from the Vanderbilt Alumnus for February, 1932, titled “The Burning of Wesley Hall.”
6. Commencement Announcement for 1882.
7. Reminiscences of the first football game organized and played in Tennessee. Completed, handwritten questionnaires for V.U. Alumni Directory, 1925; two are from Charles Henry Buchanan and one is from Margaret Buchanan.

Overview | Complete Finding Aid (pdf)

Special Collections | Heard Library | Vanderbilt University

Copyright © Special Collections, Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University
Last modified: April 10, 2008
For more information, contact us at: < >