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Archibald Henderson

Archibald Henderson taught in UNC's mathematics department at Chapel Hill for fifty years, heading it from 1920 until he retired in 1948. George Bernard Shaw's authorized biographer and a historian of the state and the university, he worked with the Chapel Hill drama department from its founding in 1918 and died at Fordell, his Chapel Hill home, in 1963.

Source: Documenting the American South: Archibald Henderson, 17 July 1877-6 Dec. 1963

1877–1963 as the Library of Congress records it · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

14 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 12 works by Archibald Henderson.

Archibald Henderson, portrait plate, 1910
Archibald Henderson, portrait plate, 1910

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

By Archibald Henderson

Pioneering a people's theatre

Henderson, Archibald · 1945 · University of N.C. Press

Archibald Henderson's short history of the Carolina Playmakers, the University of North Carolina's theater company at Chapel Hill, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1945, 104 pages. Written while the company was still in its first decades, it gives a contemporary view of how the Playmakers saw their own mission as a people's theatre.

The Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross at Chapel Hill

Henderson, Archibald · 1938

Archibald Henderson's history of the Episcopal congregation in Chapel Hill, the Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross, as the title names them. A short work of Chapel Hill church history and of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina, published in Hartford, Connecticut, by the Church Missions Publishing Company in 1938, 57 pages with illustrations and portraits. One copy carries the author's presentation inscription to the North Carolina State Library.

The Campus of the First State University

Henderson, Archibald · 1949

Archibald Henderson's history of the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, its buildings and grounds from the founding in the 1790s onward. Henderson, a professor of mathematics and a prolific historian of the university, wrote it in the years around the university's sesquicentennial. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1949, 412 pages with illustrations and bibliographical footnotes.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1949), South Atlantic Quarterly (1950).

Transylvania Bicentennial Celebration, 1735-1775-1935

Henderson, Archibald · 1935

Archibald Henderson's commemoration of the 1935 Transylvania bicentennial, which paired Richard Henderson's birth in 1735 with the Transylvania Company's Kentucky purchase of 1775. Henderson wrote it from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he taught.

The Transylvania company and the founding of Henderson, Ky.

Henderson, Archibald · 1929

A 1929 study of the Transylvania Company and the founding of Henderson, Kentucky, the town that took Richard Henderson's name. Archibald Henderson, writing from Chapel Hill, follows the company's Kentucky dealings and the state's early history to 1792. Richard Henderson, 1735 to 1785, was a North Carolina judge and the company's organizer. Part of the Old State Library Collection.

The Star of empire

Henderson, Archibald · 1919 · The Seeman printery

Phases of the westward movement in the Old Southwest, as Archibald Henderson set them out in 1919: the Transylvania colony, Richard Henderson's land company and the career of Isaac Shelby. The Seeman Printery produced the volume, 86 pages with two portraits. Its author held a professorship at Chapel Hill.

All 12 works by Archibald Henderson →

About Archibald Henderson

Archibald Henderson: The New Crichton, A Composite Portrait

Hood, Samuel Stevens · 1949

Samuel Stevens Hood's composite portrait of Archibald Henderson (1877-1963), the University of North Carolina mathematician, historian and biographer of George Bernard Shaw, cast in the title as a new Crichton for the breadth of his interests. Published in 1949 as an authorized edition of five hundred numbered copies, 252 pages with portraits and facsimiles, closing with a bibliography of Henderson's writings that runs to more than thirty pages.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963.

Reviewed in South Atlantic Quarterly (1949).

Shaw-Henderson festival : presented by the Carolina Playmakers, honoring Dr. Archibald Henderson, Psi (North Carolina)

1933 · Sigma Nu Fraternity

The Carolina Playmakers presented a Shaw and Henderson festival in Chapel Hill in honor of Archibald Henderson, the university mathematician who became Bernard Shaw's biographer, and this piece reports on it. Detached from the May 1933 issue of Sigma Nu Delta and printed in Indianapolis by the fraternity, it concerns drama festivals in Chapel Hill and names both Henderson and Shaw.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963.

UNC

UNC-Chapel Hill student life, 1941, February 5, 1941

Morton, Hugh M. · 1941

Mathematician Archibald Henderson, elected king of Student-Faculty Day, raises the day's sign on 5 February 1941 beside queen Sylvia Goich of Santiago, Chile, with young attendants in dresses carrying flowers. Goich was among several South American students visiting UNC that month. Hugh Morton, sheet film negative.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

Charles Mills papers, 1937-1981.

Mills, Charles, 1914-1982 · 1937

Correspondence dominates the papers of Charles Mills (1914-1982), approximately 150 items in one linear foot dated 1937 to 1981, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4270. Subjects include American authors and novelists he wrote to or about, among them Paul Green, Betty Smith, Archibald Henderson, Robert Fitzgerald and Clare Leighton, and note a personal narrative of the Second World War in Burma. Chapel Hill social life anchors the local tie.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963.

UNC

Julia Goode Eagan papers, 1932-1937 ; 1944.

Eagan, Julia Goode, 1888-1963 · 1932

Julia Goode Eagan (1888-1963) is represented by twenty four items dated 1932 to 1937 and 1944, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4104. Includes biographical material. Subjects include Archibald Henderson, biographers in North Carolina, the social life of college teachers at the university in the twentieth century, family life, and Chapel Hill.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963.

UNC

News Services of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1924-2013.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. News Services · 1924

News and publicity files produced by the university news bureau and its successor News Services at Chapel Hill, 1924 to 2013, some 200,000 items across 119 linear feet, University Archives at UNC, collection 40139. Photographs are a large part of it. Topics include public relations and research, the Speaker Ban Law, anniversary observances, Archibald Henderson, and filming in Chapel Hill for the motion picture 'Patch Adams'.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963.

UNC
Show 6 more about Archibald Henderson

Pendergraph's General Store: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

1910

Pendergraph's General Store in Chapel Hill, about 1910: an interior view with the owner, Colonel Pendergraph, his son Robert and Archibald Henderson, the university mathematician and historian, plus a negative. Two items in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

Archibald Henderson Family Bible Records

1773

Henderson family Bible records, 1773 to 1890, kept in an 1823 printing of the New Testament from H. C. Carey and I. Lea. The six pages register births and other family events for the Orange County family of Archibald Henderson.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Henderson, Archibald: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

Archibald Henderson, the university mathematician and biographer of George Bernard Shaw, in an undated portrait from the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.

Why this is here: Its title names this person.

Historic Houses: Henderson, Archibald House (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

Archibald Henderson's house in Chapel Hill is the subject of an undated folder containing a single report. Henderson was a University of North Carolina mathematician and a biographer of George Bernard Shaw. From the Historic Houses files of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection.

Why this is here: Its title names this person.

The Archibald Henderson Collection

Wadsworth, Sarah A. · 2000

Sarah A. Wadsworth's 2000 account of the Archibald Henderson Collection in the Rare Book Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A guide to the Bernard Shaw material Henderson gathered.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

UNC

The Archibald Henderson Collection of books and other materials relating to George Bernard Shaw

Masterton, Isabel Van Rensselaer · 1964

Isabel Van Rensselaer Masterton's 1964 account of the Archibald Henderson Collection of books and other materials relating to George Bernard Shaw, gathered in the Rare Book Collection of the University of North Carolina library at Chapel Hill. Henderson, 1877 to 1963, is also named beside Shaw, whose works the collection gathers. A bibliography occupies leaves 209 to 211.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963.

UNC

Search all 14 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 378.756 HEN The Campus of the First State University Henderson, Archibald · 1949

    Archibald Henderson's history of the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, its buildings and grounds from the founding in the 1790s onward. Henderson, a professor of mathematics and a prolific historian of the university, wrote it in the years around the university's sesquicentennial. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1949, 412 pages with illustrations and bibliographical footnotes.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The Alpha Theta Phi honor society enrolls the best scholars Dr. Tolman, who taught at the University in 1893-94, introduced Alpha Theta Phi, a society open only to the best scholars; by spring 1895 nine members of the class of 1896 belonged. In 1898 Archibald Henderson was its president and E. K. Graham its secretary, and a few years later it merged into Phi Beta Kappa. People: Archibald Henderson, Edward Kidder GrahamSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 783
  2. Archibald Henderson receives the first Ph.D. in mathematics from UNC Archibald Henderson, who had graduated from UNC in 1898, received the university's first doctorate in mathematics at the June 1901 commencement. He stayed on the Chapel Hill faculty until 1948.Search the index · DigitalNC: The Morning Post (Raleigh), June 6, 1901, p. 3, UNC commencement degree list
  3. Mathematician and historian Archibald Henderson builds his house on East Franklin Street Archibald Henderson, who taught mathematics at UNC from 1898 to 1948 and later wrote a history of the campus buildings, built a large frame house at 721 East Franklin Street in 1905. It mixes Colonial Revival porch, entrance and widow's walk with leftover Queen Anne diamond-pane windows and bays.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 47
  4. Faculty members organize the Chapel Hill Country Club About forty-five people, mostly university faculty, organized a country club and rented a house and several acres at the edge of Chapel Hill, laying out golf links and tennis courts. Joseph Hyde Pratt chaired its board of governors. People: Joseph Hyde Pratt, Archibald Henderson, Charles H. HertySearch the index · DigitalNC: The Tar Heel, January 16, 1908, p. 1
  5. Barbara Bynum Henderson of Chapel Hill becomes president of the Equal Suffrage League of North Carolina Barbara Bynum Henderson, wife of UNC professor Archibald Henderson, organized the Equal Suffrage League of North Carolina and was elected its president, bringing the woman suffrage campaign to Chapel Hill. She was reelected unanimously in 1915. People: Archibald HendersonSearch the index · Carolina Story: Barbara Bynum Henderson (1882-1955)
  6. Chapel Hill welcomes home its World War soldiers alongside Confederate veterans On Saturday, May 10, 1919, a parade of Confederate veterans, returned soldiers and sailors, former student soldiers and town groups filled Franklin and Columbia Streets. Over 2,000 people crowded Memorial Hall to hear Archibald Henderson, L. P. McLendon and Joseph Hyde Pratt, with William Cain presiding. People: Archibald Henderson, Joseph Hyde Pratt, Andrew Henry PattersonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919, p. 115
  7. Archibald Henderson heads UNC's mathematics department Henderson succeeded his uncle, William Cain, as head of the mathematics department in 1920 and led it until he retired in 1948. He built up its graduate program and departmental library.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Archibald Henderson, 17 July 1877-6 Dec. 1963
  8. The Carolina Playmakers stage a Shaw-Henderson Festival The Carolina Playmakers held a Shaw-Henderson Festival in Chapel Hill honoring Archibald Henderson, George Bernard Shaw's authorized biographer. It featured Shaw's You Never Can Tell, the play whose 1903 amateur performance had first drawn Henderson to Shaw.Search the index · NCpedia: Henderson, Archibald (Rosamond Putzel, 1988)
  9. Lloyd descendants dedicate a memorial stone to Thomas Lloyd north of Chapel Hill The Thomas Lloyd Memorial Association set up a granite marker to Thomas Lloyd near Old Highway 86 at Stony Hill Road, northwest of Calvander. Its inscription mixes in details from the life of a different Thomas Lloyd of New Hanover County. People: Archibald HendersonSearch the index · Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina: Thomas Lloyd Marker, Chapel Hill
  10. A granite monument is dedicated at Governor Thomas Burke's grave The Sons of the American Revolution and the Lloyd Memorial Association dedicated a memorial monolith at Burke's grave on the Latta plantation northeast of Hillsborough and presented it to the state. Governor J. Melville Broughton and Archibald Henderson were among the speakers. People: J. Melville Broughton, Archibald HendersonSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, October 12, 1944, p. 1

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 2 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Archibald Henderson, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Research sources

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Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Archibald Henderson Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

Local help

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Books about Archibald Henderson

Books by Archibald Henderson

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963, which helps separate this person from others with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

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Picture: Archibald Henderson, portrait plate, 1910. Public domain. Portrait photograph, about 1910; via Wikimedia Commons

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