The collection is open for research.
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Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Albert Hobart, Jr., Correspondence, Ms1989-081, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The Albert Hobart, Jr., Correspondence was purchased by Special Collections in 1989.
The processing and description of the Albert Hobart, Jr., Correspondence commenced and was completed in 2022. Preliminary processing had occurred in 2001.
The writer of these letters had orginally been identified as a native of Abington, Connecticut, but evidence in the letters suggest that he was instead from Abington, Massachusetts. A 15-year-old Massachusetts native named Albert Hobart appears in the 1860 census as a resident in the Abington home of Albert and Sarah E. Hobart. In the 1865 Massachusetts state census, Albert Hobart appears as a 19-year-old shoemaker. The 1870 census lists a 24-year-old Massachusetts native named Albert Hobart living and working as a wholesale dealer in Marion (Jefferson County), Texas. A 63-year-old, unmarried cutlery salesman named Albert Hobart, a native of Massachusetts, appears in the 1910 census as a resident of Rockland (Plymouth County), Massachusetts. The 1920 census shows Hobart still living in Rockland but working as a fruit farmer. An Albert Hobart died in Rockland in 1929.
This collection consists of twelve letters written by Albert Hobart Jr., a native of Massachusetts living in Atlanta, Georgia and operating a store during Reconstruction. Addressed to "Freind [sic] Wallace," 10 of the letters date from the latter half of 1869. The letters focus almost entirely on personal matters. A rare exception occurs on June 16, 1869, when Hobart reports the apparent removal of Freedmen from legislative offices and their later reinstatement. Elsewhere, Hobart mentions the Peace Jubilee of 1869, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, and the prospect of spending Independence Day in the South, but the letters focus largely on the weather, personal activities of his friends at home, and Hobart's own homesickness.
The guide to the Albert Hobart, Jr., Correspondence, Ms1989-081 by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/).