Benton L. Hatch Collection

Collection

Identifier: SpC MS 0230

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection contains both the personal papers of Benton Hatch and items from his collection of materials on Maine and New England history. Included are personal papers of Samuel and Joseph Foxcroft from New Gloucester, Maine, and records of the town of Fryeburg, Maine. The collection also contains papers of Fannie Hardy Eckstorm including a diary and photographs taken by her in 1891 and 1892, as well as items from her personal library. Photographs from the library of Lucius L. Hubbard are also included. The collection also contains individual letters, correspondence, photographs, diaries, monographs, and various other types of documents dating mostly from the 18th and 19th centures and connected with Maine. A few items also relate to Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut.

Dates

Creation: 1696-1976

Creator

Hatch, Benton L. (Benton Le Roy), 1913-1988 (Person)

Restrictions on Access

Kept at Fogler Library's offsite storage facility. One week's notice required for retrieval.

Use Restrictions

Information on literary rights available in the repository.

Biographical Note

Benton L. Hatch was born in Kittery, Maine on January 11, 1913, the son of Edgar and Bertha Rounds Hatch. After attending college for one year in Massachusetts, he transferred to Yale in 1933 and graduated in 1935 with a concentration in classics. After spending a few years working at Sterling Library at Yale and for the Maine Forest Service and the Maine Seaboard Paper Company, he began work as a cataloger at the library at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He then moved to the library at the University of Massachusetts, first to a position in acquisitions and then as Associate Librarian for Special Collections, retiring in 1981. He was also an author and a collector of materials in many formats on Maine and New England history and had an extensive personal library of such materials. Hatch moved to Eliot, Maine after retiring and died there on January 8, 1988.