While Illinois State Normal University’s (ISNU ) first president, Charles Edward Hovey (1827-1897), served in that role for only four years (1857-1861), his impact on the campus can still be felt to this day. The documents and objects he left behind are likewise scarce but highly meaningful.
A native of Thetford, Vermont, Hovey graduated from Dartmouth College in 1852. For the next five years, he served as a school administrator in Peoria. In 1857, the Board of Education of Illinois chose Hovey to become the first “principal” of the new state teachers’ college at Normal. Hovey left that role at the advent of the Civil War to lead the 33rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment (also known as the Teachers Regiment), which was made up of ISNU students. After the war, Hovey settled in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Hariette Farnham (Spofford) Hovey, and two surviving sons, Richard and Alfred.
Hovey returned to the ISNU campus a few times in later years, most notably on the occasion of the University’s 40th anniversary in 1897. He died just a few months later and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. To honor his commitment and service to the campus, the administration building was renamed Hovey Hall in 1959.
Traces of Hovey’s pivotal presidency can be found throughout the Dr. Jo Ann Rayfield Archives. Some years ago, archivists scoured the collections to gather together important foundational documents of the University, including a few letters in Hovey’s hand, a grouping of family photographs, and physical items, such as Hovey’s Civil War swords and a ceremonial drum used by members of the Teachers Regiment. The resulting Charles E. Hovey Presidential Papers collection also contains several documents created after Hovey’s death memorializing his legacy and that of his son, the poet Richard Hovey.
These materials are all now available for research online through Milner Library’s digital collections, thanks to the work of the library’s Digitization Center and Metadata Team, as well as dedicated volunteers at FromThePage who helped transcribe the handwritten documents. It is the organizers’ hope that the collection will continue to grow in the coming years as additional items relating to Hovey’s presidency are discovered or donated.
