Skip to main content

Kirby Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MC 1030

Scope and Contents

The collection consists primarily of materials related to Leonidas Kirby and his grandson, Dr. Henry Vance Kirby. It includes materials concerning four generations of the Kirby family. Materials include correspondence, ledgers, and other papers relating to Leonidas Kirby and his wife Rhoda. Fewer materials relate to the lives of their sons, including pharmaceutical laboratory notebooks belonging to Leander. A majority of materials, including correspondence, financial documents, and patient appointment books, pertain to Henry Vance Kirby. Henry and his father maintained a special interest in breeding hunting dogs, which is reflected by materials in the collection. Also included are materials pertaining to Henry's term as county coroner. The collection includes photographs, both of Kirby and Vance family members, and of hunting dogs raised by the Kirbys. Also included are photographs of Henry Vance Kirby's army unit in Italy. Materials also concern the history of the medical practice in Harrison and Boone County, with some materials relating to statewide organizations including the Arkansas Medical Society. The collection includes a newspaper article by ex-Confederate General Zebulon B. Vance entitled “Conditions Just After the War," reprinted from The Confederate Veteran. The collection contains a copy of the June 5, 1944 (Volume I, Number 1) issue of The Star and Stripes newspaper headlined “We're in Rome.” The collection also contains items of interest to historians of race relations and right-wing movements. These include a photocopy of the Ku Klux Klan membership certificate of Thomas W. Crow in the “Columbian Union Soveren [sic] Klan of the World" of Dickson. Tennessee, dating from 1919; a National States' Rights Party broadside dating ca. 1962 claiming that John F. Kennedy was planning to impose federal control over schools in Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, put out by anti-integrationist and anti-Communist Hiram L. Hunnicutt of Farmington; and an anonymous writing entitled “A Bias Criticism of The [sic] Negro.” Which gives a harsh assessment of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement. This collection consolidates all materials formerly in MC 1030. the Leonidas Kirby. M.D. Papers, with all materials formerly in MC 985, the Henry Vance Kirby Papers, and MC 1291, the Kirby Family Papers.

Dates

  • 1871-1993

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.

Conditions Governing Use

Medical records are restricted for 100 years from date of creation.

Biographical / Historical

Leonidas Kirby, born in Missouri on December 1, 1850, was the son of Benjamin Franklin Kirby and Mary A. Dawes Kirby. Born into a family of doctors, he studied to be a pharmacist and initially worked in his uncle's drug store in Mound City, Kansas, where he briefly studied medicine. In 1871 he moved to Harrison, Arkansas, where he established a pharmacy with a saloon as a side business. In 1873 Kirby married Rhoda Virginia Crump; together they had six children. He continued his medical studies by attending lectures at Elliott Seminary (now Washington University Medical School) in St. Louis, graduating in 1876. He was a founder and the first president of the Boone County Medical Society. He also served as president of the state medical society. He died in 1926. Of the Kirby's six children, three sons--Frank, Hodgen, and Alexander--became physicians. Their daughter Nora married a physician. A fourth son, Leander, became a pharmacist; he married Virginia Vance, and they had five children. Their son Henry Vance Kirby was born in Boone County near Crooked Creek in 1908. Educated in Harrison public schools, he attended the University of Arkansas from 1926 to 1929. In 1929 he attended the Washington University School of Medicine, graduating in 1933. Interning at DePaul Hospital in St. Louis for a year, he hoped to join his uncle, Frank Kirby, in practice in Harrison. However, Frank Kirby suffered a fatal heart attack on January 20, 1934. Therefore, when Henry returned to Harrison later that year, establishing a solo medical practice. In 1936 Henry married Elva Hudson; together they had three children. During World War II he served as a medic in the 85th Infantry Division, which saw action in Italy. For bravery under fire he was awarded a Bronze Star. Henry returned to Harrison after the war, serving on the Harrison school board from 1948 to 1959, including three years as its president. He was instrumental in the creation of the first hospital in Boone County, opened in 1950, and served as its first chief of staff. From 1963 through 1993 he served as Boone County coroner. He was also a charter member of the Arkansas Academy of Family Practice, which he served as state director. Elva died in the early 1980s, and Henry married Marilyn M. Kirby. Retiring from the medical practice in 1988, he died of cancer on September 21, 1993.

Extent

9 Linear Feet (12 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

Series I. Family Materials

Series II. Medical Records

Series III. Oversize Materials

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Kirby Family Papers were donated to Special Collections by Henry Vance Kirby in 1990.

Processing Information

Processed by Todd E. Lewis. Portions of this collection were originally processed as the Leonidas Kirby, M. D., Papers (MC 1030) by Nan Lawler in June 1990 and as the Dr. Henry Vance Kirby Medical Ledgers (MC 985) by Leon C. Miller in October 1989. They were reprocessed together, along with another accession of Kirby family materials, by Lewis in 2006.

Source

Creator

Title
Kirby Family Papers
Status
Completed
Author
Lewis, Todd E.
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written English.

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Department Repository

Contact:
University of Arkansas Libraries
365 N. McIlroy Avenue
Fayetteville AR 72701 United States
(479) 575-8444