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Frank Hamilton Hankins was born on September 27, 1877 in Wilkshire, Ohio. He grew up in Kansas, where he received an A.B. from Baker University in 1901. He served as superintendent of schools in Waverly, Kansas for two years before entering Columbia University. As a graduate student and fellow in statistics, Hankins was strongly influenced by the philosophy and logic of John Stuart Mill, the sociology of Giddings, Spencer, and Ward, and the quantitative work of Quetelet, Galton, and Pearson. His doctoral dissertation, "Adolphe Quetelet as Statitician" (1908), was an important contribution to the development of empirical sociology.
Hankins served as a member of the Clark University faculty for sixteen years (1906-22), and head of the Department of Political and Social Science beginning in 1908. Clark, at the time, was under the leadership of the influential psychologist G. Stanley Hall, and was visited by famous psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud and Havelock Ellis. Thus, it was a center of research, graduate study, and stimulating scholarly controversy. Hankins contributed numerous articles to scholarly journals, lectured frequently at other universities, studied social conditions in Europe before and after World War I, and taught at the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politique in Paris in 1921.
Hankins joined the Smith College faculty in 1922 as Professor of Sociology, and for many years he served as department chairman, until he left Smith in 1946. Under the presidency of William Allan Neilson, Smith was an exciting and non-cloistered campus. Hankins, in his years at Smith, built up an excellent group of sociologists on campus, which included people such as Harry Elmer Barnes, Ray Billington, G.A. Borgese, Merle Curti, and Harold Faulkner, among others. Hankins was very active on many different boards and organizations on population and individual rights. In 1930, Hankins was elected the first President of the American Sociological Society, and in 1945 President of the American Population Association. He also taught and lectured widely, serving on the faculties of Amherst College, Columbia, Berkeley, the Army Center at Biarritz, and, following his retirement from Smith, the University of Pennsylvania. In 1936, he studied, on the scene, social conditions in Nazi Germany.
Hankins contributed widely to scholarly journals, anthologies, and the
Hankins died of a heart attack at the age of 92 on January 24, 1970 in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. At the time of his death, he was an eminent sociologist and demographer, distinguished author and lecturer, provocative and influential teacher, an ardent proponent of a strictly scientific sociology, and a concerned humanist.
The Frank Hamilton Hankins Papers span a period from 1922 to 1968, and much of the material is composed of his numerous publications. The collection also covers his involvement in various societies and organizations. The folders are arranged alphabetically, and the hefty folders full of letters and notes regarding Hankins' various organizations point to his involvement in the sociological world. Overall, the Frank Hamilton Hankins Papers are composed of articles, correspondence, written speeches, photographs, minutes from meetings, publications, and information from Hankins' time at different universities, such as Columbia and Clark.
In addition to some chronologies of Hankins' history, the biographical materials also contain some articles and press releases at the time of his death. Much of the information is repetitious, but they are a good source of factual insight.
The correspondence and subject files include the many letters Hankins wrote to his peers over the years, on general subjects as well as specific ones. In addition to general correspondence, there is one box of material devoted specifically to the correspondence between Hankins and his colleague Harry Elmer Barnes. This series also contains several subject files of a variety of topics.
Copies of Hankins' publications comprise the largest part of this collection. There is some information on debates Hankins was involved with and lectures he gave. Also, there are some materials on Hankins' contributions to
This collection is organized into four series:
The papers are open for research according to the regulations of the Smith College Archives without any additional restrictions.
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the documents must be requested from the Smith College Archives. Smith College owns copyright to any published material relating to college events and activities. Provenance and copyright ownership of other materials is unknown and researchers are responsible for determining any question of copyright.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Frank Hamilton Hankins Papers, Box #, Smith College Archives.
The Frank Hamilton Hankins Papers were processed by Katrina Cokeng, 2002, CDO Archival Intern in 1999-2000.
The first series, Biographical Materials, contains several summaries of Hankins' life. Several newspapers, such as the
There are approximately two and a half boxes devoted to the second series, Correspondence. Hankins wrote to many people, especially his colleague Harry Elmer Barnes. The correspondence between Hankins and Barnes covers a period from the early 1920's to the late 1960's. Both men often helped each other in their work and exchanged opinions. The other letters cover a range of subjects, from Hankins' academic work to more personal notes. The correspondence is especially rich in the 1930s. A vast majority of the correspondence is typed and reflect Hankins' involvement in a large variety of organizations. There are also several folders of congratulatory letters and cards wishing Hankins a happy 70th, 90th, and 91st birthday.
Arranged alphabetically.
Subject Files and Organizations covers a broad range of topics, from Hankins' involvement in the American Eugenics Society to the development of the Sociology department. There are also several folders on the various universities Hankins taught at, such as Clark University, Columbia University, and Cornell University. Descriptions of scholarships and fellowships are also included. Looking through these various subject files, it is easy to get a general idea of Hankins. He was obviously interested in such topics as eugenics and population control. His participation in the American Committee for Democracy and Intellectual Freedom, the American Eugenics Society, and the American Sociological Society is extensively covered. These folders are largely composed of correspondence, but also include essays and a scrapbook.
Hankins was a very prolific writer, and the Publications and Speeches series contains almost all of his work. He published many pamphlets on a variety of topics, such as issues of race, population control, and poverty. These are themes that keep recurring through his work. Many of his articles have been published in various newspapers, and these are included as well. It is apparent that Hankins was a progressive thinker who enjoyed challenging existing beliefs.
See Franklin Henry Giddings