Hackett, Charles W. (Charles Wilson), 1888-1951

Charles Wilson Hackett was born June 19th, 1888 to James Franklin Hackett and Matilda "Mittie" Greer Hackett of Chilton Texas. After graduating high school, Hackett went to the University of Texas to study history. At Texas, Hackett met his long-time mentor and friend Herbert Eugene Bolton. Bolton introduced Hackett to Spanish American history before leaving the University of Texas to teach at Stanford and eventually the University of California Berkeley. Hackett followed Bolton, first to Stanford and eventually to Berkeley, where he finished his doctorate in history in 1917.

Charles Wilson Hackett began his teaching career in 1918, as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Aside from a few stints as a visiting professor at Harvard, Radcliffe and Stanford, Hackett remained at the University of Texas, where he climbed the ranks in the history department, becoming Distinguished Professor of History in 1944. During his tenure at Texas, Hackett also helped establish the Garcia Library, one of largest and most important collections of bibliographic and archival documents in the United States. The Garcia collection-which the University acquired from the widow of the Mexican senator Genaro García--was integral in molding the University of Texas into a major research center for Latin American Studies. In the early 1940s, Hackett was able convince the administration that UT's strong Latin Americanist faculty combined with the resources of the García Library warranted the creation of an international center for Latin American Studies. Hackett served as the UT Institute of Latin American Studies' first director.

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