Hinman, Charlton, 1911-1977

Source Citation

Born February 11, 1911, in Fort Collins, Colorado, Charlton Joseph Kadio Hinman earned degrees from Cornell University (A.B., 1931), the University of Oxford (where, as a Rhodes Scholar, he completed a B.A. in 1936, followed by an M.A. in 1939), and the University of Virginia (Ph.D., 1941). He held positions at three universities- Missouri (from 1937 to 1939), Johns Hopkins (from 1946 to 1950), and Kansas (where he served as University Distinguished Pro- fessor from 1963 until his retirement in 1975) -and he was revered by his students as a gifted and inspiring teacher. Hinman's academic endeavors were twice interrupted by military service: he distin- guished himself in naval intelligence and communications both during World War II (from 1942 to 1946) and during the Korean conflict (from 1950 to 1952). It was his work as an officer in the United States Navy, in fact, that led to his invention of the marvelous collating instrument that now bears his name. Comparing aerial reconnaissance photographs for evidence of bomb damage in the Pacific islands during World War II, Hinman realized how valuable it would be to have a machine that would superimpose two corresponding images and, by means of alternating flashes of light, distinguish any variations between one image and another. With characteristic resourcefulness and perseverance, he perfected the tool he envisioned, and by 1952 he and the soon-to-be- famous Hinman Collator were successfully installed in the Folger Shakespeare Library. For most of the next decade, assisted by grants from the Guggenheim and Bollingen foundations, he collated as many as possible of the Folger's eighty copies of the First Folio...When The Printing and Proof-Reading of the First Folio of Shakespeare appeared in 1963, it was immediately acclaimed as a "colossal task of analysis," "a brilliant and protracted piece of laboratory work," "the most important piece of Shakespearean bibliography of the past quarter of a century."...we are grateful for Kadi Hinman's example...Nor will we forget his personal magnetism. As his wife Myra aptly remarked a few days after his death, "in his research, he boldly followed the facts where they led, and in his physical and spiritual trials he courageously stayed the course."

Citations

Date: 1911-02-11 (Birth) - 1977-03-16 (Death)

BiogHist

Name Entry: Hinman, Charlton, 1911-1977

Name Entry: Hinman, Charlton Joseph Kadio, 1911-1977

Relation: memberOf Bibliographical Society (Great Britain)

Relation: memberOf Modern Language Association

Relation: memberOf Shakespeare association of America

Place: Oxford

Place: Washington, D. C.

Place: Kensington

Place: Columbia

Place: Ithaca

Place: Kansas City (Kan.)

Source Citation

Charlton Joseph Kadio Hinman married Jane Seymour van Meter on November 8, 1936 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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BiogHist

Source Citation

Charlton Joseph Kadio Hinman, born February 10, 1911 in Fort Collins, Colorado, was a student at the University of Virginia, located at 1404 Jefferson Park in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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Place: Charlottesville

Place: Fort Collins

Source Citation

<p>"The Collator’s inventor, Charlton Hinman (1911-1977) attended the University of Colorado, Cornell, and Oxford before receiving his Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia in 1941. He held positions at the University of Missouri (1937-1939) and Johns Hopkins University (1946-1950) before arriving at the University of Kansas in 1960; he taught at KU until he retired in 1975. Hinman’s areas of specialization included Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama as well as analytical bibliography."</p>
<p>"As Shakespeare Quarterly reported in a remembrance piece on Hinman, his 'academic endeavors were twice interrupted by military service: he distinguished himself in naval intelligence and communications both during World War II and during Korean conflict.' Hinman got the idea for the Collator as a result of his wartime work comparing aerial reconnaissance photographs for evidence of bombing damage."</p>

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Occupation: Inventors

Source Citation

Claude H. and Ethel H. Hinman lived at 94 Main Street in Collbran, Colorado with their children Charlton J. and Jean L., both age 19.

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BiogHist

Nationality: Americans

Gender: Male

Place: Mesa County

Source Citation

Hinman died at the Potomac Valley Nursing Home in Rockville after a long illness. He published "The Printing Folios of Shakespeare" in two volumes and was editor of "Shakespeace Quarto Facsimilies" and "The Norton Facsimilies of the First Folio of Shakespeare." Hinman received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University. He studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar and earned bachelor's and master's degrees there. He earned a doctorate as a DuPont research fellow at the University of Virginia in 1941. He had served earlier as an instructor at the University of Missouri. During World War II, Dr. Hinman was a commander in naval intelligence and communications in Washington and the South Pacific. A member of the Naval Reserves, he was recalled to active duty during 1950-52. Between World War II and the Korean conflict, he was an assistant professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. During his research work at Folger in the 1950s, he was a Guggenheim fellow and a Bolingen research fellow. He joined the faculty of the University of Kansas in 1960. Hinman was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Bibliography Society of London, the Modern Language Association of America and the Shakespeare Association of America. He is survived by his wife, Myra, of the home in Kensington; a daugther, Barbara, of Fayetteville, Ark., and a stepson, Christopher Eric Olstead, of Houston.

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BiogHist

Occupation: Authors

Occupation: Bibliographers

Occupation: Intelligence officers

Occupation: Literature teachers

Occupation: Naval officers

Relation: alumnusOrAlumnaOf Cornell University

Relation: employeeOf Folger Shakespeare Library

Relation: employeeOf Johns Hopkins University

Relation: memberOf Phi beta kappa

Relation: participantIn Rhodes scholars.

Relation: memberOf United States. Navy

Relation: employeeOf University of Kansas.

Relation: employeeOf University of Missouri.

Relation: alumnusOrAlumnaOf University of Oxford

Relation: alumnusOrAlumnaOf University of Virginia

Relation: associatedWith W.W. Norton & Company

Place: Rockville

Subject: Bibliographers, American

Subject: Cryptographers

Subject: English drama

Subject: English literature

Subject: English literature

Subject: Shakespeare, William

Source Citation

Mrya married Charlton Hinman in 1968. He died in 1977.

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BiogHist

Relation: spouseOf Hinman, Myra, 1926-1992

Source Citation

Charlton Hinman developed what we now refer to as the Hinman Collator. The Hinman Collator rapidly increased the rate at which two texts could be compared. With his mechanical collator and the large collection of First Folios at the Folger, Hinman was able to compare each page...leading to his monumental work exploring the process by which Shakespeare’s collected plays were printed, Printing and Proof-reading of the First Folio of Shakespeare (1963).

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BiogHist

Unknown Source

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