Leland Hume scrapbook, ca. 1877-ca. 1919.
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: The collection consists of one scrapbook and a folder of materials related primarily to the careers and civic interests of Mr. and Mrs. Leland Hume, of Nashville, circa the late 19th and early 20th century. Includes newsclippings about the Hume family, Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company, telephone business sources, poetry, philosophical gleanings, political tickets, school report cards, travel ephemera, correspondence, and memorabilia of Vanderbilt University. Several of the invitation banquet menus of special dinners in honor of famous persons include the Nashville banquet tended Admiral George Dewey by the Chamber of Commerce, May 11, 1900; Southern Commercial Congress banquet in honor of General John J. Pershing, Dec. 8, 1919, and an autographed dinner program of the Telephone Pioneers of America at Hotel Astor in New York City, Nov. 15, 1912. The scrapbook provides biographical sources about Mrs. Leland Hume, an officer of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, their children, and Alfred Hume (1808-1853) the "father" of Nashville public schools. Additional topics include the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, the Telephone Pioneers of America, Woodland Street Presbyterian Church, and Mrs. Hume's father Reverend George A. Trenholm. The correspondents include William Hume to Leland Hume, Woodland Street Presbyterian Church, and the Southern Commercial Congress. Includes an 1899 imprint publication entitled "Memorial Sermon on Rev. Geo. A. Trenholm, D.D. at Woodland Street Presbyterian Church."

In a separate folder is a dinner program of the Telephone Pioneers of America given by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Oct. 25, 1921 at the Statler Hotel, St. Louis with a 3 x 2 photograph of Frank O. Watts, President of American Banker's Association.

Cite as: Leland Hume Scrapbook, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library.

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code).

Source of acquisition unknown;,Acc. RT-100.

Leland Hume (1864-1939) was one of the pioneer developers of the telephone, and was prominent in Nashville's civic, business, religious, and educational life in the early to mid-20th century. Mr. Hume was a descendent of the Reverend William Hume, a prominent Presbyterian clergyman and educator who came to Nashville in 1801 from Edinburgh, Scotland. Alfred Hume, Esq. (1808-1854) was his grandfather and was renowned as an educator and founder of Nashville's public schools. Leland was born during the American Civil War in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, his parents were Confederate Major William Hume and Mary Leland Hume. Following the war, the Humes returned to Nashville, where Leland attended the public schools and Vanderbilt University for one year. Mr. Hume began his business career with Orr Brothers, a wholesale grocery firm in which his father was a partner. At the age of 21, he joined the new Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company. Elected treasurer at age 22, he continued to rise in the telephone business through hard work and merit. Hume was elected General Manager of the Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company circa July, 1890. The telephone company was consolidated with Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, wherein he was elected Director and Vice-President on July 1, 1930 and retired as Vice President. Hume was president of the Fourth and First Banks, Inc. and was president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1906 and active on its board for thirty years. Leland Hume married Louise Trenholm, of Charleston, South Carolina and they raised their family in Nashville. They attended Woodland Street Presbyterian Church, and he was on the Board of Deacons.

Hume helped organize the Nashville Booster Club and was a member of the City Board of Education for 25 years. Hume had hobbies and interests in poetry, traveling, automobile racing, fishing, scrapbooks and collecting books.

In English.

Unknown provenance.

No further accruals are expected.