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Henry Babcock Veatch, Jr. was born August 26, 1911 in Evansville, IN. After graduating high school, Veatch attended Harvard, where he received his A.B. (summa cum laude), M.A. and Ph.D.
Professor Veatch came to the Philosophy Department at Indiana University in 1937 as an instructor. In 1941 he was name Assistant Professor and was named Full Professor in 1952.
Veatch received many awards and honors during his time at IU. In 1954 he became the first recipient of the Frederick Bachman Lieber Award for Distinguished Teaching. He was popular with his students and he was awarded the Sigma Delta Chi "Brown Derby " Award for most popular professor. In 1961 he was named Distinguished Service Professor.
Veatch left IU in 1965 for Northwestern University where he remained until 1973, at which time he accepted a position at Georgetown. There Veatch served as Department Chairman from 1973 to 1976. He retired as a Distinguished Professor in 1983 and returned to Bloomington.
Prof. Veatch was a well known Aristotelian scholar and published several books and countless articles. Among his books are Rational Man: A Modern Interpretation of Aristotelian Ethics (1961), Human Rights: Fact or Fancy (1985), and Swimming Against th e Current in Contemporary Philosophy (1990).
Organized in five series: Correspondence, Speaking engagements, Class notes, St. Meinrad group, and Writings by or about Veatch.
The papers of Professor Henry B. Veatch, Jr. comprise 3 cubic feet and are made up of five series: Correspondence, Speaking engagements, Class notes, St. Meinrad group, and Writings by or about Veatch.
Correspondence, 1941-1997: These folders are arranged alphabetically by correspondent. It consists primarily of correspondence with professional colleagues and includes letters written by Veatch himself. Prominently featured correspondents include Doug Den Uyl, Fred Vogel, and papers from and about Alan Donagan. There is also a large file containing correspondence with publishers, colleagues, co-authors, and his agent concerning Veatch's Humanities in Education typescript (available in Writings By or About Veatch - Typescripts).
Speaking engagements, 1971-1988: This series contains handwritten notes and typescripts of public speaking engagements. Included are Veatch's presentations at the Mills College Conference on Legal and Moral Philosophy. These comprise several folders. Also included in here is Veatch's acceptance speech for the Aquinas Medal, awarded to him in 1971. It is arranged chronologically.
Class notes, 1966-1984: Included in this series are reading lists, syllabi, and exams. The bulk of this series, however, consists of handwritten lecture notes by Veatch. The records by no means represent all of the classes Veatch taught. There are, however, several files containing notes from his Introduction to Philosophy, Metaphysics, Ethical Theory, On Being Human, and Philosophy of Religion classes. Upon moving back to Bloomington after retirement, he and his wife settled in Meadowood where Veatch led some classes. Notes from these are available here. Arrangement is by class, with the lectures ordered chronologically.
St. Meinrad group, 1985-1996: Prof. Veatch and a small number of colleagues formed a philosophical discussion group. Veatch often referred to this group as the "Meinrad Group," as the majority of the members were professors at St. Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, IN. They would meet and discuss books and articles on philosophy and would share their own recent writings and ideas with the group. Frequent correspondents were Dave Denz, Fr. Guy Mansini, and Fr. Joe Rautenberg. This series consists of two folders - a substantial correspondence file and a file made up of notes and papers from the group meetings.
Writings by or about Veatch, 1941-1993: Organized into 4 subseries: Typescripts, 1978-1993, Publications, 1941-1994, Book reviews, 1941-1997, and Reviews of Veatch's work, 1953-1991. Included in this series are edited typescripts, photocopies, reprints of journal articles, and book reviews. This is by no means a complete collection of his writings, for he was a frequent contributor to academic journals and published several books. This collection includes a copy of his History of the IU Philosophy Department and a typescript of his Humanities in education book, but none of his other monographs.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
Henry Veatch, 1998; Accession 98/093.
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[Item], Henry Babcock Veatch papers, Collection C163, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington.
Processed by Dina M. Kellams.
Completed in