H. A. Nelson & Sons was a Montreal-based manufacturer and wholesale dealer of accessories and toys with a branch in Toronto. In 1841, Horatio Admiral Nelson (1816-1882), an American-born merchant, manufacturer, and political figure in Quebec, became co-owner of Nelson & Butters, manufacturers of brooms, brushes and other articles made from wood, e.g., toys, sleighs, picture frames, washboards, sporting goods, etc. In 1861, the company became Nelson, Wood & Co. and, in 1874, H. A. Nelson and Sons. The company was incorporated in 1896. A warehouse fire forced its closure in 1901.
The family of Mr. and Mrs. R. Hackett lived at 65 Rosemount Crescent, Westmount, QC, Canada in 1980.
Charles Wilson Hackett was born June 19th, 1888, to James Franklin Hackett and Matilda "Mittie" Greer Hackett of Chilton, Texas. After graduating from high school, Hackett went to the University of Texas to study history. In 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 the 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.
In addition to his administrative work, Dr. Hackett was a prolific scholar. He authored, edited and translated thousands of pages during his forty-year career. Some of his more notable work includes Prichardo's Treatise on the Limits of Louisiana and Texas (4 volumes, 1931-1946) and Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermin's Attempted Reconquest, 1680-1682 (1942). He also contributed more than fifty original articles to several journals, including the Hispanic American Historical Review, The American Historical Review, and Southwestern Historical Quarterly, where he served as editor from 1937-1939.
Hackett's service extended well beyond his teaching and scholarship. The government of the United States recruited Hackett for a number of scholarly missions in Latin America. In 1926, Calvin Coolidge appointed Hackett as the United States' delegate to the Pan-American Congress held in Panama City, Panama. Fifteen years later, Hackett served as the American delegate to the third Pan-American Institute of Geography and History in Lima, Peru. He also served on a preparation committee for the Seventh American Scientific Congress held in Mexico in 1932.
Charles Wilson Hackett's career came to an end on February 26th, 1951, when he passed away in his home in Austin, Texas.
