Bookplates

The Joseph D. Ibbotson Memorial Fund

July 1, 1954

This book fund was established in memory of Joseph D. Ibbotson (1869-1952), Class of 1890. 

While a student on the Hill, Joseph was a member of Chi Psi fraternity and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors. Following graduation, he became the College Librarian until he entered Union Theological Seminary, which he graduated from in 1894. He then attended the University of Berlin and Halle, where he met and married his wife, Hedwig Tappe, before returning to the United States.

Once back in the U.S., Joseph joined the Hamilton faculty as an assistant professor of English literature and instructor in Hebrew. Aside from his role as an educator, he became an ordained Presbyterian minister, an editor of  the Documentary History of Hamilton College, and a contributor for Biblical World, New York History. He had two sons who attended Hamilton: Louis T. Ibbotson, Class of 1922, and J. Selwyn Ibbotson, Class of 1929. In 1950, the College awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.