Author talk:Charles Scott Venable

Biographical information
Charles Scott Venable

1827-1900

b.19 April 1827 Prince Edward Co. Virginia

d. 11 Aug. 1900 Charlottesville, Virginia (Albemarle County)

Born at Longwood, Prince Edward county, Virginia, April 19, 1827, son of Nathaniel E. Venable and Mary Embra (Scott) Venable, his wife. He attended the schools of his native county, and in 1842 was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College, where he tutored for three years in mathematics, and at the same time studied law. He was professor of mathematics, 1846-52, with the exception of one year spent in study at the University of Virginia. He also studied in the universities at Berlin and Bonn, Germany. He then resumed his chair in Hampden-Sidney College, continuing until 1856, when he was elected professor of natural history and chemistry in the University of Georgia. After one year he accepted the chair of mathematics and astronomy in the University of South Carolina, which he held until 1862, although absent on military service during the last two years, serving throughout the war, the last two years on the staff of Gen. Robert E. Lee. He was professor of mathematics in the University of Virginia from 1865 to 1896, when he resigned. During 1870-73 and 1886-88 he was chairman of the faculty. It was due almost entirely to his efforts that Leander McCormick, of Chicago, Illinois, donated the great telescope to the university [of Va], and that $75,000 was added to the endowment fund by the alumni, and he also secured $70,000 for a natural history museum. He was the author of many valuable scientific works.

Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume III VII--Prominent Persons


 * There is a Venable school in Charlottesville, Virginia named in his honor. Venable Elementary School opened in the University of Virginia neighborhood in 1925. The school was named for Confederate Colonel Charles Scott Venable, who was a Civil War soldier, professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia and author of arithmetic books for children.


 * Former Confederate Colonel Charles Scott Venable is buried in the University of Virginia's Confederate Cemetery.