
About Dr. Joshua Eyre Hannum
Dr. Joshua Eyre Hannum was born on May 5th, 1890, in Concordville, Pennsylvania, to Howard Hannum and Margaretta Bishop. He grew up in Concordville at several Hannum-owned farms: Tucker Farm/Dell Eyre, Pinewood, and Overfield (Moses Palmer-William Hannum House), all on Concord Road.
Dr. Hannum attended Pennsylvania State College, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering in 1915 and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering in 1920. He worked for Skinner Engine Company in Erie, Pennsylvania, from 1915 to 1926. He taught for a time at Purdue University in Indiana. Dr. Hannum was a research engineer for the Association of American Railroads from 1936 to 1937 and later for the Crane Company in 1938.
Dr. Hannum became the Dean of the School of Engineering at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now known as Auburn University) in 1938 and served until 1943. He then became a professor of mechanical engineering and the Director of Pre-Engineering at Auburn University from 1943 until his death.
Dr. Hannum died on February 12th, 1960, in Opelika, Alabama.
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"U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012"; School Name: Alabama Polytechnic Institute; Year: 1951 (photo credit).
Boyhood Recollections
By Joshua Eyre Hannum, 1952
Dr. Hannum published a memoir in December 1952 about life in Concord Township during his childhood. The memoir contains 130 pages and chapters detailing his family farms, chores, pastimes, and family gatherings. The collection also has a hand drawn map of the Hannum farms.The memoir is a permanent part of the Concord Township Historical Society archives. I pulled quotations from this memoir for each photograph in the tour.


Photography
Dr. Hannum likely used a Kodak Eastman Poco 4x5” plate camera to photograph his subjects in the 1924 tour. In his 1952 memoir, he writes about being gifted this camera in 1903 on his thirteenth birthday from his cousin “Uncle” Samuel Stockton Horner.
“Uncle Stock gave me on my thirteenth birthday a good camera which he was no longer using, an Eastman “Poco” using 4 inch by 5 inch plates, with a folding wooden tripod which I still have, six plate holders, and a carrying case, all in good condition … when Uncle Stock gave me the Poco can be established as the year 1903 by the dates on the first pictures I took with it … they are marked “ J E H ‘03” (Hannum, p. 106-107).