Bingham, Robert Worth (1871-1937) Added Papers, 1894-1944

Held by The Filson Historical Society 

Creator:  Robert Worth Bingham, 1871-1937 

Title:  Added Papers, 1894-1944 

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department. 

Size of Collection:  1 cubic foot 

Location Number:  Mss. A B613b 

Scope and Content Note 

The Robert W. Bingham papers include correspondence, 1894-1944 and undated; a memorial (1913) regarding the accidental death of his first wife, Eleanor Miler Bingham; receipted bills; and miscellaneous items.  

Correspondence includes his and his wife’s correspondence, 1895-1913, during their courtship and after their marriage discussing his legal business, personal matters, and their children. Other correspondence includes letters from family members and from the three Bingham. children: Robert Henrietta, and Barry.  

Papers also include Eleanor M. Bingham’ s memorial written after she died of injuries sustained after the car in which she was riding was hit by an inter-urban car; Robert W. Bingham’s receipted bilk for purchases, mostly books, from businesses in Louisville, London, and New York; and miscellaneous items from his ambassadorship to England, 1933-1937. 

Biographical Note 

1871: Born in Orange Co., North, Carolina, 8 November.  

1888: Graduated from the Bingham Military School in Asheville, N.C. 

1889-1892: Attended the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia. 

1892-1896: Taught Latin and Greek at the Bingham Military School.  

1896: Married Eleanor Miller and moved to Louisville, Kentucky. 

1897: Received a law degree from the University of Louisville and formed a firm with longtime friend W.W. Davies.  

1905: Appointed Mayor of Louisville. 

1907: Appointed and then elected Jefferson County Attorney.  

1911: Appointed chancellor of the Jefferson Circuit Court. 

1913: Bingham’s wife, Eleanor, died as a result of an automobile accident.  

1916: Married Mary Lily (Kenan) Flagler, widow of Henry Flagler, on 15 November.  

1917: Eight months after their marriage, Mary Lily Flagler Bingham died of a heart condition. Under a codicil to her ‘Wilt, Bingham received $5 million.  

1918: Purchased the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times. 

1924: Married Aleen Lithgow (Muldoon) Hilliard, widow of J. Byron Hilliard, on 21 August.  

1933: Appointed ambassador to England by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

1937: Died of abdominal Hodgkin’s disease at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, 18 December. 

 

Folder List 

Box 1  

1. Correspondence, September 1894 – August 1895 

2. Correspondence, September – October 1895 

3. Correspondence, November – December 1895  

4. Correspondence, 1896-1898  

5. Correspondence, 1899 

6. Correspondence, 1900 – 1901 

7. Correspondence, 1902 – 1903 

8. Correspondence, June 1906

 

Box 2 

9. Correspondence, July – August 1906 

10. Correspondence, September – December 1906  

11. Correspondence, January 1908 – June 1909 

12. Correspondence, July – December 1909 

13. Correspondence, 1910 – 1911 

14. Correspondence, 1913 

15. Correspondence, 1915 – 1944 

16. Correspondence, undated (Henrietta Bingham) 

17. Correspondence, undated (Robert Bingham) 

 

Box 3 

18. Correspondence, undated 

19. Correspondence, undated 

20. Receipted bills, “A-F” 

21. Receipted bills, “G-P” 

22. Receipted bills, “R-Z” 

23. Eleanor M. Bingham’s death, 27 April 1913 

24. Miscellaneous