Robert Lee Hadden

Lee Hadden was born in 1951, and spent most of his childhood in Greenville, North Carolina. He graduated from Rose High School, and went on to get a BA, a BS and an MLS from the University of North Carolina, the University of the State of New York and East Carolina University. He also got a Certificate of Studies from the Europaisches Institut, and experimental school sponsored by East Carolina Universiity at the Haus Steineck in Bonn, Germany (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haus_Ste...).

For thirty years he has been a librarian, with experiences mostly in the medical and physical sciences librarianship. For a while, he had some expertise in starting science libraries from scratch, and worked overseas initiating library services at the King Fah'd General Hospital Medical Library in Al Bahah (See: http://www.albahakfhaa.org/), and the King Khaleed Eye Specialist Hospital Library in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He then worked as a supervisory librarian at the US Army Garrison Camp Page in Chunchon, and the US Army Garrison Camp Long in Wonju, South Korea. Afterwards, he began professional library services at the Regional Medical Library at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.

After a period of time at an US Army Ballistics Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland, and a few years at the Computer Resource Center at the University of Michigan, he worked for fourteen years as a Reference Librarian at the US Geological Survey Library in Reston, Virginia. Since 2004 he has been a map librarian with the Army Geospatial Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Mr. Hadden's writings have been on several subjects. He has been a Civil War Reenactor for over thirty years, and his book, "Reliving the Civil War, a Reenactor's Handbook," was a History Book Club Alternate Selection, and is available electronically from NetLibrary.com. Other writings include articles on the battle of Gettysburg, specifically on the 19th Maine, the 24th Michigan, and the 26th North Carolina regiments involved in that battle.
Mr. Hadden has also written on family history, with his "Shamrock and the Fleur de Lys"

In addition, Mr. Hadden has also written several books and reports on earth sciences, specifically in geology and speleology. These include works on the geology of Liberia and Somalia. This also includes special reports on the caves of Afghanistan and a bibliography on the geology and the battle of Guadalcanal.

On of his favorite articles concerns the "peter monkeys," young men who mined the cave dirt from caves in Virginia during the Civil War, in order to make gunpowder for the Confederacy. In a combination of history, reenacting, chemistry and speleology, we reproduced the manufacturing process and evaluated it for productivity.

While at the US Geological Survey Library, Mr. Hadden became interested in two special collections held there. The first was a collection of books by Dr. George Frederick Kunz, and Mr. Hadden is working on a biography of this 19th century mineralogist, and former vice-president of Tiffany & Co.

Also, he was intrigued by a special collection of maps, reports and books that had been stolen by the German army during World War II, and subsequently hidden in a salt mine in Heringen, in Central Germany. There the materials, called "the Heringen Collection", was found by George Patton's troops and eventually given to the USGS Library. Mr. Hadden has written several articles on this collection.

Mr. Hadden is currently working on history of the 4th North Carolina. He is married and lives in Sterling, VA.