Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 30, 1993 TAG: 9307300193
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Unlocking requires a special interest in an ill-fated, 16th century queen - one whose likeness covers the parlor walls.
It was an interest that Roanoke native E. Pendleton Hogan stumbled into some 50 years ago. It was an interest that resulted in what is said to be the world's largest picture collection of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Hogan was walking the streets of the Georgetown section in Washington, D.C., the story goes, when he saw an oil painting in the window of an antiques shop. Hogan loved the painting - a portrait of a woman - so much that he bought it. The subject of the painting did not particularly concern him.
It did, however, greatly intrigue an art expert, who recognized the portrait's subject as Mary, Queen of Scots. The painting, the expert estimated, was more than 300 years old.
Hogan, too, became intrigued. And his interest in the much-troubled queen became a lifelong fascination.
A Roanoke College alumnus, Hogan had amassed 109 items before his death this week at the age of 86. The prints, original paintings, copies of etchings and other likenesses depict Mary at different stages of her life, including her execution in 1587.
In 1980, Hogan signed the collection over to the college, where it remains housed in Crawford Hall, a dormitory on the south side of the Salem campus.
"The collection tells the story of Mary's life pictorially," said Stuart Sullivan, director of planned giving and endowment. "There are pictures of her, pictures of other people involved in her life. And of her beheading as well."
The collection's value is unknown, Sullivan said.
"Some of the paintings are very valuable. Some things aren't worth anything," he said. "I've had appraisers who could not accurately say."
The collection was one of several gifts Hogan made to the college.
Four years ago, he endowed a scholarship to aid students who research the queen's era. Candidates are required to submit a research project that is judged by a panel of faculty members.
That Hogan would become so intrigued with Mary was part of his colorful character, some say.
"He was of the old school - very Old World, with Old World mannerisms," said Michael Maxey, the college's vice president of admissions services.
Hogan spoke frequently of his collection, referring to its subject as "M, Q of S," Maxey said.
"He spoke as though he knew her," Maxey said. "He was interested in keeping her memory alive. And he took his interest to the highest level."
Hogan did that with many of his talents, Maxey said.
A novelist, traveler and antiquarian, Hogan several years ago had three book projects going at once, Maxey said. He had devoted three rooms of his home in Charlottesville, where he lived in his later years, to each project. Research material covered every piece of furniture in the rooms, Maxey recalled.
"I can't think of anything that he didn't try," Maxey said.
Hogan published three novels, including "The Bishop of Havana," a Book-of-the-Month Club choice in 1933. At the request of the University Press of Virginia, he wrote and researched "The Lawn," a 1987 descriptive guide to the University of Virginia.
Hogan wrote articles for Town and Country, Collier's, Diplomat, British Blackwoods and other magazines. He traveled around the world.
He was a house remodeler, an expert on 17th century furnishings, a self-taught architect and veteran of two stints in the U.S. Army.
Hogan was modest about his life, once telling a newspaper reporter that by discussing it much, he might appear "fatuous."
"If I had to describe him, it would be as a modern renaissance man," Sullivan said.
Sullivan and Maxey were two of the few people whom Hogan allowed to call him "Pen."
To everyone else, Sullivan said, "he was Mr. Hogan."
by CNB