Cecil Hobbs was an American scholar of Southeast Asian history, best known for being the head of the Southern Asia Section of the Orientalia Division of the Library of Congress.
Education
Born on April 22, 1907 in Martins Ferry, Ohio, Hobbs graduated with Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Illinois, where he was a lecturer for two years. Hobbs resumed graduate study at Colgate Rochester, receiving both a Master of Theology degree and a doctorate of theology.
Career
He was regarded as a major contributor to scholarship on Asia and the development of South East Asian coverage in American library collections during a career at the Library of Congress spanning 28 years. In 1933, he was awarded a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School in New York state. He taught in Burmese.
Hobbs joined the Library of Congress in 1943, specialising on Southeast Asia, and was elevated to the head of the Southern Asian Section in 1958.
During his period as the head, he made six field trips to Southeast Asia to acquire publications for the Library. His accounts of the publishing landscape and publications obtained were distributed by the Southeast Asia Program of Cornell University for dissemination to scholars and librarians across the globe.
In addition, he authored Understanding the Peoples of Southern Asia (University of Illinois Press, 1967). History and Culture of Southern Asia (University of Illinois Press, 1968).
And Research Needs Relating to Southeast Asia (Southeast Asia Development Advisory Group, 1969), and bibliographical publications.
After his retirement, he served for one year as a consultant to the library of the Australian National University in Canberra. He was the chairman of its Committee on American Library Resources on Southeast Asia for several years, and remained active in the activities of its successor body, the Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia. He was key player in organising the Conference on American Library Resources on Southern Asia held in 1957 and the Conference on Access to Southeast Asian Research Materials in 1970.
Both of these events were held at the Library of Congress.
He died at the age of 84 on December 8, 1991.
Membership
He also served as a subeditor for Southern Asia for the American Historical Review. He sat on the advisory board of contributing consultants to the International Library Review (London). And was a member of the international editorial advisory board of Southeast Asia.
An International Quarterly.
Hobbs was a charter member of the Association for Asian Studies, which was set up in 1948 as the Far Eastern Association.