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COLLECTION Identifier: bMS 111

Eliot, Frederick May, 1889-1958. Additional papers, 1890-1958.

Overview

Additional papers of Frederick May Eliot, Unitarian minister, Word War I army chaplain, and president of the American Unitarian Association including sermons, letters, and biographical material. The papers cover 1890-1958.

Dates

  • Creation: 1890-1958.

Extent

6 boxes

Biographical / Historical

Frederick May Eliot (1889-1958) was born in Boston and graduated Harvard College with an AB in 1911 and an AM in 1912. He was a Harvard College instructor of government from 1912 to 1913 and attended Harvard Divinity School from 1912 to 1915. He was ordained to the Unitarian ministry in 1915 at the First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also served at the Unity Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He served as president of the Young People's Religious Union from 1916 to 1918 and served as an army chaplain in France during World War I from 1918 to 1919. He chaired the Unitarian Commission on Appraisal from 1934 to 1937. In 1937 he was elected president of the American Unitarian Association and held the post until his death in 1958. While president, he established the Unitarian Service Committee in 1940 in order to aid Europeans under the Nazi regime. He served as a trustee of Mt. Holyoke College (Massachusetts) from 1940 to 1958, and the College designated its religious services building as the Eliot House. He was chaplain of the Massachusetts State Senate from 1948 to 1948 and again from 1951 to 1958. He was on the Board of the Massachusetts Bible Society, served as a director of the American Civil Liberties Union, and was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He authored The Unwrought Iron: An Introduction to Religion (1920).

Arrangement

Organized into the following series:

  1. Series I. Writings
  2. Series II. Letters
  3. Series III. Biographical
  4. Series IV. Miscellaneous

Acquisition Information

Gift of Miss Abigail A. Eliot, 1972.

Related Materials

For related collections, please see bMS 70, bMS 173, bMS 378, and bMS 578.

Title
Eliot, Frederick May, 1889-1958. Additional papers: A Finding Aid.
Author
Andover-Harvard Theological Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
div00111

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard Divinity School Library, Harvard University Repository

Special Collections at Harvard Divinity School Library preserves and makes accessible primary source materials documenting the history of religion and theology, with particular historical emphasis on American liberal religious traditions. Though the historical strengths of the collections have been in the field of Christianity, other religious traditions are increasingly reflected, in step with Harvard Divinity School's evolving focus on global religious studies. Known as Andover-Harvard Theological Library since 1911, it was renamed the Harvard Divinity School Library in 2021.

Contact:
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