All posts by admin

Pearl S. Buck

Collection-related Publications, Special Collections

In recent days a collection of four Pearl Buck manuscripts have been placed on deposit at the Wheaton College Special Collections. These include a hand-written “Son of Fate” manuscript, “Cultural Contacts of the West with the Far East”, a typed speech given to the Cooper Union on February 1, 1944, and a signed autograph manuscript of her “Asia Column” from 1940. The featured “Asia Column” is five pages on 8.5 x 11″ three-ring paper with heading in Buck’s hand, and includes Buck’s signature, with cross-outs and rewrites by the author. In April of 1935, Buck took charge of the “Asia Book-Shelf” column for Asia Magazine, assigning books for review and writing many of the notices herself. In this five-page manuscript she choose four books for review that were incredibly significant and have been reprinted and still available since first published in 1939: In Stalin’s Secret Service (Krivitsky), British Diplomacy in China, 1880-1885 (Kiernan), A Japanese Village (Embree), and Five Miles High (Bates).

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), author and activist, was an ardent feminist and multi-culturalist. The first American woman to win a Nobel Prize for literature, she was acknowledged by most of her peers as one of the leading authorities on China and Asia. She had gone to China with her missionary parents at age three months in 1892. She was educated in the United States but returned to China afterward. Upon her return to the United States in the 1930’s, Buck found a country isolationist in thinking and parochial in world-view. With a characteristic energy, Buck and her second husband Richard set about making east and west better known to each other. Her work at Asia Magazine went a long way to assist in that task. (Conn, Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography, p.181).

Svetlana, the Little Princess

Collection-related Publications, Special Collections

While living in Russia, Svetlana Stalin, the only daughter and last surviving child of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, was “the little princess.” A perfume and many Russian girls were named after her. At the end of her days in Wisconsin, far from her homeland, she died in obscurity on November 22, 2011, at age 85. Between those points Svetlana rode the soaring ups and dismal downs of an extraordinary life.

Defecting in 1967 from Russia, she moved to India, then to Europe, then to the United States. Already widowed and divorced, she married American William Wesley Peters, a former son-in-law to Frank Lloyd Wright, and took the name “Lana Peters.” Returning to Moscow in 1984, she moved to Soviet Georgia, than back to America, then to England, then to France, back to America, then to England again, before finally settling in Wisconsin. During her U.S. sojourn, Svetlana espoused deeply conservative causes, financially supporting William F. Buckley’s National Review. In Russian, she seemingly denounced these views, stating that she had been a “pet” used by the C.I.A. Residing again in the U.S., she retracted her former anti-conservative sentiments, accusing the press of mistranslating her statements.

In 1982 the BBC aired “A Week with Svetlana,” documenting her visit at the Sussex home of Malcolm and Kitty Muggeridge. The famed defector discussed her experience as Stalin’s daughter and the growth and stability of religion in the USSR.

The program was positively received. One woman wrote to Muggeridge, “…It was so very interesting to meet Svetlana, whose faith has sustained her through her joys and sadness…Her conversation, riveting and evocative, reminded me of my young days…Eager to create a brave, new world…” Another wrote: “My heart has been set singing after watching on the television yourself and your guest Stalin’s daughter…The pictures of your house, the garden and the dear English countryside was a feast indeed. Even more, was the unwavering faith of your guest. ‘Christ is alive!’ Hallelulah, my heart replies…”

“You can’t regret your fate,” Svetlana once remarked, “although I do regret my mother didn’t marry a carpenter.” She authored two autobiographies, Twenty Letters to a Friend and Only One Year.

The papers of Malcolm Muggeridge (SC-04) are maintained at Wheaton College Special Collections.

A.A. Milne

Collection-related Publications, Special Collections

Alan Alexander Milne was born in Kilburn, London, England in 1882 and grew up at Henley House School, a small independent school in London run by his father. One of his teachers was H.G. Wells who taught there in 1889-90. Milne later attended Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, studying mathematics. While at Cambridge Milne edited and wrote for a student magazine, Granta, where he came to the attention of editors at Punch, a humor and satirical magazine. He would later work at Punch as an assistant editor. In 1913 Milne married Dorothy “Daphne” de Selincourt and together they had one child, Christopher Robin Milne, on whom was based the Christopher Robin character of his later Winnie the Pooh books. Milne retired to his farm after a stroke and brain surgery in 1952 left him an invalid. He died in 1956.

Materials on A.A. Milne and monographs of his works are located in the William S. Akin Rare Book Collection in the Wheaton College Special Collections.

Jonathan Edwards letters arrive at Wheaton

Special Collections

In recent days a collection of letters related to Jonathan Edwards, noted preacher, theologian and prominent figure of the Great Awakening, have been placed on deposit at the Wheaton College Special Collections. These sixteen original letters written by or to Jonathan Edwards were written from 1752 to 1756 and were previously held by the Rhode Island Historical Society. Noted Edwards biographer George Marsden cited one such letter from Elisha Williams to Jonathan Edwards written August 19, 1752 in his book Jonathan Edwards: A Life. The following letter highlights Edwards’ work as a missionary among Native Americans, namely the Mohawk people of upstate New York.

The Jonathan Edwards collection is available to researchers and students in the Manuscripts Reading Room of the Billy Graham Center (map). An exhibit featuring the letters is being planned for Fall 2012.

Dr. Elsie Storrs Dow

Alumni, Wheaton College Archives

The stocky lady in the long black dress, striding confidently on short legs from class to class, was Dr. Elsie Dow, authority on Shakespeare and Browning. Born in Sycamore, Illinois in 1859, she graduated from Wheaton College in 1881. After employment in high schools and academies, she returned to Wheaton in 1889 as Professor of English Language and Literature. In addition to teaching Classics, History, Mathematics and English, she also served as registrar. Dow studied at Harvard, and in 1922, because of her outstanding achievements in literature, Lawrence College conferred upon her the Doctor of Letters degree. Popular on campus, she was in demand off campus, as well, as reader and speaker.

At the 1937 Homecoming chapel Dr. Buswell presided over the unveling of a portrait of Dow done by Frederick Mizen of Chicago. Herman Fischer accepted the painting for the college. After Elsie Dow spoke, Mignon Bollman McKenzie sang a special number composed for the occasion by Marion Downey and Corinne Smith. The piece was a musical setting of Miss Dow’s poem, “Whatsoever Things are Lovely.” The service was concluded with a benediction by Darien Straw.

For the 1941 inauguration of V. Raymond Edman she wrote:

My word of greeting to our new president is a very sincere welcome from the old to the new. I have been on this campus long enough to have been under the administration of each of our four presidents, and Wheaton has been to me in turn — President Jonathan Blanchard, President Charles Blanchard, President J. Oliver Buswell, Jr. — as it is to me in days to come, President Edman…I see the picture clearly, it is the heroic type. Wheaton will not be Wheaton if it ever loses that type as its head.

Upon her retirement in 1942 Darien Straw wrote:

When Miss Dow began teaching here she was an experienced teacher. Teachers were invited for reasons. I do not know that they ever applied for the job. Schedules were thirty hours a week. Salaries were low and pro-rated, so that the College was kept out of debt by paying all bills, and what was left was apportioned among the teachers with the understanding that accounts were closed at the end of each year. I doubt whether she ever had a written contract for salary yet. She taught all around the curriculum; if a department was short, she could substitute. It is rare for a woman to take a man’s chair and hold it for more than half a century. She did it. Always poised, always sedate, a thousand abstract Christian virtues embodied in the concrete; a walking literary library, with no slang version; among her pupils admired, among her students loved, wherever known and respected; Doctor Dow is thus held in high esteem by the trustees and carries with her ever their benediction and felicitation.

In 1944 100 friends honored Dow on her 85th birthday, visiting her home at 527 Kenilworth. Two outstanding features of the decorated dining room were the large centerpieces of red roses and two two-tier cakes; the latter were brought from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Miss Julia Blanchard assisted with refreshments during the afternoon. Friends and alumni, ranging throughout her 50-year teaching career, offered congratulations. Miss Dow received cards, flowers and gifts from those who could not attend. Special verse messages by Darien Straw and Judge Frank Herrick were read.

She died on October 29, 1944.

Orrin Tiffany

Wheaton College Archives

Orrin E. Tiffany was born March 27, 1868 to DeWitt and Lidia Parker Tiffany and grew up in Havana, Minnesota. After the death of his first wife of twenty-five years, Grace English, Dr. Tiffany married Kathrine Bellanger MacDonald in 1925. Dr. Tiffany came to Wheaton College in 1929 as Chairman of the Department of History and Social Sciences, and was Professor of American and Recent World History until his retirement in 1945. Among his students and faculty colleagues he was well known for his interest in world affairs; former graduates of the department frequently wrote to him for his views on international developments. Tiffany earned his A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Michigan, and was among the first recipients for the Phi Beta Kappa honor shortly after it was offered. In 1945, Seattle Pacific College conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. Before coming to Wheaton College, Dr. Tiffany held professorships and administrative posts at Greenville, Western Maryland, Seattle Pacific, and Whitworth College. In 1945 he attended the United Nations Conference on international organization in San Francisco. His most important contribution to scholarly writing was The Relations of the United States to the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-1838, published by the Buffalo Historical Society, and considered by recent historians as still “the most detailed study” and “the most satisfactory treatment of the subject.” Tiffany died February 2, 1950.

The Tiffany Memorial Lectures were established nearly fifty years ago in 1952 at Wheaton College in honor of the late Dr. Orrin Edward Tiffany. The aim of the Tiffany Memorial Lecture on Foreign Affairs is to foster interest in and understanding of international affairs on the college campus. Past speakers include Kenneth Landon, Robert McNamara, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Mark Hatfield, John Lewis Gaddis, Robert Pastor, Anthony Lake, Robert Seiple, and James Turner Johnson.

The Orrin Tiffany Papers are available to researchers at Wheaton College. The collection contains general biographical information on Dr. Tiffany, including information regarding his activity at Greenville College, Seattle Pacific College, Whitworth College, and Wheaton College. There are materials related to his book, Canadian Rebellion, and a series devoted to the Tiffany Memorial Lectures at Wheaton College. The materials relating to the Tiffany Lectures comprise the bulk of the collection.

Mosaic

Wheaton College Archives

Over the past ten years the accomplishments of the Archives & Special Collections could not have been achieved without the diligence and hard work of its student worker staff. Over seventy-five undergraduates, graduate students, volunteers, and interns have logged countless hours and performed a myriad of duties processing, inventorying, scanning, and serving in numerous capacities throughout the department. In honor of their often unsung behind-the-scenes activities, we present the following mosaic of Jonathan Blanchard, Wheaton’s founding president composed of the portraits of this generation of student workers. We celebrate their faithful efforts and rich contributions to the ongoing work of Special Collections. Thank you!

The mosaic was created using an open source mosaic tool. AndreaMosaic is a freeware graphic art software developed and published by Andrea Denzler that specializes in the creation of photographic mosaic images. Click on the above image to see a high-resolution image from the original photos.

Smile!

Alumni, Wheaton College Archives

Among its artifacts, departmental records and multitudinous holdings, Wheaton College Archives and Special Collections also maintains thousands of photographs. A name often seen on the bottom of many shots featuring school staff or local residents is “Orlin Kohli.”

Kohli began his education at Wheaton College, completing three years before transferring to the University of Colorado, where he graduated in 1924. He briefly taught school in Ft. Lewis, Colorado and Hammond, Indiana, before discovering his passion for photography. Opening his first studio in 1926 in the Smith Building, he stayed until 1936 when he relocated to 212 North Hale. Through the years his portraiture won national as well as community recognition. In 1953 the Professional Photographers of American honored him with the Master of Photography degree, recognizing excellence in photographic technique. In 1966 they again honored him with an award banquet for distinguished service to the profession, inviting him to exhibit 20 prints made throughout the years. Kohli in 1968 was honored as the official photographer by the city council and Mayor Karl F. Heimke, who stated, “Only once before has the city honored a specialist in his field in this manner and that was when another honored citizen (Frank Herrick) was named poet laureate for the city.”

Kohli was also a member of the Illinois Association of Photographers, serving as president from 1948 to 1949. When not creating portraiture in his studio, he served for 12 years on the Wheaton Public Library board, including a term as president. Kohli served two terms on the school board for District 95 and was active in YMCA work.

In addition, he was a charter member of the Geneva Road Baptist church. He died in 1972 at age 74, leaving a widow and three children.

The MacDowell Memorial Colony

Collection-related Publications, Special Collections

Edward MacDowellEdward MacDowell (1860-1908), pianist and composer, felt that the productivity he enjoyed in his later years was the result of the uninterrupted leisure and pine-scented countryside of Peterborough, New Hampshire, where his summer retreat was located. Comfortable in his cabin situated a few years from his home, Hillcrest, he created the Norse and Celtic sonatas, the New England Idylls, the Fireside Tales, and many other songs and choruses. So far out in the woods, the property offered the deep pervading solitude of a primeval forest. During his final illness MacDowell fretted as to what might happen to this beloved patch of earth, hoping that it might continue providing a safe haven for other artists. As he lay dying, his wife, Marian, promised him that she would devote her life to fulfilling his dream. Shortly before he died, the Mendlessohn Glee Club had raised funds for an as-yet undecided memorial; at the suggestion of Mrs. MacDowell, the memorial took the form of an endowment of the Peterborough property for the purpose of establishing an art colony.

Feeling strongly that the various arts all spring from the same impulse, Edward MacDowell encouraged his students to expose themselves to other forms. For instance, the musician should know something about painting; and the sculptor should know something about poetry. The best way to accomplish this was to congregate representatives of all arts, acquainting them with one another. And so the Colony was instituted, acquiring additional acreage in the following decades – though most of it remained undeveloped to preserve the rich forest. Studios and cabins were built, each sufficiently secluded to afford privacy and productivity. Men had their own houses, the women theirs. Residing at Hillcrest, Mrs. MacDowell supervised the construction of studios, roads and the farm. In addition, she traveled far and wide, delivering lecture-recitals, raising substantial support for the 600-acre Colony.

Throughout the years the Colony has hosted such guests as Willa Cather, Elinor Wylie, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Stephen Vincent Benet and Thornton Wilder, who there wrote Our Town. Recent participants include James Baldwin, Michael Chabon and Alice Walker.

The Edward MacDowell Papers (SC-196), comprising photographs, pamphlets and newspaper articles, are housed at the Wheaton College (IL) Special Collections.

Arthur F. Holmes (1924-2011)

Alumni, Wheaton College Archives

Arthur Frank Holmes, author and professor, died on October 8, 2011. He was born March 15, 1924 in Dover, England. His father was a school teacher and Baptist lay preacher. Holmes received his education from Wheaton College, graduating with a B.A. in 1950. He followed this with his Masters in Theology in 1952 and finally his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Northwestern University in 1957. In 1949 he married his wife, Alice, and together raised two children.

Holmes was notable for his contributions to the idea and practices of the integration of faith and learning, an idea he championed for the entirety of his career of over forty years. Starting in 1951, Holmes taught at Wheaton College in what would be a lengthy and influential career of over forty years. During this time, he was the Chair of the Philosophy Department between 1969 and 1994.

Holmes was the author of several books including All Truth is Gods Truth (1977), The Idea of a Christian College (1975), and Building the Christian Academy (2001). His works are characterized by a centralized idea of the integration of faith and learning. While Holmes is most known for his work in Christian higher-education, he also wrote about the need for a continuous education of Christians at an early age.

Throughout his writings and career, Holmes emphasized that, indeed, “all truth is God’s truth.” His desire was for Christians to not shy away from the difficult questions that may arise from whatever subject of academic study they choose. With a firm belief that any truth they find can be reconciled with their faith, Holmes challenged educators and Christians in academia to grapple with what they are interested in, noting that a strong faith can handle some turbulence while coming to a better understanding of God’s creation.

In reflection on his career, it is obvious he accomplished the goals he set forth for himself as a young teacher: he encouraged faith and learning in students, he countered the anti-intellectualism he found in the American church, and he helped prepare a great many students and Christian intellectuals for the various ranks of academia.

A previous featured Dr. Holmes reflecting on the nature of morality in today’s culture.

The Archives & Special Collections also highlighted on of Dr. Holmes’ more memorable chapel addresses, (Ists, isms, and anti-ism-ists), via its Facebook page.

The Arthur F. Holmes Papers are housed in the Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections.