Social Reform and Advocacy

    Entries drawn from collection & document descriptions

Besant, postcard image (PC, folder 1)
1873-1974

The collection contains correspondence, pamphlets, and photographs of Dr. Annie (Wood) Besant (1847-1933), a prominent and revolutionary freethinker of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Besant was a Christian wife and mother who later in life became an Atheist doctor and...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc1999.07.pdf

Contract estimate, 1849 (Box 2, folder 6)
1833-1854

This collection consists of drafts, letters, manuscripts, notes, financial accounts, and a prospectus for the publication of a book. Specifically, there are lectures and notes on mechanics, as well as drafts for patents on inventions submitted to the Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc1999.08.pdf

Diary, 1851-1856 (Box 2, folder 8)
1729-1955

Moncure Daniel Conway was born into a southern aristocratic family, but ultimately became one of the nation's leading abolitionists and humanitarians. Conway was a graduate of Dickinson College in 1849 and was trained for the ministry at Harvard Divinity School. The collection consists mainly of...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc1999.06.pdf

Sermons, c.1920s-1960s (Box 5, folder 3)
1921-1975

This collection consists of the essays and sermons of Walter L. Crowding, Dickinson Class of 1925 and Methodist minister. Most of the essays are written upon various topics in religion, but also included are treatises on art and literature. The majority of the collection is comprised of more...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc2001.12.pdf

Herman Merrills Johnson - President, 1860-1868
1860-1868

The records contained in the President Herman Merrills Johnson record group pertain only to his time and affairs as president of Dickinson College. As such, no personal papers or papers pertaining to Johnson’s tenure as a faculty member are included in this record group. For records concerning...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon RG 2/6 - Herman Merrills Johnson

Scrapbook page, c1860-c1890 (Box 1, folder 1)
c.1860-1890

This Herman Merrills Johnson collection consists of a scrapbook believed to have been kept by the former college president Herman Merrills Johnson throughout his lifetime and continued by his son Theodore. The collection is housed in one document box. Newspaper clippings from the New York...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc2000.09.pdf

Press release, 1964 (Box 3, folder 5)
1946-1977

Charles Flint Kellogg was a member of Dickinson's history department from 1946 to 1975. His scholarship focused on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Kellogg helped to establish black studies courses at the College and taught courses on black history. This...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc2011.01.pdf

Certificate, 1861 (Box 1, folder 24)
1802-1890

The collection consists of correspondence, genealogical materials, legal materials, printed and scrapbook materials relating to George Burt Lincoln. Correspondents include Abner Doubleday, Horace Greeley, Julia Ward Howe, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Of particular note is a letter from Julia Ward...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc2000.03.pdf

Booklet, 1854 (Box 2, folder 2)
1797-1937

The collection consists of correspondence, legal and financial materials primarily related to Price's law practice, his service in the Pennsylvania State Senate (1854-1856), and as a commissioner for Fairmount Park Association. Also included in the collection are papers concerning the Fisher's...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc1999.13.pdf

Program, undated (Box 4, folder 9)
1790-1937

Leon Cushing Prince (1878-1937) graduated from Dickinson College in 1898 and received his law degree from the Dickinson School of Law and his masters from New York University. Prince returned to Dickinson in 1907 to become a professor of history, where he would teach for thirty years until his...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc1998.07.pdf

Opening of the Women's Center - RG 9/8  4-2-1
1983-2008

These records document the activity and organization of the Zatae Longsdorff's Women's Center, a feminist organization at Dickinson that included student and faculty members. 

Collection Inventory: PDF icon RG 9/8 - Women's Center records

Speech, 1837 (Box 1, folder 12)
1836-1842

The collection includes correspondence, speeches, essays, notebooks, bills, printed materials, and notes on debates and other such topics as the Light Street Institute and the Washington Temperance Society. The collection spans three main time periods in Zug's life: his enrollment at Dickinson...

Collection Inventory: PDF icon mc2000.10.pdf

Letter from Benjamin Rush to Unknown Recipient
July 9, 1803

Benjamin Rush writes to an unidentified doctor and thanks him for his long letter as well as the enclosed newspaper clippings. Rush is glad to hear that his publications are useful to the doctor, and he comments positively on this doctor's own publications arguing against capital punishment....

Location: I-Willoughby-2009-1

Subject: Health and Medicine, Social Reform and Advocacy

Format: Letters/Correspondence

Time Period: 1800-1819

"Encouragement Due to Worth and Genius," by William Woodward
July 19, 1838

William Woodward prepared this oration, entitled “Encouragement Due to Worth and Genius," for the commencement ceremonies held July 19, 1838. Authoring an original speech was among the graduation requirements for Dickinson College seniors at that time. Transcript included.

Location: Orations-1838-W899e

Subject: Education, Social Reform and Advocacy

Format: Speeches and Sermons

Time Period: 1820-1839

"Formation of Female Character," by John O. Proctor
July 11, 1839

John O. Proctor prepared this oration, entitled “Formation of the Female Character," for the commencement ceremonies held July 11, 1839. Authoring an original speech was among the graduation requirements for Dickinson College seniors at that time. Transcript included.

Location: Orations-1839-P964f

Subject: Education, Social Reform and Advocacy

Format: Speeches and Sermons

Time Period: 1820-1839

"Inequalities of Human Condition," by John Lyon
July 11, 1839

John Lyon prepared this oration, entitled “Inequalities of the Human Condition," for the commencement ceremonies held July 11, 1839. Authoring an original speech was among the graduation requirements for Dickinson College seniors at that time. Transcript included.

Location: Orations-1839-L991i

Subject: Education, Social Reform and Advocacy

Format: Speeches and Sermons

Time Period: 1820-1839

"What Branch of Study is Most Important in the Education of a Young Lady," by Ellen Lyon
circa 1840

Ellen Lyon discusses how women's education should be structured and what subjects should be included in an essay entitled "What Branch of Study is Most Important in the Education of a Young Lady." "Within a few years female education has received more attention and has undergone a material...

Location: I-Original-undated-16

Subject: Education, Social Reform and Advocacy

Format: Essays and Dissertations

Time Period: 1840-1859

"Tyranny of Public Opinion," by Henry B. Harnsberger
July 8, 1841

Henry B. Hamsberger prepared this oration, entitled “Tyranny of Public Opinion," for the commencement ceremonies held July 8, 1841. Authoring an original speech was among the graduation requirements for Dickinson College seniors at that time. Transcript included.

Location: Orations-1841-H291t

Subject: Politics and Government, Social Reform and Advocacy

Format: Speeches and Sermons

Time Period: 1840-1859

Letter from John Kennaday to His Family
January 5, 1844

John Robert Kennaday writes to several members of his family about life as a student at Dickinson. While "there has not been anything special going on here [in Carlisle] lately," John tells his brother, Jim, about "a Temperance meeting in the chapel last Saturday evening, at which there were a...

Letters from Alexander McClure to Eli Slifer, 1850-52
1850-1852

Alexander McClure writes sixteen letters to Eli Slifer, a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, on a number of different topics, including the senatorial and representative delegate elections, reports on "Abolishing Capital Punishment," the abolition of slavery, and other...

Journal of Moncure D. Conway
1851-1853

Moncure Daniel Conway, a 1849 graduate of Dickinson College, records a critical time in his personal development as he moves from life as a Methodist preacher to Harvard Divinity School, Unitarianism, and freethought, meeting and befriending Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau along the...

Letters from James Buchanan to Robert Tyler
1851-1857

James Buchanan writes a total of six letters to Robert Tyler expressing his opinions on various contemporary political developments. Topics include the campaign of Judge Campbell, Simon Cameron as a political opponent, Colonel William King as Vice President nominee, Buchanan's "onerous" duties...

"The Destiny of America," by James M. Kimberlin
June 26, 1851

James Monroe Kimberlin prepared this oration, entitled “The Destiny of America," for the commencement ceremonies held June 26, 1851. Authoring an original speech was among the graduation requirements for Dickinson College seniors at that time. In discussing the future of the United States,...

"The Genius of Revolution," by George B. Day
June 26, 1851

George B. Day prepared this oration, entitled “The Genius of Revolution," for the commencement ceremonies held June 26, 1851. Authoring an original speech was among the graduation requirements for Dickinson College seniors at that time. Transcript included.

Location: Orations-1851-D273g

Subject: Education, Politics and Government, Social Reform and Advocacy

Format: Speeches and Sermons

Time Period: 1840-1859

Pages

Subscribe to Social Reform and Advocacy