Religion and Spirituality

Thomas Creigh (1808-1880), Dickinson Class of 1828, attended Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained by the Carlisle Presbytery in 1831. He served as a pastor in Mercersburg, Pa. The collection includes two notebooks from Creigh's student days at Dickinson College. The first notebook dates from 1827 to 1828 and contains lecture notes from William Neill's "Revealed Religion" class and Alexander McClelland's "Metaphysics" class. The second notebook contains a variety of original compositions, including poems, essays, and copies of correspondence dating from 1824 to 1827. The collection also includes two letters from Creigh to James Hamilton written in 1862 and 1872.

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 than 800 sermons presented by Crowding from 1921 to 1975.

John Price Durbin served as president of Dickinson College from 1834 to 1845. From 1842 to 1843 he toured across Europe and the Middle East, and he later published books about his travels. This collection includes a scrapbook that contains an autobiographical memoir as well as items Durbin collected during his travels. There are also several news clippings and engravings.

The papers of John Price Durbin contained within this record group pertain only to the years that he spent as president of Dickinson College, from 1834 to 1845. This includes the papers collected during the period of Durbin's sabbatical, during which Robert Emory served as acting president for one year. The Durbin records are divided into three series: General Business, Personnel, and External Affairs.

The Education Fund played a critical role in the success of Dickinson College, especially during the mid-nineteenth century. For thirty years, Dickinson was entirely dependent upon the interest from the Education Fund to support its operations. In subsequent decades Dickinson’s Board of Trustees would introduce additional means of raising revenue for the school, but the Education Fund continued to serve as a source of income for the college and its students.

This collection is arranged into six categories as follows: Governance, Correspondence, Finances, Scholarships, Director of Religious Life, and Miscellaneous Materials. Within each category the material is arranged chronologically.

The records contained in the President Robert Emory record group pertain only to his time and affairs as president of Dickinson College. As such, any papers from Emory’s acting presidency during John Price Durbin’s sabbatical are not included here, neither are his personal papers, nor his papers as a faculty member. Please see the Robert Emory Personal Papers in the Manuscript Collections for further personal information. The Emory records are divided into three series: General Business, Personnel, and External Affairs.

The McClintock Riots sub-series revolves around the aftermath of the incident and includes letters to the school about the incident, with regards to funding, enrollment, and concerns for the school and its students.

This collection includes correspondence of the Gale family including Reverend Wakefield Gale, a Congregational clergyman educated at Dartmouth and Andover Theological Seminary, his wife Mary Louise Bigelow Gale, John A. Gale, and Joseph Gale. Subjects covered include life in New York City (1825-1852) and church work.

The collection consists of the diaries of Zenanah Gilbert and Dora Gilbert Tompkins; very little else is known about either woman. Gilbert was born in Rome, New York on January 31, 1784; her family ran a guest house in town. Tompkins was born in Knoxville, Illinois, and was a schoolteacher. Gilbert's diary is dated 1805-1809 and describes the typical life of a young woman in the early part of the nineteenth century: household chores, social events, the simple joys of friendship, the depression of being alone. The diary has been written in a code created by Gilbert but has been deciphered and transcribed.

The diary of Tompkins contrasts that of Gilbert, describing her studies as well as her lessons prepared for her students; however, she too enjoyed the simple joys derived from friendship and bike riding. Tompkins mentions the explosion aboard the U.S.S. Maine on February 25, 1898 and is fearful that war is imminent. Miscellaneous items in the collection include a sample of Henry S. Chaffer's handwriting and fragments of the Gilbert family pedigree.

Isaac Grier (c.1763-1814) was a member of the class of 1788 of Dickinson College; he studied theology under Charles Nisbet and later served as principal of the grammar school at the college from 1788 until 1790. The core of the collection consists of bound manuscripts of forty sermons given by him between 1796 and 1813. Additional items in the collection are a fragmented two-page letter addressed simply to Betty, no date given, and a fragmented two-page manuscript of a "Sermon on the Gospel Theme."

Thomas Miller Griffith (1834-1898) graduated from Dickinson College in 1858 and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the college in 1891. He was a member of the Philadelphia conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and served Pennsylvania congregations in Carlisle, Chestnut Hill, Churchtown, Cornwall, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Lebanon, Mauch Chunk, and Media. This collection contains correspondence, speeches, sermons and notes, preaching certificates, a Griffith family genealogy, some memorabilia from Griffith's college days, and his Dickinson diplomas.

The Thomas Hamilton Collection consists almost exclusively of letters received by James Hamilton from his brother Thomas Hamilton, both of whom were prominent figures in local politics (James in Carlisle, PA and Thomas in Greensburg, PA). The letters range in date from 1789 until 1818 and cover a variety of topics, including financial business and accounts, legal cases, local and national politics, family news and religion. The letters also reflect Thomas and James' activities as land speculators in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky.

James Hargis, a Dickinson alum (Class of 1870) and trustee, worked in education for several years before becoming a clergyman, earning his doctorate of divinity in 1888. The collection consists of essays and orations written by Hargis and miscellaneous materials dealing with the Belles Lettres Society and Dickinson oratorical contests.

The Hays family papers include correspondence, deeds, and memorabilia of six generations of this prominent Carlisle, Pa. family whose scions include General Ephraim Blaine (1741-1804), Commissary-General in the American Revolution and charter trustee of Dickinson College, and James G. Blaine (1830-1898), presidential candidate and U. S. Senator from Maine. Ephraim Blaine's account books from his war service, his will, deeds, and other papers are included. John Hays (II), great grandson of Ephraim Blaine, was an 1857 graduate of Dickinson College; many others of his family represented here were also alumni. John Hays' own papers reflect his Civil War service, his veterans' activities, literary interests, genealogy, his interest in the history of Carlisle and Cumberland county, and his varied career as lawyer, bank president, founder of the Carlisle Gas and Water Company and of the Carlisle Frog, Switch and Manufacturing Company. Also included is an exchange of correspondence between Mary Abigail Dodge and John Hays concerning her projected biography of James G. Blaine. In addition, there are significant bodies of 19th century correspondence of lawyers James Hamilton and George Metzger.

The Herman Merrills Johnson papers consist primarily of financial records, bound and unbound, maintained by Johnson during his tenure as president of Dickinson College. The collection also contains correspondence, notes, manuscripts, and the bill of sale for Johnson's library following his death.

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 Johnson’s interactions with students, please refer to RG 5/1. The Johnson records are arranged into two series: General Business, and Personnel.

Please see the Herman Merrills Johnson Personal Papers (MC 2003.9) and the Herman Merrills Johnson Scrapbook (MC 2000.9) in the Manuscript Collections for further personal information.

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 Sentinel, The Emancipator, and Methodist periodicals constitute the bulk of the scrapbook. A number of poetic verses are also included, although none of the poems appear to have been authored by Johnson.

George Armstrong Lyon was a Carlisle lawyer, bank president, Presbyterian elder, and a trustee of Dickinson College. Church affairs are the central concern of these papers, which include accounts of Lyon's hostile view of the Rev. George Duffield's theology and of Lyon's part in the founding of the Second Presbyterian Church in Carlisle in 1832. The collection consists primarily of correspondence, notes, and other documents pertaining to the governmental and financial affairs of Carlisle's First and Second Presbyterian Churches. The collection also contains some items related to Lyon's position as a Dickinson College trustee, specifically in regard to his role in a conflict between College President Samuel Blanchard How, Rev. George Duffield, and Professor Alexander McFarlane.

This collection primarily provides evidence of the personal and public life of Frank E. Masland Jr., environmentalist, preservationist, explorer, entrepreneur, author, and community leader.  Also found in this collection is correspondence from prominent twentieth-century figures such as leaders of the National Park Service, journalists, politicians throughout the world, and American presidents. Information on Dickinson College is featured prominently throughout this collection through the close association of Masland with the institution during most of his life. This collection offers information on a number of social, political, economic, and historic topics through the eyes of a man who witnessed nearly the entire twentieth century.  Some of these broader topics include the industrialization of the United States, south central Pennsylvania community, the rise of environmentalism, reactions to communism, the rise of the New Left, and twentieth-century exploration. The processing of this collection was made possible by a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

The collection consists almost entirely of correspondence between Augusta McClintock and members of her family, including her step-sister (Maria Emory), her aunts (Jane and Pat), her father (John McClintock), and her elder brother (John Emory McClintock). There is also corresponendence between other members of the McClintock family not involving Augusta, a group of miscellaneous letters, a note, and two newspaper clippings.

Augusta was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1843. Her father was a Dickinson College professor at the time of her birth; her brother entered Dickinson College with the class of 1858, but he ultimately earned his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1859.

This collection is composed largely of artifacts which the Millers brought back from their nine year mission to Nepal, 1956-1965. Also included in the collection are a scrapbook, picture books of Nepal, and a Nepalese hymnal.

George Norcross (1838-1915) graduated from Monmouth College in 1861 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1864. He served as minister of the Second Presbyterian Church in Carlisle, Pa., from 1869 until 1909. This collection contains seven sermons given by Norcross between 1870 and 1904. Norcross preached many of these sermons on more than one occasion. The front page of each document, therefore, contains a list of locations and dates for each instance when a sermon was given.

Record group 5/2 consists of both materials dating from 1962-1989 while the Office of the Chaplain existed under the leadership of a full-time chaplain, as well as materials regarding campus religious affairs functions prior to the establishment of the chaplaincy, as early as 1924. The bulk of the material, however, dates from the appointment of Paul Kaylor in 1967 to the resignation of Mary Anne Morefield in 1989. The record group is organized in eleven series:

Series 01 General Administrative Materials

Series 02 Finances

Series 03 General Correspondence

Series 04 Chapel Programming for Weekday Services and Special Events (before fall 1965)

Series 05 College Church Programming for Sunday, Holiday, and Other Special Services

Series 06 Events

Series 07 Social Action

Series 08 Other Religious Traditions/Organizations

Series 09 Other Campus Organizations

Series 10 Other Chaplain’s Activities

Series 11 Chaplains’ Personal Papers

A fuller description of each series is given before each series inventory.

The records contained in the President Jesse Truesdell Peck record group pertain only to his time and affairs as president of Dickinson College. As such, no personal papers or papers pertaining to Peck’s tenure as a faculty member are included in this record group. For records concerning Peck’s interactions with students, please refer to RG 5/1. The Peck records are housed in one document box with RG 2/2 through RG 2/10 and are arranged into three series: General Business, Personnel, and External Affairs.

The collection documents several generations of the Poulson family and its role in publishing Poulson's American Daily Advertiser. It includes submissions, woodcuts, and sample issues from the Daily Advertiser; correspondence; genalogical materials; and financial and legal documents. Correspondents include Horace Binney, Benjamin Rush (1811-1877), Samuel Sartain, John Sargeant (1779-1852), and Noah Webster. The genealogical notes address the Poulson, Carlyle, Graham, Gurney, Knorr, and Wood families.

This collection includes articles, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and programs about Joseph Priestley and related topics. Also included in the collection are genealogical materials - correspondence, notes, charts - collected by Priestley family members