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Digital Collections

bMS 565

Alger, William Rounseville, 1822-1905. Notebooks.

Summary Information:

Call Number: bMS 565
Title: William Rounseville Alger, 1822-1905. Notebooks.
Repository: Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-1911
Quantity: 1 box

Administrative Information:

Acquisition Information: Gift of Gary Scharnhorst, 1993.
Access: There are no restrictions on access to this collection.

Biographical Note:

William Rounseville Alger (1822-1905) attended Harvard Divinity School from 1844-1847. In 1848, he was ordained as a Unitarian minister in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he served until 1855. He also served at the Bulfinch Street Church in Boston and, later at churches in New York, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Louisiana, and Rhode Island. He was a member of the Free Masons and was an active abolitionist, as noted in his 1857 Fourth of July address "The Genius and Posture of America." He was a contributor to the publications Old and New and the Christian Examiner, the latter of which he co-edited during the 1860s. His major literary works included The Poetry of the East (1856) and A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life (1860). He was interested in eschatological themes and his work contributed to the growth of the nascent study of comparative theology.

Scope and Content Note:

This collection consists of two series. Series I is comprised of William R. Alger's notebooks. Each notebook includes a handwritten title, and they are arranged alphabetically by this title. Series II consists of two miscellaneous items including the essay "Religion and Science" by an unidentified author, as well as an excerpt from Gary Scharnhorst's biography of Alger. This excerpt makes mention of 13 handwritten notebooks, 10 of which are in this collection.

Container List:

Series I. Notebooks

bMS 565/1 (1) "Dissertations," 1844-1847.
bMS 565/1 (2) "Ethical Notes, Hints and Definitions," 1882.
bMS 565/1 (3) "The Evils of Life," n.d.
bMS 565/1 (4) "The History of Life," n.d.
bMS 565/1 (5) "Notes from History of Law," n.d.
bMS 565/1 (6) "Notes on the Philosophy, Religion, Mythology, Poetry of Greece and Rome," 1850.
bMS 565/1 (7) "Notes Upon the Religions of the Hindus," n.d.
bMS 565/1 (8) "Philosophy, Religion, Traditions of the Jews," 1850.
bMS 565/1 (9) "The Pleasures of Life," n.d.
bMS 565/1 (10) "Questions in Revealed Religion" and "Questions in Ethics," 1844-1845.

Series II. Miscellaneous

bMS 565/1 (11) "Religion and Science." Sermon or lecture Gary Scharnhorst sent with the notebooks, no author, 1954.
bMS 565/1 (12) Excerpt from A Literary Biography of William Rounseville Alger, 1822-1905 by Gary Scharnhorst.