bMS 625

Boynton, Richard Wilson.  Papers, 1893-1951.

Summary Information:

• Call Number: bMS 625
• Title: Boynton, Richard Wilson. Papers, 1893-1951.
• Repository: Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-1911
• Quantity: 19 boxes (6.65 cubic feet)

Administrative Information:

• Acquisition Information: Gift of David Parke, 1993.
• Access: There are no restrictions on access to this collection. 

Biographical Information:

Richard Wilson Boynton (1870-1961) was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Meadville Theological School in 1895. He served the Unitarian congregation at Roslindale, Massachusetts, from 1895 to 1900, and spent 1898 studying at Harvard University. From 1900 to 1907 Boynton held a pastorate in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1908 he moved to Buffalo and began his service as pastor at the First Unitarian Church there. In 1922 he earned his BA from the University of Buffalo and the following year he earned a master's degree from that same institution. In 1902 Meadville Theological School awarded Boynton a DD. Boynton was a member of the University of Buffalo's philosophy department from 1926 to 1963. During his career he published numerous articles and books, including The Vital Issues of the War and Beyond Mythology. He was married twice and had two daughters. He died in Florida on November 30, 1961.

Scope and Content Note:

Collection includes sermons; personal journals and diaries; personal papers; lecture notes; and draft manuscripts, including multiple draft versions of "Beyond Mythology: A Challenge to Dogmatism in Religion."

Container List:

Sermons (chronologically arranged)

Box 1

• 1893
• 1895
• 1896
• 1897
• 1898 -  125-163, with gaps
• 1899 -  165-205, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1900 -  207-239, with gaps
• 1901 -  242-268, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1902 -  273-297, with gaps
• 1903 -  316-333, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1904 -  351
• 1905 -  378,396, and unnumbered items
• 1906 -  409-439, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1907 -  441-463, with gaps and unnumbered items

Box 2

• 1908 -  184;285;401;444-474, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1909 -  51;343-344;482-513, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1910 -  228;274-288;351;429;446;515-544, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1911 -  273;301;403;459;547-580, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1912 -  264-265;581-611, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1913 -  431;613-645, with gaps

Box 3

• 1914 -  240;646-691, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1915 -  520-523;692-739 with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1916 -  480;737-766, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1917 -  440;767-809, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1918 -  476;721;811-845, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1919 -  494;846-869, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1920 -  870-900, with gaps

Box 4

• 1921 -  901-934, with gaps
• 1922 -  482;935;937;962
• 1924 -  1006-1011, with gaps
• 1925 -  894;1013-1026, with gaps and unnumbered items
• 1926 -  309;477;1026;1029
• 1927 - 1030 and unnumbered items
• 1929 - unnumbered item
• 1931 - 874 and unnumbered items
• 1932 - unnumbered item
• 1933 - unnumbered items
• 1934 - unnumbered items
• 1936 - unnumbered item
• 1937 - unnumbered items
• 1938 - unnumbered items - folder 1 of 2
• 1938 - unnumbered items - folder 2 of 2

Box 5

• 1939 - unnumbered items - folder 1 of 2
• 1939 - unnumbered items - folder 2 of 2
• 1940 - unnumbered items
• 1941 - unnumbered items - folder 1 of 2
• 1941 - unnumbered items - folder 2 of 2
• 1942 - unnumbered items

Box 6

• 1943 - unnumbered items
• 1944 - unnumbered item
• 1945 - unnumbered items
• 1948 - unnumbered items
• no dates and unnumbered - folder 1 of 3
• no dates and unnumbered - folder 2 of 3
• no dates and unnumbered - folder 3 of 3

Personal

Box 7

Record Books (record books include accounts of Boynton's personal and official—i.e., baptisms, weddings, etc.—and his various observations about contemporary news and weather)

• 1895-1896
• 1896-1897
• Sept. 4, 1897 - Mar. 31, 1899
• Apr. 1, 1899 - Feb. 28, 1901
• Mar. 1, 1901 - May 31, 1904
• June 1, 1904 - Nov. 30, 1912

Box 8

• Dec. 1, 1912 - Dec. 29, 1920
• 1905-1910
• 1911-1916
• 1917-1922

Box 9

• 1923-1929
• 1930-1935
• 1936-1941
• 1942-1945

Box 10

• Book Inventory - 1930
• collected signatures
• Dr. Boynton's sermon topics
• 50th Anniversary book commemorating English High School class of 1888
• Financial
• Fragments
• Hymns / Poems
• "In my pocket diary..." - Sept. 9, 1913
• Letters - 1877-1899
• Letters - 19??-1917
• Letters - 1920-1930
• Letters - 1946-1963; and undated
• Miscellaneous - folder 1 of 3
• Miscellaneous - folder 2 of 3
• Miscellaneous - folder 3 of 3
• Service for Harriet Barton Boynton, November 8, 1938

Box 11

• Obituaries / Letters of Condolences - folder 1 of 2
• Obituaries / Letters of Condolences - folder 2 of 2
• Photographs
• Reviews of My Duel With the Vatican
• Sketches
• Special Award from University of Buffalo
• Unitarian Ministers Association Certificate
• Wallet with pictures
• White House Invitation

Box 12

• 2 Bound Bibles

Lecture Notes

Box 13

• "Absolute Immanence and the Moral Ideal" - 1911
• "Address in Honor of Chancellor Samuel Paul Capon" - June 13, 1932
• "The Aim and Scope of Sunday School Teaching" - Oct. 15, 1921
• "The Alleged 'Transcendency' of the Object"
• "The Applied Value of Philosophy" - Apr. 23, 1932
• "The Approach to a Modern Theology" - Shaw Lectures at Meadville T.S. Spring Semester 1911-draft 1
• "The Approach to a Modern Theology" - Shaw Lectures at Meadville T.S. Spring Semester 1911-draft 2
• Army Specialized Training Reserve Program
• "Berkeley and the Deists"
• "The Boundaries of Human Personality" - Feb. 8, 1905
• "Can We Find a Middle Way"
• Channing
• W.E. Channing
• "The Church" - June 15, 1947
• "A Defense of Secular Public Education"
• Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, F.H. Bradley
• "The Ethics of Secularism"
• "Francis Bacon"
• "George W. Babbitt - Good Citizen or Menace?"
• "Goethe's Relation to Philosophy"
• Greek Philosophy
• Greek Religion
• "Hartley and Bentham"
• "Have We an Adequate Theology?" - Nov. 10, 1910
• High School Graduation - June 1888
• History of Modern Philosophy
• Honors Work in Philosophy: Kant
• "David Hume"

Box 14

• "The Issues of the Present Conflict" - Tarrytown, N.J. - Sept. 4, 1940
• "The Knowledge of God" - Annual Meeting of Unitarian Ministers - London - May 23, 1907
• "John Locke"
• "The Lost Golf Ball: A Study in Naive Realism"
• "Medieval Philosophy"
• "A Ministry of Interpretation" - June 20, 1923
• "Miracles Connected With the Person of Jesus" - March 25, 1901
• "The Modernist Movement in the Roman Catholic Church" - May 6, 1920
• "The Nature of Knowing"
• "Our Need for A New Vision of God" - Mar. 8, 1917 / May 21, 1917
• "A New Evangelism" - Atlantic City - Sept. 27, 1905; St. Paul - Oct. 8, 1905; Oct. 18, 1905; Des Moines - Oct. 24, 1905
• Philosophy
• Philosophy: Its Scope and Relations
• Philosophy 2
• Philosophy 4
• Philosophy 5: Seminar in American Philosophy
• Philosophy 8: references and required readings
• Philosophy 101
• Philosophy 102

Box 15

• Philosophy 201
• Philosophy 201-202
• Philosophy 304
• Philosophy 305-306
• Philosophy 311-312
• Philosophy 405-406
• Philosophy 409-410
• Philosophy 507-508
• Philosophy in 14th and 15th Century Italy - Jan. 7, 1930
• "Philosophy Looks at Religion"
• Plato and Aristotle
• "A Plea for Ideas"
• Prelude: The Puritan Background (English Dissent)
• "The Problem of Plato's Republic"
• "The Problem of Sovereignty: State versus Church"

Box 16

• "Relativity Physics and the Universe" - Apr. 14, 1932 / Mar. 16, 1933
• "The Renaissance in Philosophy"
• "Roman Catholic Modernism" - Thursday Club - Nov. 11, 1948
• "Science and Philosophy"
• "Science, Religion, and Philosophy" - Oct. 23, 1935 / reread many other times
• "Seminar on Idealism" - 1933-1934
• "The Seven Ages of Man in Philosophy" - July 13, 1936 / reread many other times
• "The Paul of Romanticism and the Paul of History" - Shaw Lectures - 1920
• "A Short Course in Ethics"
• "Spiritual Realism: Philosophy from the standpoint of an enlightened scientist"
• "Studies in Contemporary Poetry"
• Theodore Parker
• "Travel Talks: I. England" - Oct. 13, 1907
• "Travel Talks: II. France" - Oct. 20, 1907 / Oct. 16, 1908
• "Travel Talks: III. Italy" - Nov. 10, 1907 / Oct. 23, 1908
• "Travel Talks: IV. Germany" - Nov. 17, 1907 / Oct. 29, 1908
• "Travel Talks: V. Switzerland" - Nov. 24, 1907
• "Travel Talks: VI. The Rhine of Holland"
• "The University and the Community" - May 4, 1933
• Values
• "What Can Be Done About It?"
• "What Is the Higher Criticism of the Bible" - April 22, 1906 / reread many other times
• "What Logic Is"
• "William James" - Thursday Club - Buffalo - Jan. 12, 1922; U.B. Philosophy Club - Dec. 8, 1931
• "Wordsworth's Poetry of Nature and Human Nature" - Nov. 19, 1902 / reread many other times

Writings

Box 17

• Beyond Mythology: A Challenge to Dogmatism in Religion
• (Note: published in 1951 by Doubleday; Boynton's working title was Religion in the Atomic Age. The chronological order of the following drafts was not clear before processing except for Boynton's occasional annotations numbering certain copies.)
• Beyond Mythology - copy 1
• Religion in the Atomic Age - copy 2
• Religion in the Atomic Age - copy 3
• Beyond Mythology - unnumbered copy

Box 18

• Religion in the Atomic Age - unnumbered copy
• Religion in the Atomic Age - unnumbered copy
• untitled (Beyond Mythology)
• Beyond Mythology - galleys

Box 19

• Religion in the Atomic Age - title page; table of contents; chapter 1(?)
• Religion in the Atomic Age - chapter 1(?)
• Beyond Mythology - handwritten draft
• Beyond Mythology - index pages
• Beyond Mythology - miscellaneous sheets
• "Are 'right' and 'good' Indefinable?"
• "Benedict Arnold" - 1883
• Book Review: Education in Democracy - Jan. 31, 1935
• Book Review for "New Philosophers Series"
• "Categories"
• "Contemporary Thought Around the World: Bergson on Morality and Religion" - Aug. 17, 1933
• "Evidence, Entailment, and Induction"
• Frederic Almy, 1858-1935
• "Is Behaviorism in Psychology a Menace to Religion?" - Nov. 4, 1926
• "Is Dr. G.E. Moore a Subjectivist?" - Nov. 3, 1946
• "Knowledge"
• "Laymen"
• "A Letter for the Benefit of the Laity" - Oct. 15, 1931
• "Operating with the abstract logical categories..."
• "Our concern is with the two parties...Platonists...Aristotelians"
• "Philosophy"
• "The Psychology of Religion"
• "Some Recent Philosophies, and the help they may bring to religion"
• "Theodore Parker as Thinker..."
• "Three Levels"
• "Two-Double-Ended Situations
• "Unitarianism and Social Change"
• Wedding and Funeral Book
• "What Is an Idea?"
• "What Is the 'Object' of Knowledge?"
• "William James, 1842-1910"

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