Summary Information
- Call Number: bMS 1041
- Title: Beacon Press. Records, 1935-1981
- Repository: Harvard Divinity School Library, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-1911
- Quantity: 9 boxes (3.15 c.f.)
Administrative Information:
- HOLLIS Number: AXH8404
- Preferred Citation: Beacon Press. Records, 1935-1981, bMS 1041, Andover-Harvard Library, Harvard Divinity School
- Access: There is a fifty year restriction on access to this collection. Consult the Curator of Manuscripts and Archives for further information.
Historical Information:
The Beacon Press, a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association, traces its beginnings to 1854 when the American Unitarian Association raised $50,000 for a Book Fund Project. The AUA "issued an urgent call for liberal works that would meet the spiritual needs of the age." Until 1950, the strength of the Press was in history, biography, and publications dealing with religious thought and religious freedom. Melvin Arnold became the director of the Press in the late 1940s, and he transformed it into a widely recognized voice for liberal religious values. Since the late 1980s, the Beacon Press has taken on an increasingly independent institutional role as a publisher of works with liberal social, religious, and philosophical perspectives.
Scope and Content:
Collection consists of publication materials such as manuscript drafts, book jackets, illustrations, and correspondence concerning copyright and other issues. Much of this material relates to publications that were part of the Beacon Science Series I and II, (published in the early 1960s), and a religious education series, consisting of over fifty publications, that was published by Beacon during the 1950s and 1960s. There is also material dealing with "About Your Sexuality," a controversial sex education program sponsored by the UUA in the 1970s.
The collection is arranged alphabetically, according to author. The publications in the Beacon Science Series I are: Rocks that Captured History by Edith C. Kingsbury; Hands by Dorothy T. Spoerl; New England Shores, by Hildreth Frost; Magnets by Carole and Kendrick Fenderson; and The Endless Sky, Flowers-Carriers of Life, The Leafy Home of the Birds, and Water: Form and Motion, all by E. Marie Boyle. Beacon Science Series II consists of: Seedless Plants: Soil Builders, by E. Marie Boyle; The Web Weavers, by D. Irma Cooke; Southern Shores, by Caroline and Kendrick Fenderson; The Migrating Birds, by Janet Givens; The Wonderful Heart, by Hellen Goudsmit; What Is Real? by Josephine and Lawrence Gould; Bees, by Margaret Ritchie; and Microorganisms; Little Plants and Animals, by Mabel Ruttle.
(See additional Beacon Press Records, bMS 1038 and 1040).
Container List:
Box 1
- (1) Beacon Science Series I - Records and correspondence, 1963
- (2) Beacon Series in Religious Education, booklets, 1954-1966
- (3) I.A.R.F and Council of Liberal Churches-pamphlets, etc. 1956-1981
- (4) The Beacon Hymnal for Church Schools, 1959
- (5) Beacon Song and Service Book, records & correspondence, 1935-1966
- (6-12) "About Your Sexuality" -Correspondence and records, 1971-1972 (7 folders)
Box 2
- (1-10) About Your Sexuality - Correspondence and records, 1971-1972 (10 folders)
Box 3
- (1-2) Boyle, Marie E., "The Endless Sky", 1959-1961
- (3) Boyle, Marie E., "Flowers..."
- (4) Boyle, Marie E., "The Leafy Home of the Birds"
- (5) Boyle, Marie E., "Seedless Plants: Soil Builders"
- (6) Boyle, Marie E., "Water: Form and Motion"
- (7-10) Cheetham, Henry - "Unitarianism and Universalism: An Illustrated History" -Correspondence and records, 1961-1965
- (11-12) Cooke, D. Irma - "The Web Weavers" 1963
- (13-16) Fahs, Sophia and Dorothy Spoerl -"Beginnings of Earth and Sky" - Correspondence and records, 1967-1971
Box 4
- (1) Fahs, Sophia and Dorothy Spoerl -"Beginnings of Earth and Sky" - Correspondence and records, 1967-1971
- (2) Fahs, Sophia and Dorothy Spoerl - "Beginnings of Earth and Sky" - Correspondence and records, 1967-1971
- (3) Fahs, Sophia - "Today's Children and Yesterday's Heritage: A Philosophy of Creative Religious Development"
- (4-7) Fahs, Sophia - "Worshipping Together With Questioning Minds"- Correspondence and records, 1964-1967
- (8-10) Federson, Carole and Kendrick Jr. - "Magnets"
Beacon Science Series I - Correspondence and records, 1963 - (11) Federson, Carole and Kendrick Jr. - "Southern Shores" Beacon Science Series II - Production
- (12-13) Goodwin, Joan - "Human Heritage Part I" - Correspondence (2 folders)
- (14-15) Goodwin, Joan - "Human Heritage Part I" - Correspondence and records, 1970-1971
Box 5
- (1-3) Goodwin, Joan - "Human Heritage Part II" - Correspondence and records, 1970-1971
- (4) Gould, Josephine - "Growing With Nursery and Kindergarten Children" - Correspondence and records, 1960-1967
- (5) Gould, Josephine - "Martin and Judy for Parents and Teachers" - Correspondence and records, 1958-1960
- (6-7) Gould, Josephine - "Teaching Primary Children" correspondence and records, 1958-1965
- (8) Gould, Josephine and Lawrence - "What is Real?" Correspondence and records, 1963-1965
Box 6
- (1-4) Heinz, Suzanna Wilder - "Who Do Men Say I Am" - Correspondence and records, 1965-1967
- (5-6) Hill, Dorothy - "Abraham: His Heritage and Ours" Correspondence and records, 1967
- (7) Hills, Verna and Sophia Lyon Fahs - "Martin and Judy In Sunshine and Rain" 1958-1967
Box 7
- (1-16) Hills, Verna and Sophia Lyon Fahs - "Martin and Judy" 1958-1967
- (17-21) Hunter, Edith Fisher - "The Questioning Child and Religion" - Correspondence and records, 1957-1960
- (22-26) Hunter, Edith Fisher - "Sophia Lyon Fahs: A Biography - Correspondence and records, 1966-1967
- (27) Kingsbury, Edith C. - "Rocks: The Captured History" - Beacon Science Series I- Correspondence and records, 1961
- (28-32) Manwell, Elizabeth - "Always Growing" - Correspondence and records, 1957
Box 8
- (1-7) Manwell, Reginald and Sophia L. Fahs - "The Church Across the Street, Rev. ed." - Correspondence and records, 1956-1967
- (8-11) Pratt, Alice Day - "Animal Babies" - Correspondence and records, 1944-1972
- (12-16) Spoerl, Dorothy T. - "Tensions Our Children Live With: Stories for Discussion" - Correspondence and records, 1959-1963
Box 9
- (1) Spoerl, Dorothy - "Hands" - Beacon Science Series I - Correspondence and records
- (2-5) Thompson,Jean McKee -"Our Own Christmas" - Correspondence and records, 1967
- (6) Thompson, Jean McKee - "Poems to Grow On" 1956
- (7-10) Wensberg - "Experiences With Living Things" - Correspondence and records, 1965-1970
- (11) Wolfe, Emerson - "Man of Prophetic Fire" - Reviews, 1971