Call Number:

C1320

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Horton Davies Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1951-1964 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Davies, Horton

Form:

Correspondence -- 20th century and Drawings. -- 20th century

Abstract:

This is a collection of correspondence and selected writings of Horton Marlais Davies, a Princeton University professor of religion and author of many books on church history.

Horton Davies was a Princeton University professor of religion; his wife, Marie-Helene Davies, is author of LAUGHTER IN A GENEVAN GOWN: THE WORKS OF FREDERICK BUECHNER, 1970-1980 (1983).

The College of New Jersey was initially chartered in 1746. The first classes were held in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in the parsonage of the president, the Reverend Jonathan Dickinson. Upon his death, the College moved to Newark, New Jersey, and was headed by the Reverend Aaron Burr, Sr. Since 1756, the College has been located in Princeton, New Jersey. For the first fifty years, nearly all College operations took place within Nassau Hall. Fires, fundraising difficulties, low student enrollment, and the Civil War challenged the vitality of the College in the early and middle nineteenth century, but the College grew vigorously under the leadership of President James McCosh, and it was renamed Princeton University in 1896. The Graduate School was established in 1900, although a limited graduate program had existed since the 1870s. Princeton enthusiastically supported the country (living up to its informal motto, "Princeton in the Nation's Service") during the First and Second World Wars, offering the expertise of faculty and campus space for training, as well as facilitating the early graduation of students so they could enlist. The post-World War II years brought dramatic changes to Princeton. The size and strength of the University's facilities and academic programs—especially for the applied sciences and public policy—were increased dramatically. Under President Robert Goheen, Princeton began to admit minority students in greater numbers in the 1960s and admitted women undergraduates in 1969. Today, Princeton is widely regarded as one of the top universities in the world.

George F. Thomas was a professor of religious thought at Princeton University from 1940 till 1968.

The collection consists of selected correspondence of Davies, along with several corrected chapter drafts for his book Like Angels from a Cloud: The English Metaphysical Preachers: 1588-1645 and clippings regarding his book Varieties of English Preaching, 1900-1960. Included is one postcard (1951) by Alan Paton, the South African author and liberal political activist, and two autograph letters (1951) from Paton's wife, Dorrie, with accompanying holograph questionnaire responses and typed biography of Paton. There are six autograph letters (Oct.-Nov. 1964) by Davies to his first wife, Brenda, from Oxford and Cambridge, describing his fellowship life there (including at "high table"); some of these contain hand-drawn sketches. There is a another group of letters (1955) by George F. Thomas, chairman of the Department of Religion at Princeton University, to Davies, inviting him to come to Princeton to teach and discussing the launch of the yearly course at the Princeton Theological Seminary. In addition, there is an autograph letter from Rev. A. R. Winnett, in Surrey, England, regarding Davies' book Varieties of English Preaching, 1900-1960.