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William Joseph Thompson Papers

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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center [Contact Us]3401 Market Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Call Number:
UPT 50 T468
Repository:
University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center
Extent:
0.25 cubic feet
Language:
English
Date:
1915-1938 (inclusive) and 1915-1919 (bulk)
Abstract:
William Joseph Thompson (1864 – 1944) was a Methodist Episcopal minister, professor, and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. The William Joseph Thompson Papers relates to Thompson's efforts to erect a memorial to George Whitefield on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania between 1915 and 1919.

William Joseph Thompson (1864 – 1944) was a Methodist Episcopal minister, professor, and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. Born in Dorchester County, MD., Thompson attended the University of Pennsylvania earning his B.S. in 1884. Shortly after he decided to enter the clergy and attended Drew Theological Seminary earning his B.D. in 1892 (being ordained a Methodist Episcopal minister that same year). Between 1892 and 1910 he served as pastor at churches in Washington, D.C., Maryland, New York, and Massachusetts. During his pastoral work, Thompson also earned an A.M from Harvard University (1901), and a Ph.D. from New York University (1910). He was also awarded honorary degrees from Dickinson College (D.D. 1906), and Hamline University (LL.D. 1913). In 1911 Thompson accepted a faculty position at Drew Theological Seminary as professor of religious psychology and pedagogy (a position he would hold until his retirement in 1934).

In 1915, following the bicentennial of George Whitefield's birth, Thompson wrote to Provost Edgar Fah Smith about the possibility of erecting a monument to Whitefield to honor his involvement in the founding of the University of Pennsylvania. Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin were close friends, and Whitefield's Charity School was purchased as the site for Franklin's Academy of Philadelphia and College of Philadelphia (predecessors to the University of Pennsylvania). Efforts by Thompson, Smith, and Orville S. Duffield (a secretary of the Christian Association) resulted in R. Tait McKenzie's statue of George Whitefield dedicated in the Dormitory Quadrangle in 1919.

Thompson died of a heart attack in New York City at the age of 80.

The William Joseph Thompson Papers relates to Thompson's efforts to erect a memorial to George Whitefield on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania between 1915 and 1919. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence between Thompson, University officers and other interested parties related to the statue's conceptualization, design, and dedication. The General Files series contains material on Whitefield, and the statue's dedication.

The collection does not contain any additional personal or professional papers of William Joseph Thompson. There is some biographical information and an image of Thompson in his Alumni Records File.

The William Joseph Thompson Papers are organized into two series: Correspondence and General Files. Each series is arranged alphabetically.

The William Joseph Thompson Papers were transferred to the University Archives from the University Library's Rare Book and Manuscript Department in September 2015 (Accession Number: 2015: 037).

People
Subject

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center
Finding Aid Author
Joseph - James Ahern
Finding Aid Date
October 2015
Access Restrictions

Access to collections is granted in accordance with the Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center.

Collection Inventory

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Ashbrook, William S., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 1
Bigelow, Poultney, 1918.
Box 1 Folder 2
Borie, C. L. , 1917-1918.
Box 1 Folder 3
Committee on the Whitefield Statue, 1917.
Box 1 Folder 4
Donohugh, Thomas S., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 5
1915.
Box 1 Folder 6
1916.
Box 1 Folder 7
1917.
Box 1 Folder 8
1918.
Box 1 Folder 9
1919.
Box 1 Folder 10
Dulles, Charles W., 1918.
Box 1 Folder 11
Duncan, ?, 1919.
Box 1 Folder 12
Eggleston, Charles F., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 13
Frederick Courtenay Barber and Associates, 1918.
Box 1 Folder 14
Garrison, Lindley, 1919.
Box 1 Folder 15
Gribbel, John, 1919.
Box 1 Folder 16
Gustafson, M. R., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 17
Hall, Lincoln W., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 18
Harbeson, John F., 1918.
Box 1 Folder 19
Howard, Wilbert F., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 20
Laird, Warren Powers, 1917-1919.
Box 1 Folder 21
Lampe, M. Williard, 1918-1919.
Box 1 Folder 22
Library of Congress, 1925.
Box 1 Folder 23
Lippincott, Horace Mather, 1915.
Box 1 Folder 24
Lippincott, Horace Mather, 1918-1919.
Box 1 Folder 25
MacColl, Alexander, 1919.
Box 1 Folder 26
Maris, F. A. D., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 27
1916.
Box 1 Folder 28
1917.
Box 1 Folder 29
1918.
Box 1 Folder 30
1919.
Box 1 Folder 31
Miller, William O., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 32
Morse, E. H. , 1915.
Box 1 Folder 33
Neely, Thomas B., 1919 June 17.
Box 1 Folder 34
Nitzsche, George E. , 1919.
Box 1 Folder 35
Penniman, Josiah Harmar , 1918.
Box 1 Folder 36
Penniman, Josiah Harmar , 1919.
Box 1 Folder 37
Pennsylvania Gazette, 1919.
Box 1 Folder 38
Redding, William A., 1917-1919.
Box 1 Folder 39
Rogers, Robert W., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 40
Rosengarten, Joseph George, 1917.
Box 1 Folder 41
Simpson, Alex , Jr., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 42
1915.
Box 1 Folder 43
1916.
Box 1 Folder 44
1917.
Box 1 Folder 45
1918.
Box 1 Folder 46
1919.
Box 1 Folder 47
University of Pennsylvania Library, 1919, 1938.
Box 1 Folder 48
Views of Professor Laird and C. L. Borie, 1918.
Box 1 Folder 49
Ward, George S., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 50
Watchorn, John, 1919.
Box 1 Folder 51
Wood, Edward C., 1919.
Box 1 Folder 52
Yocum, A. Duncan, 1919.
Box 1 Folder 53

Agreement: Mary McL Thompson with R. Tait McKenzie, 1916.
Box 2 Folder 1
Articles Regarding Unveiling, 1919.
Box 2 Folder 2
Contributors to the Whitefield Statute, 1919.
Box 2 Folder 3
Duffield, Orville S., "Whitefield Reborn." The Christian Advocate, 1918 October 24.
Box 2 Folder 4
"Microphone is a Destroyer of Dogman --- The Radio Minister, with a Congregation of Millions, Cannot be Sectarian." The World, 1925 December 20.
Box 2 Folder 5
Neely, Thomas B., "Early Methodism in Philadelphia." The Philadelphia Record, 1925 January 10.
Box 2 Folder 6
Paterson, A. McDonald, "George Whitefield and the Old Presbyterian Church at Newburyport, Mass." The Christian Work and Evangelist, 1915 January 23.
Box 2 Folder 7
Thompson, William Joseph, "George Whitefield: Educator and University Founder", 1926.
Box 2 Folder 8
Thompson, William Joseph, "George Whitefield, Patron of Education, University Founder." The Methodist Protestant-Recorder, 1938 June 10.
Box 2 Folder 9
Thompson, William Joseph, "A Methodist's Statue at the University of Pennsylvania." The Epworth Herald, 1919 July 5.
Box 2 Folder 10
Unveiling of the Statue of The Reverend George Whitefield, 1919 June 15.
Box 2 Folder 11
"Whitefield on the Pennsylvania Campus." The Literary Digest, 1918 December 21.
Box 2 Folder 12
"Whitefield Statue, Rejected Once, Finds Way into Art Club." Public Ledger, 1919 February 25.
Box 2 Folder 13

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