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Inventory of the Claiborne M. Hill Collection

GTU 2005-1-01

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Table of contents

Collection Contents

box-folder 1 - 22:1-4

Series 1 Correspondence 1907-1934

Physical Description: 22 boxes

Series Scope and Content Summary

This Series contains office correspondence. Included are both the incoming letter with the out-going answer, or only the incoming letter, or only the out-going answer. There seems to be no pattern. The subjects of the letters range greatly according to myriad details involved in the administration of a theological seminary as well as the external issues and events in the surrounding community and larger world. Correspondents write to inquire about becoming a student and a minister if male, or training in other aspects of church work if female. These include people primarily from the West Coast, but also from all over the United States, China, and Japan. There is correspondence requesting faculty positions or recruiting faculty for the school. There is correspondence with the various appropriate Baptist denominational boards, agencies, associations, and conferences both national and regional, as well as the Y.M.C.A and the other protestant seminaries in the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly the Pacific School of Religion, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and San Francisco Theological Seminary. There is correspondence with the two Baptist colleges, University of Redlands in Southern California and McMinnville College (later named Linfield) in Oregon.

Much of the correspondence concerns the finances of the seminary including banking, investment, trust, and endowment matters, requesting donations from individuals to the school, reminding congregations to send and receiving their apportionments to the school, etc. (Only a few years of Financial Correspondence, 1929-36, were separated into a separate series found in Series 2.) There is correspondence concerning Hill's lecture, conference, preaching, and travel arrangements. Most of his travels had to do with gaining financial and denominational support for the school.

Correspondents from individual congregations also write asking for recommendations of students or ordained ministers to fill parish positions. There is correspondence from ministers and lay persons in individual congregations writing Dr. Hill to report on their experiences, needs, or other issues. Or they write to ask Dr. Hill's advice about the various needs, situations, or difficulties of their ministry or of the parish.

Hill was also involved with the American Baptist Foreign and Home Missionary societies so there is correspondence concerning persons who seek missionary training, applying for missionary positions, and other issues before the Societies. There are also news letters from missionaries in the fields, particularly China.

Up to about 1921, there is a great deal of correspondence concerning the new building by Julia Morgan. This includes raising the funds, asking and receiving donations toward the building, and correspondence with Morgan, her office and contractors.

Arrangement

The Correspondence 1907-1909 is arranged chronologically by year. The years 1910-1934, are arranged by year and then alphabetically within each year. The boxes are all 5 inch archives boxes.

box 1

1907 - L 1910 1907-1910

box 2

M 1910 - L 1912 1910-1912

box 3

M 1912 - Y 1913 1912-1913

box 4

A-Z 1914

box 5

A-Y 1915

box 6

B 1916 - B 1917-1920 1916-1920

Scope and Content Note

Note: 1917-20 were inter-filed so alphabetically will contain all four years.

box 7

C-M 1917-1920

box 8

N 1917-1920 - B 1921 1917-1921

box 9

C-Y 1921

box 10

A 1922 - C 1923 1922-1923

box 11

D 1923 - F 1924 1923-1924

box 12

G 1924 - D 1925 1924-1925

box 13

E 1925 - G 1926 1925-1926

box 14

H 1926 - J 1927 1926-1927

box 15

K 1927 - O 1928 1927-1928

box 16

P 1928 - J 1929 1928-1929

box 17

K 1929 - J 1930 1929-1930

box 18

K 1930 - O 1931 1930-1931

box 19

P 1931 - M 1932 1931-1932

box 20

N 1932 - R 1933 1932-1933

box 21

S 1933 - Q 1934 1933-1934

box 22:1-4

R-Y 1934

box-folder 22:5-10; 23:1-6

Series 2 Financial Correspondence 1929-1936

Physical Description: 11 folders

Series Scope and Content Summary

Financial correspondence was inter-filed in the general correspondence files until 1929 when it began to be separated to a separate file. However, some financial correspondence can still be found in the general correspondence for these years. The correspondence includes banking, investment, trust, and endowment matters. See Box 24, File Folder 34 (legal size) for bank statements concerning trusts 1932-35.

box-folder 22:1-5

A-T 1929-1932

box-folder 23:1-6

A-W 1933-1936

box 23:7-20

Series 3 Addresses and Notes 1918-1939, undated

Physical Description: 14 folders

Series Scope and Content Summary

This series includes various talks, lectures, or outlines for talks given by Hill in his capacity as President of the Seminary and after his retirement.

box-folder 23:7

News Service Releases from the Front, #12 - 43 (incomplete). Third YMCA War Work fund, Western Department, San Francisco. Descriptions of YMCA workers' experiences in France. 9/1918

box-folder 23:8

Addresses about Hill's trip to England 1923

box-folder 23:9

"Forty-five Years in the Ministry: A Testimony", Hill's 45th Anniversary of his ordination. 10/20/1929

box-folder 23:10

"Memorial Address for John G. Hoyt", First Baptist Church, Oakland, CA 12/18/1938

box-folder 23:11

Manuscript: "They Sought a Better Country, or On the Road to Knowledge". Describes the Sterling family in Oregon in the 1870's, particularly as they sought a college education for their sons at the University of Oregon. 1939

box-folder 23:12

Notes on the seminary building, Julia Morgan, Architect. Written on the back of an envelope from Morgan's office. undated

box-folder 23:13

"Greeting to Dr. W.F. Bade on Behalf of the Theological Seminaries of the Bay Region" on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of his coming to the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA. undated

box-folder 23:14

"My Young Brethren", four addresses for graduation? (various dates?), "Life is Working in You", "Teach These Truths", "Truth for Life", "Abide in Your Calling" undated

box-folder 23:15

"Ten Minute Christmas Talk to Young People". undated

box-folder 23:16

"Bitter Tides and Rivers of Water". undated

box-folder 23:17

Outlines for various addresses undated

box-folder 23:18

Notes on "repeated invitations to merge with the Pacific School of Religion" undated

box-folder 23:19

"The Ministry and its Function" undated

box-folder 23:20

Lectures on Romans undated

box 24-25

Series 4 Sermons 1882-1944, undated

Physical Description: 2 boxes

Series Scope and Content Summary

The Sermons cover the years of Hill's pastoral ministry, 1884 - 1904. There are also a few, 1908 - 1940 and undated, on themes of ministry and the Bible given during the years Hill was President of the Seminary and after his retirement. Each sermon is numbered with a title and the Bible text used. Each is dated with the church and town in which the sermon was delivered. If the sermon was delivered more than once, all dates and places are listed. The majority of sermons were preached where Hill served as pastor, at the Baptist Church, Eugene City, Oregon 1884-1893, then at the Tenth Ave. Baptist Church, Oakland, California 1893-1904 when he became President of the Seminary.

Arrangement

The sequence of the sermon numbers does not correspond to the calendar dates the sermons were delivered. The numbers and the dates can vary widely. The sermons are arranged here by sermon number. Not all the numbers are included in the collection. There are wide gaps of missing sermons. The sermons are handwritten in black ink on various types, forms, and sizes of paper. Most of the sermons are full written texts, a few are outlines.

box-folder 24:1-33

#21 - 499 1882-1899

box-folder 25:1-5

#517 -891 1889-1904

box-folder 25:6-9

Un-numbered sermons 1908-1940, undated

box-folder 25:10

Series of lectures on constructing sermons and preaching undated

box-folder 25:11

Newspaper article: "Divinity School if 40 Years Old", Oakland Tribune. Includes photograph: C.M. Hill, Sanford Fleming, and Charles Hobart. 11/15/1944

Collection Contents

Correspondence

Financial Correspondence

Addresses and Notes

Sermons