This collection had been in storage several years before processing; moved several times, and handled by various people over the years, including Wilbur's daughter Elizabeth. Materials for the collection came in groups of boxes or individual items from various sources over a period of time. There was, therefore, no original organization, the arrangement here being devised as the best possible way to approach the material. Wilbur himself was a very organized person. He kept his papers (correspondence, manuscripts, sermons, etc.) in packets, usually wrapped in paper, titled, and tied with string. Often, these packets have notes or instructions from Wilbur "to whom it may concern" or to persons who will be using the materials at some future date. The majority of the collection consists of personal family correspondence between the Wilbur and Eliot families. The other large portion of the collection is made up of Wilbur's work: manuscripts for published works and research notes for those works, sermons, public addresses, and class lectures. There is very little on the Pacific Unitarian (Starr King) School for the Ministry or his presidency.

Earl Morse Wilbur (1866 - 1956) was born in Jericho, Vermont; elder of the two sons of LaFayette Wilbur, a lawyer, and Mercy Jane Morse Wilbur. He graduated from the University of Vermont with an A.B., 1886 (valedictorian, Phi Beta Kappa). For one year he taught at the Mt. Beacon Academy in New York before entering Harvard Divinity School. He received both the S.T. B. from the Divinity School and the A.M. from Harvard College in 1890. Having been raised Congregationalist, yet denied a license to preach from that denomination, Wilbur accepted a position at the First Unitarian Church (Church of Our Father), Portland, OR serving under Thomas Lamb Eliot as Associate Minister 1890-93, then as Minister 1893-98. He was ordained to the Unitarian ministry at the Pacific Unitarian Conference, Oakland, CA, September 28, 1892.

Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Graduate Theological Union as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Collection is open for research.