Other Ethical Culture Bibliographies

 

AEU Lending Library Catalog

The project to document the entire series of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record will continue (soon), but it is worth pausing to look at progress in other areas.  One area reflects my good fortune to receive documents that include previous work on documenting Ethical Culture writings.  A case in point is shown above.

The Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture is moving to a new location and clearing out its previous location.  The volunteers working to organize their archives passed along two existing bibliographies to me for preservation and documentation in the Bibliography of Ethical Culture.

The first is the 2002 Catalog of the AEU's Religious Education Library.  This catalog is one long list of resources for Ethical Education from pre-school to adult, labeled as to topic and sub-topic and origin in Ethical Culture or otherwise.  The resources originating in Ethical Culture are comparatively few, but the entire catalog is 59 pages of resources that a Society could (then) borrow--or buy.  

Of course there are questions:

• Are there more catalogs?  Please let me know if you have any.
• How long did this lending library function?  Please share your recollections, if your Society used this resource.
• Where are the resources intended for "opportunities for examination and trial of curricula and other materials for up to six weeks not for long-term use or for relieving Societies/Fellowships of purchasing their own curriculum materials and books" now?  One would expect that they are archived . . . somewhere.  

In the meantime, this catalog will be documented as a product of Ethical Culture.  Since I have a new toy (Canon IRIScan Pro 6), I have scanned it as a PDF file.  Unfortunately, the file is 49 megabytes, so finding a home for this beast will be the next chore.  It is, however, now digitally preserved.  Thanks, BSEC!

A second bibliography is more challenging in its organization and more delicate in it physical format.  The Library Committee of the New York Society for Ethical Culture compiled "A List of Books and Pamphlets by American and British Leaders of the Societies for Ethical Culture" at the request of the National Women's Conference (now National Ethical Service) in 1950.  The list is typewritten and appears to be reproduced in mimeograph format (printed on one-side).  The list is densely formatted, 8 pages long.  Interestingly, the entries are all coded for location:

*          In the Leader's Study. (For reference only).

**        In the Elliott room.  (For circulation).

***      In both Elliott room and Leader's study.

No asterisk - Not in the New York Society's collection.

This can be compared with an inventory recently compiled by NYSEC member, Elinore Kaplan.  Few pamphlets are included in the list, but the bibliography mentions "a large collection" available by special permission.   (I live in hope!)

I will add this list as a resource to the Bibliography and scan it.  "Mining" it for the relevant content will be tricky.  Many works had been translated into other languages, but the list can be a bit short on the publication information we'd normally include.  Scanning will also be tricky, given the fragility of the document.  

Are there other bibliographies and lists out there?  Hidden in filing cabinets or storage boxes?  Feel free to let me know in the comments.

Series Fourteen - Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record

Ed Porter Explaining the Importance of Archives

I've now had a chance to see the originals of some of the items to be included in the Bibliography, and it was quite interesting, especially when the originals had not yet been bound together into a large volume.  These small sections devoted to inspirational readings or music were originally separate books that could be tucked into a pocket or purse.  Seeing the originals in the archives of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture (thank you, Ed Porter and Team for allowing me to join you for a couple of hours) and in the Adler Study and general archives at the New York Society for Ethical Culture also gave me a better sense of the magnitude of the task.  "We're gonna need a bigger boat" doesn't begin to touch it!  Still it was wonderful to meet all the folks who are involved in preserving the archives of Ethical Culture.  I know there are others that I have yet to meet--and I look forward to doing so.  I will write more about the project and potential plans for the work as they develop.  In the meantime, this part of the project continues.

Series Fourteen of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record (EA&ER) continues the transformation of that AEU publication into an omnibus for development of thought about Ethical Culture, practical discussions of moral education for children and youth, and documentation of the progress and development of the Movement.  As well, this volume includes an independent section of inspirational verse, widespread focus on international strife and hopes for peace, and the full constitutions of the International Union of Ethical Societies and the American Ethical Union (with a bonus listing of the officers of the AEU on p. 314).  Promotional listings of additional printed material are included on pages 142 and 286.

The AEU held a conference, entitled "The Moral Education of the Child," May, 1907.  Three presentations from that conference were included in the final issue of EA&ER for that year.  James H. Leuba contributed a discussion of the moral nature of the child; Alice L. Seligsberg reported on moral instruction in the public schools; Robert A. Woods commented on ethical construction as part of Ethical instruction.

Another set of entries focused on "The Russian Situation," with two speeches by Alexis Aladin and Nicholas Tchaykovsky with that title.  The speeches are prefaced thusly:

[The following addresses by Alexis Aladin, leader of
the peasants, and member of the Group of Toil in the first
Duma, and Nicholas Tchaykovsky, were given before the
Philadelphia Ethical Society, Sunday, March 17th, just
after a lecture by Mr. William M. Salter, of Chicago, on
"The Russian Revolution." Mr. Salter's lecture will be
printed in the April number of the International Journal
of Ethics.]

Salter's lecture, in IJE 17/3 (1907), is available through JSTOR.  In that lecture, he explained why he felt that a revolution--like those in France and colonial America--was needed in Russia, leading to a democratic government and new hope for those then oppressed by the Czar.

One additional point of interest in this volume:  David Saville Muzzey was at this point in his career on the verge of becoming a major influence in the US by virtue of the high school history textbooks that he would publish.  These books would eventually dominate the entire nation as means of educating youth in the the history of their country.  That these books were racist in their orientation toward Native Americans and former enslaved persons should not take away from the Muzzey's contributions to the thought and practice of Ethical Culture.  Except they do.  It is hard to read his lecture ("Three Hundred Years of English Settlement in America") without sensing the taint of what is unspoken in his praise of "the glorious freedom of such a faith" (as Ethical Culture) and cringing.

And, finally, there are the Constitutions.  That of the AEU mirrors that of the IUES in several ways, most notably as to "Objects":

AEU Constitution, 1907

The AEU General Aim says "any," the IUES General Aim says "all" when referring to "theological and metaphysical considerations."  In Special Aims, the two organizations refer to their specific geographical areas (the US vs. the world), and IUES takes on the additional task for its (g):  "To maintain an International Ethical Library."  Otherwise the two organizations share the same General and Special Aims on different scales.