Carnegie Lectures and Ethical Addresses

Octavius Frothingham, NYSEC Member

One step in determining whether and what to publish from the body of lectures presented at Carnegie Hall (1894 -1896) is checking whether an individual address has already been published elsewhere.  Using keywords to search between the list of Carnegie Lectures and a summary of the Contents of Ethical Record and Ethical Addresses, I have identified 9 Carnegie lectures that may have been published in EA&ER.  

1.    December 2, 1894, Felix Adler delivered the address "Prayer and Worship" at Carnegie Hall.  The same address was published in Ethical Addresses in 1895, First Series, pp. 159-176.

2.    February 17, 1895, William M. Salter delivered the address "The Ethics of Agnosticism" at Carnegie Hall.  The same address was published in Ethical Addresses, Second Series (1896), as "Ethical Agnosticism" (pp. 49-64).  

3.     April 14, 1895, Felix Adler delivered the address "The Teachings of Jesus" at Carnegie Hall.  An address with a similar title was published in Ethical Addresses, Sixth Series (1900), i.e., "The Teachings of Jesus in the Modern World," pp. 105-120.  The latter, however, carried the footnote that its text is from "An Easter discourse before the Society for Ethical Culture of New York, April 2nd, 1899."  A comparison of these texts might prove interesting.  Indeed, given the number of addresses that focus on the life, teaching, or ethics of Jesus given by various speakers and published over the years in various publications associated with the Movement, I daresay an article on "Four (or More) Ethical Views of Jesus" would be just as interesting as an indication of how thought has evolved--or not--regarding Jesus.

4.    November 24, 1895, Felix Adler delivered the address "The Attitude of the Modern Mind Toward the Belief in God" at Carnegie Hall.  An address (actually a compilation of three addresses) was published in Ethical Addresses, Tenth Series (1903) with the title "Changes in the Conception of God" (pp. 47-90).  A closer examination will be needed to determine whether the earlier address in incorporated into the later article or, indeed, whether and/or how Adler's thinking may have evolved over the years between these addresses.

5.    December 8, 1895, Edmund C. Stedman, George Haven Putnam, George C. Barrett, and Felix Adler provided addresses in honor of Octavius Brooks Frothingham at Carnegie Hall. The same addresses were published as "Octavius Brooks Frothingham Memorial Exercises" in Ethical Addresses, Second Series (1896), pp. 169 - 194. Reported in the New York Times on December 9, 1895, p. 6.

6.  January 5, 1896, Felix Adler delivered the address "The Monroe Doctrine and the War Spirit in the United States" at Carnegie Hall.  The same address was published in Ethical Addresses, Third Series (1897) pp. 1-20.  Reported in the New York Times (December 3, 1896), p. 3.

7.    May 10, 1896, Felix Adler, along with Camille Solomons and John Lovejoy Elliott, delivered the "Anniversary Exercises" at Carnegie Hall.  This address was followed by additional "exercises," also at Carnegie Hall on Friday, May 15.  The evening ceremony featured addresses by Alfred R. Wolff, William M. Salter, and M. M. Mangasarian as well as Adler.  The May 15 addresses were published in Ethical Addresses, Third Series (1897), pp. 99-116.  However, no typescript for these addresses seems to be included in the collection for Carnegie Hall.  Reported in the New York Times on May 16, 1896, p. 5.

8.    December 26, 1896, Felix Adler delivered the address "The Spiritual Meaning of Marriage" at Carnegie Hall.  A revised version of this address is published in Ethical Addresses, Sixth Series (1900), pp. 17-36.  Again, a textual comparison might prove interesting.

Since Ethical Addresses was being published at the same time as the Ethical Record before being merged into a single serial, both were succeeded by The Standard, and various books and collections of addresses were also being published around this period, more research is yet needed to confirm the publication history of these addresses.  At this point, my focus is on pushing forward with the Bibliography and entering the Carnegie Lectures.  More volunteers to assist in the publication research would be quite welcome!

Ethical Addresses, Series Two (1896) - Part I

Series Two!  It's beginning to feel like the Bibliography for Ethical Culture project might become a reality, but Series Two also introduces some new bibliographic and style issues.  At the moment there are also the logistical issues of where to put the Bibliography for public access, whether to continue entering the citations in a Word document or consider some other editing platform, how to involve more participants in the project, and so on.  For now, I'll stick to the bibliographic work itself and think about logistics tomorrow at Tara.

The bibliographic entries are organized by author's last name.  I have avoided (but not ignored) the convention of using a line in place of the author's last name to show the second and subsequent articles to indicate that all are written by the same author.  Because, for example, Felix Adler will show up on the bibliography many times, there is as yet no way to know which will be the first entry from which all others will derive their status as secondary publications.  At the moment, it seems easier to avoid the question and enter the author's name.  If there comes a day when we (I hope there's a "we") will want to add that line in place of last names, it will, no doubt, be a massive project to do so.  Perhaps a little hassle now would be worth avoiding that project?

I am also adding a List of Authors as I work through the various volumes of the series.  As unfamiliar as many of us seem to be with EC history, it may be that, through the accumulation of these author's names, we will learn more of the associations and interactions that served the early days of the Movement.  

In Series Two, we have the same contributors as for Series One:  Felix Adler, M. M. Mangasarian, William M. Salter, and W. L. Sheldon.  However, a new set of authors is listed as having spoken at a memorial service for Octavius Brooks Frothingham.  While I have been unable to locate any information (in a very brief internet search) that shows a direct link to Ethical Culture, Frothingham was the first President of the Free Religious Association.  Felix Adler and Ralph Waldo Emerson also were active in this association as were other members the Ethical Culture Movement.  In addition to Adler, Edmund C. Stedman, George Haven Putnam, and George C. Barrett also gave eulogies.  Adler shared the platform with a poet/critic, a publisher, and a New York Supreme Court Justice.  One cannot but wonder at the discussions these men would have shared in the years before this occasion, whether and how their associations continued.  

The graphic above shows an earlier political cartoon (Thomas Nast) lampooning the FRA and Frothingham (upper right).  I added Emerson (bottom) and Adler (upper left) to suggest connections.  Emerson's transcendentalism is also skewered by Nast's cartoon.  The text of the cartoon reads:

Principles of the Free Religious Association

No churches free from taxation

No churches at all

No Bibles in public schools

No Bibles anyway

No chaplains for the prisons, Army or Navy

No creed

No faith

No nothing 

The cartoon was published three years before Adler's Founding Address, so it is an anachronism to associate him with the cartoon, but I think it is fair to remind ourselves that Ethical Culture also drew some criticisms not so long afterwards. 

The record of Frothingham's memorial service marks an early departure in the larger series from including only platforms.  In later issues of Ethical Addresses, we will see reports of other memorial services, some celebrations, and some business meetings.  This issue is also noteworthy for the inclusion of three articles previously published in journals or pamphlets.

There's more yet to say about Series Two, but I will save that for next week, by which time I hope also to have found an online home for the Bibliography.