Scope and Contents
These papers document in a very thorough way Ahlstrom's professional career, his writings, lectures, courses taught at Yale, his extensive participation in scholarly and church-related organizations. Conditions at Yale and in New Haven during the turbulent years of the late 1960s and early 1970s are well documented. A sampling of material has been preserved to document Ahlstrom's renowned personality, his sense of humor, curiosity, and wide-ranging interests.
A small section of family correspondence in Series I provides a view into Ahlstrom's Minnesota connections and warm family relationships. General correspondence dating from 1946 to 1979 includes letters to and from friends, colleagues, editors, publishers, and church representatives. Correspondents include Yale colleagues James Gustafson, Hans Frei, and Julian Hartt, as well as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Paul Ramsey, Samuel H. Miller, Robert Handy, Bruce Kuklick, and others. Substantive letters deal not only with academic and professional affairs, but also document Ahlstrom's opinions on a wide range of issues, his friendships, and family life. Revealing of strongly held convictions are letters such as one written to J.B. Buckley, manager of the Yellow Cab Company in New Haven, which protests against the unjust treatment of a poor black family by a cabdriver in a scene witnessed by Ahlstrom. The section of correspondence with students provides insight into Ahlstrom's interaction with his students. Correspondence related to Ahlstrom's writings, lecture appearances, and other specific events or activities can also be found in Series II, III and VI.
Series II, Committees and Projects, contains correspondence and other material related to the many institutions, organizations, committees, and projects with which Ahlstrom was involved. Ahlstrom's career-long interests and involvement in Lutheranism, higher education, and American religious history are documented, as well as his participation in a variety of short-term, specific projects.
The Writings of Series III constitute the bulk of this collection. Articles and unpublished papers, contributions to booklength works, letters to editors, book reviews by Ahlstrom and documentation related to his booklength works are included. Sermons and lectures delivered by Ahlstrom are filed with supporting documentation in Series VI.
Series IV, Course-related Material, includes primarily lecture notes, syllabi, exams, and reading lists. These materials date from 1946 to 1984. Material from his popular interdepartmental American Church History Survey course includes more than 2 1/2 boxes of lecture notes of one word per page. His deteriorating health prevented him from reading long pages of lecture notes. Moreover, his delivery was personal and conversational, and the system of one-word-per-page best served his lecturing style.
Ahlstrom was an inveterate collector of newspaper clippings, cartoons, concert programs, articles, offprints, and anything else that happened to touch upon one of his varied interests. The Collected Material of Series V represents a sampling of the mass of such materials present in Ahlstrom's offices at the time of his death. The largest section of material retained in this Series, collected material related to the fields of history, religion, and education, includes primarily offprints and articles sent to Ahlstrom by his colleagues, friends, and former students.
Series VI, Biographical Documentation, traces Ahlstrom's activities other than his long-term committee and project involvements and his regular teaching commitments at Yale. The series primarily documents one-time events such as conferences, lectures, seminars, awards, etc. Included are many holograph and typescript texts for Ahlstrom's various guest lecture appearances, sermons, and chapel talks dating from his graduation from Gustavus Adolphus until his death in 1984. Ahlstrom was much in demand as a lecturer, and his speaking engagements took him all over the country and as far as Japan and Australia. Other events that highlight his extra-curricular life include his involvement with nineteen other Lutheran scholars in a statement supporting John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential election and a Religion in America television show in 1974. "In Memory of Ahlstrom," by George Lindbeck and a journal tribute are also included. The series ends with miscellaneous material including Ahlstrom's own bibliographies and curriculum vitae.
Dates
- 1931-1988
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Nancy Ahlstrom,
Arrangement
- I. Correspondence
- II. Committees and Projects
- III. Writings
- IV. Course-related Material
- V. Collected Material
- VI. Biographical Documentation
Extent
20 Linear Feet (49 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The papers document Ahlstrom's professional career, his writings, lectures, courses taught at Yale, his extensive participation in scholarly and church-related organizations. Conditions at Yale and in New Haven during the turbulent years of the late 1960s and early 1970s are well documented. Correspondence documents his friendships, family life, and professional affairs, revealing his opinions on a wide range of issues, his sense of humor and warm personality. The collection includes material relating to the many institutions, organizations, committees, and projects with which Ahlstrom was involved, particularly in the areas of Lutheranism, higher education and American religious history. Sydney E. Ahlstrom was born in Cokato, Minnesota on December 16, 1919. He taught at Yale from 1954 to 1984 . He was the author of several notable books on religion in America. Ahlstrom held prominent positions on various boards and organizations, including the Editorial Board of the Complete Works of Jonathan Edwards, the American Studies Program and Religious Studies Department at Yale, and the American Society of Church History. Ahlstrom died in New Haven in 1984.
Biographical / Historical
- 1919 December 16
- Sydney Eckman Ahlstrom born in Cokato, Minnesota, son of Joseph T. and Selma Eckman Ahlstrom
- 1941
- B.A. Gustavus Adolphus College
- 1942-1946
- U.S. Army, Captain
- 1946
- Instructor in history, Gustavus Adolphus
- M.A. University of Minnesota
- 1948-1952
- Teaching fellow and history tutor, Harvard University
- 1951-1952
- Fulbright fellow, University of Strasbourg, France
- 1952
- Faculty member, Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, Austria
- Ph.D. Harvard, Instructor in history
- 1953 Aug 8
- Married Nancy Ethel Alexander (Children: J. Alexander, b. 1954; Promise, b. 1955; Constance, b. 1957; Sydney, b. 1960)
- 1954
- Fellow, Branford College, Yale
- Assistant Professor of Modern Church History and American History, Yale University
- The Harvard Divinity School published (co-author)
- 1957
- Lutheran World Federation lecturer in various countries of Europe
- 1960
- Associate Professor, Yale
- 1961
- The Shaping of American Religion published (co-author)
- 1962 Spring
- Visiting Professor, Princeton University
- The American Protestant Encounter with World Religions (Brewer Lectures, Beloit College) published
- 1964
- Full Professor, Yale
- 1964-1965
- Research in Paris, France
- 1965
- Calvinism and the Political Order published (co-author)
- 1967-1971
- Chair, American Studies Program, Yale
- 1967
- Rauschenbusch Lecturer, Colgate Rochester Divinity School
- 1967
- Theology in America published
- 1970-1971
- Research in Munich, Germany
- 1972 Summer
- Visiting Professor, Kyoto Summer Seminar in American Studies, Japan
- 1972
- A Religious History of the American People published
- 1972-1973
- Director of Graduate Studies, Religious Studies Department, Yale
- 1973
- National Book Award Recipient
- 1973 Summer
- Scholar-in-Resident, Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies, Colorado
- Chair, Consulting Committee on the National Bicentenary of the Lutheran Church in America
- 1973-1974
- Chair, American Studies Program, Yale
- 1974
- Brotherhood Award of the National Council of Christians and Jews
- 1975
- Visiting Lecturer at universities and professional conferences in Australia and New Zealand
- 1975
- Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Upsala College, New Jersey
- 1975
- President, American Society of Church History
- 1976
- Honorary Doctor of Letters, Susquehanna University
- 1976
- Religious Dilemmas of Nationhood published (editor)
- 1978
- Rockefeller Fellowship for research on Romanticism
- 1979
- Samuel Knight Professor of American History and Modern Religious History, Yale
- 1979
- The Christian Century Award for the Decade's Most Outstanding Book on Religion
- 1984
- Died in New Haven, Connecticut
- Member, Editorial Board of the Complete Works of Jonathan Edwards
- Member, Board of Trustees of Gustavus Adolphus
- Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1978
- Elected Corresponding Member, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1977
- Ahlstrom, Sydney E., 1919-1984
- American Society of Church History
- Educators
- Frei, Hans W.
- Gustafson, James M., 1925-
- Handy, Robert T., 1918-2009
- Hartt, Julian Norris, 1911-
- Kuklick, Bruce, 1941-
- Miller, Samuel Howard, 1900-1968
- Ramsey, Paul
- Religious education
- United States -- Religion
- Universities and colleges -- Religion
- Yale University
- Title
- Guide to the Sydney Ahlstrom Papers
- Author
- Compiled by Dineen K. Dowling and Martha Lund Smalley
- Date
- 1990
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared According To Local Divinity Library Descriptive Practices
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Yale Divinity Library Repository