Harlan Paul Douglass papers

The Harlan Paul Douglass papers consists of approximately 400 items, 3 reels of microfilm, and 4 volumes. The papers include correspondence; clippings; biographical data; family histories by Douglass' mother, Maria Greene Douglass, and father, Truman Orville Douglass; photographs; wills; honors and tributes; an appreciation book; writings; and a scrapbook. The items relate to Douglass' school days, his career with the American Missionary Association and his retirement. Included among the papers is a bibliography of his writings and data on his parent's respective families. The biographical and autobiographical items have been microfilmed, as has a Metropolitan Pittsburgh Church Study (1948). The parental autobiographies are included in both negative and positive microfilm copies. Douglass' thesis, The English Christian Socialist Movement of the Mid-Century) is a holograph. The appreciation book was signed by representatives of Belgium, France, and Great Britain in attendance at the Inter-Allied Conference on World Agriculture in 1919.

Also included within the papers are correspondence (1908) sent by Maria Greene and Truman O. Douglass from abroad when they attended the Edinburgh meetings from June to August of that year; a 75-page typescript autobiography by Grace Douglass Orr; family obituaries; biographical sketches; photographs of Douglass family members; items regarding Grace Douglass Orr; quotes from World Conferences, Edinburgh (1910) to Lund (1952); writings by Grace Douglass Orr; a scrapbook containing several letters regarding A Layman's Guide to Ecumenicity by Grace Douglass Orr; items by or about Harlan Paul Douglass including writings; and a typescript entitled Some Recollections of a Long Life, by Agnes Gurney Pinkerton, adopted daughter of the T.O. Douglass’s of Grinnell, Iowa.

Of note is a typescript draft of a work by Congregational minister and church researcher Harlan Paul Douglass entitled “The City Minister at Work.” Although undated, the citations within the typescript date it to post-1929. It examines how the urban environment affects the vocational work of ministers who pastor in cities with populations of over 100,000. The study is largely sociological in nature and omits references to specific individuals or cities.