Temple of Religion and Tower of Peace, 1939 Golden Gate Exposition

Over seventy years ago, religious leaders in the Bay Area raised $100,00 to construct a Temple of Religion and Tower of Peace for the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition on Treasure Island.

San Francisco's Temple represented all faiths, unlike the Temple of Religion at the 1938 World's Fair in New York City that only represented Protestants, Catholics and Jews. Also, as involvement in the second world war seemed increasingly inevitable, for the last eight Sundays of the exposition the organization sponsored a series of events and lectures to promote peace and keep America out of the conflict.

Treasure Island was later seized from the City and County of San Francisco by the Navy for use as a base during World War II.

We recently received a scrapbook and other materials collected by Fred D. Parr, Parr was the President of the California Church Council and Vice-President and Chairman of the Finance Committee for Temple of Religion and Tower of Peace, Inc.

The scrapbook details the events surrounding the Temple. Besides the activities of local religious organizations, there were a number of curious crises. One mural met with great concern. The depiction of Jesus by Austrian artist Franz Bergmann seemed too dark and "lacking in spirituality and kindness" by many clergymen. Moses appeared too stern and, in a departure from usual form, mostly bald. Bergmann agreed to soften both figures.

Among the exhibits were archeological artifacts from the Palestine Institute (now Bade Institute of Biblical Archaeology) of Pacific School of Religion, a Marcus Whitman exhibit from San Francisco Theological Seminary, and the John Howell exhibit of Bibles, later donated to PSR.

For more information about the Fred D. Parr: Temple of Religion and Tower of Peace, Golden Gate International Exhibition Collection, 1938 – 1939, GTU 2009-11-01, please contact the archivist at archives@gtu.edu.

Thomas Starr King, Apostle of Liberty, Sacramento, December 8, 2009

Statue of Thomas Starr King as unveiled in Washington, DC, 1932

I hear frequently the charge that I preach politics, and that it will make trouble if I do not desist. This undoubtedly refers to the frequency of the treatment I have given, during the last year or so, to the Christian spirit and obligation of humanity, and the application I have often made of it to our responsibility as members of the American government, as entrusted in part with the destiny of an Empire. Wherever there is power there is trust and duty. The preacher’s business is with spiritual laws, and their bearing upon or their application with the duties and the action of common life. If I think and see clearly how a great spiritual principle may be honored by the method in which you can trade, or use your money or exercise your genius, or live at home, am I not bound to interpret that way, leaving it for your conscience and your insight to accept or refuse my interpretation?
Sermon at Hollis Church, Boston, 1856

The statue of Thomas Starr King, which had been on display since 1932 in Statuary Hall in the Capital as one of the heroes of California, is being dedicated at its new location in Sacramento on December 8, 2009, at 1:30 pm. The statue will greet visitors entering the Civil War Grove in Capitol Park.

King's statue was replaced by one of a smiling Ronald Reagan in June this year. The Reagan Foundation donated $35,000 to move the King statue to Sacramento.

King only spent four years in San Francisco before succumbing to pneumonia at the age of 39 in 1864 but his impact was tremendous. A Unitarian Universalist minister, he campaigned actively for the Union cause throughout the state during the Civil War. A small man with a commanding voice, King promoted a love of nature and a love of his fellow man. Besides his efforts to support the Union, he campaigned for support of the Sanitary Commission, a predecessor to the Red Cross, to care for sick and wounded Union soldiers. California raised about 25% of the nearly $5 million for the organization.

In conjunction with the dedication ceremony for the statue, a Thomas Starr King exhibit is on display at the State Capitol Museum through June 30, 2010. The GTU Archives contributed a few items from the Starr King Collection: a traveling case used on his trip from New York to San Francisco, an ambrotype of his wife Julia, and a copy of his journal of the voyage to California.

The GTU archives maintains the collection for the Starr King School of Ministry. For additional information, please contact the archivist at archives@gtu.edu or view the finding aid. We recently put online the book on the 1932 unveiling of the statue in Washington, some photographs, and a scrapbook maintained by Charles W. Wendte.

Dali"s Biblia Sacra

Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt.

One of the books currently on display in the library is the Bible illustrated by Salvadore Dali printed in 1967. The full title is Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis / Sixti V pont. max. iussu recognita et Clementis VIII auctoritate edita ; imaginibus Salvatoris Dalí exornata.

The Bible is broken down into 5 volumes with 105 illustrations. Our version is number 294 of the 1499 copies of the "luxus" edition, printed on special wood-pulp paper with the Dalí watermark, interspersed with illuminated drawings and bound in natural-colored goatskin, embellished with gold.

We have a separate collection of slides of illustrations. However a website does seem to include thumbnails of most of the images. Additional information on the project can be found at the Park West Gallery website.

The GTU library is exhibiting rare books and materials from the archives through November 25. The books create a great foreground for the C.A.R.E. art exhibit behind the cases.

The Home Preacher

Turn Ye From Evil Ways
(please click on image to see larger print)

"The Home Preacher," Printed by Endicott and Co. Lith., 1857, from the Smithsonian Institute.

Most of our collections date from the latter part of the 20th century. Occasionally, materials within a collection hearken back to the the century before. This print is from the Lithography Collection at the Smithsonian. A young Doug Adams requested this and other prints while studying in Washington, DC, during the 1970's.

This ties in with his studies of American preaching. Adams (1945-2007) was a longtime professor at Pacific School of Religion and the Graduate Theological Union. He wrote and taught humor in the Bible and in the Pulpit as well as dance and religious art. We are in the midst of processing his collection.

300 Million! Additional Workers Looking for Work in Next 10 Years, 1974

We recently received 60 additional posters from the sixties and seventies for the Albert G. Cohen Campus Ministry, Social Justice and Environment Collection .

The two shown here were part of a series of 12 posters issued by the International Labour Organization, based on an animated film that they produced in 1974. The drawings were by Bjorn Frank Jensen, Toonder Studios, Netherlands.

The issue then was "300 Million! That's the number of additional people that will be looking for work in the world during the next 10 years. The question is: Will there be enough work for them?"

The Rev. Cohen, a campus minister for many years at California State University Los Angeles, was active in social justice causes and population and environmental issues. For additional information about his work, please see his online finding aid or contact GTU archives at either 510-647-2507 or 2523 or email archives at gtu.edu.

Humor in the Bible, Doug Adams

Walking across the Pacific School of Religion campus, I almost always think of the late Professor Doug Adams (1945-2007). I took a few art and religion classes from him in 2004-2005. He always knew how to grab an audience's attention. His way of distributing handouts was to throw them up in the air. Some of his most eloquent speeches were on how the cheese and wine that would be served at break were based on the speaker"s preference or on the topic. He always made sure that guest speakers would address what he expected them to talk about. He would also be very serious, saying that late papers were unacceptable, because how could you be late to the pulpit?

Here is an interview on Al Kresta Show Live that took place in September 11, 1997. The topic is his book, The prostitute in the family tree : discovering humor and irony in the Bible.




Permission to reproduce this broadcast courtesy of Ave Maria Radio and the Al Kresta Show.

For more memories of Adams, see the PSR site. Special Collections is in the midst of processing the Doug Adams Collection. There are a few of these priceless talks within these materials, including his magical rendition of Henry Ward Beecher. The library has this and other books by Adams.

People's Temple

He's Able, People's Temple Choir, 1973 Brotherhood Records

Last year was the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown mass suicide (11/18/1978). In its rare materials, the GTU library has the record album that the People's Temple Choir recorded in 1973. We also have a small Responses to Jonestown collection. The collection was one where library staff solicited materials related to the event. Within this collection, along with newspapers from Guyana, are copies of sermons and articles in religious publications in response to the tragedy.

Most of the responses address the mass suicide as an issue of cults and false prophets. A few point to issues closer at hand. Martin P. Choate, president of the Berkeley Area Interfaith Council, December 9, 1978, concludes their statement:

In this sad time...let it become a call to all of us to put our religious houses in order. In the words of St. Francis:

Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope.

There is an amazing amount of material about Jonestown on the web. The music from He's Able is reproduced in full at WFMU's Beware of the Blog. The Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State created in incredible detail Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. In other mediums, at least two documentaries came out last year. Finally, the church and Jim Jones is captured in the play The People's Temple by Leigh Fondakowski with Greg Pierotti, Stephen Wangh and Margo Hall. This was first performed by the Berkeley Reporatory Theater in 2005 and most recently ran in Chicago in 2008. The play features music from He's Able.

This post was prompted by two events. First, a chance encounter with one of the attendees to the Western Archives Institute, this year in Berkeley. He said that the National Archives and Records Administration office in San Bruno, whose building is named after Congressman Leo W. Ryan (who was killed at Jonestown), also holds his papers, which are waiting to be processed. Second, finding the album in our rare record section and discovering that the music is online.