Scope and Content Note
The papers of Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) span the years 1907-1997, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period from the 1930s through the 1980s. The collection portrays the range of Niebuhr's work and his influence in twentieth-century theology, politics, and society. Included are correspondence , articles, sermons, reviews, lectures, typescripts of books , biographical material, printed matter, and miscellaneous items. The original collection is arranged in the following series: Correspondence , Speech, Article, and Book File , Miscellany , June Bingham Correspondence , Reinhold Niebuhr Correspondence Collected by June Bingham , June Bingham Book File , and William Scarlett Correspondence . Five separate additions to Niebuhr's papers have been organized and appended to the original collection. These additions are listed and described in the order of their receipt in the Manuscript Division.
Correspondence with a wide array of theologians, political leaders, academicians, literary figures, and diverse community leaders and organizations comprises a substantial portion of the original collection and Additions I and II . Focusing chiefly on Niebuhr's theological interests and work, much of the material relates his efforts to apply religion and ethical standards to social and political problems. Two such examples, represented in depth, are the papers concerning the Delta Cooperative Farm Project and the Committee on Economic and Racial Justice. Some of the prominent or frequent correspondents include W. H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, John C. Bennett, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Tom C. Clark, Henry Sloane Coffin, James Bryant Conant, Sherwood Eddy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, T. S. Eliot, Felix Frankfurter, Hubert H. Humphrey, James A. Pike, Samuel D. Press, William Scarlett , Arthur M. Schlesinger (1917-2007), Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965), Paul Tillich, Henry P. Van Dusen, and Willem Adolph Visser't Hooft. Also included is a sizable amount of correspondence with such organizations as Americans for Democratic Action, Commission on Freedom of the Press, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, Union for Democratic Action, and the World Council of Churches.
There are numerous outlines of sermons delivered by Niebuhr and typescripts of articles ranging in subject matter from national and international political affairs to labor and race relations, theology, and economics. There are also typescripts and related correspondence dealing with book reviews Niebuhr wrote for the New York Times, Saturday Review, New Republic, and other publications. Typescripts of three of Niebuhr's books, Man's Nature and His Communities, Pious and Secular America, and The Self and the Dramas of History, are also included.
The collection also contains outlines of class lectures, engagement calendars, bibliographies of Niebuhr's published works, and miscellaneous oversize materials.
Papers presented to the Library by June Bingham relate to her research conducted while preparing a biography of Niebuhr, Courage to Change: An Introduction to the Life and Thought of Reinhold Niebuhr, and include her correspondence as well as assorted correspondence by Niebuhr that she collected.
Addition III is composed primarily of correspondence , subject files , and writings collected and maintained by Ursula Niebuhr. Although the papers include a few letters to and from Niebuhr during the last years of his life, the material consists chiefly of Ursula Niebuhr's correspondence with academic colleagues, researchers, and family friends. Also of interest are letters from her friends and colleagues in England describing conditions there during World War II. Subject files contain research material collected by the Niebuhrs, biographical clippings, information on colleagues, and material related to researchers studying Niebuhr, including a group of letters exchanged with Richard Fox and others relating to his 1985 book, Reinhold Niebuhr: A Biography. The writings file includes articles, addresses, notes, reviews and other miscellaneous writings by Niebuhr. Prominent or frequent correspondents include John Barnes, John C. Bennett, Isaiah Berlin, Jimmy Carter, Paul D. Clasper, Isobel Cripps, Sir Richard Stafford Cripps, T. S. Eliot, Felix Frankfurter, J. King Gordon, Ruth Anderson Gordon, Ronald O. Hall, Will Herberg, Hubert H. Humphrey, Franklin H. Littell, Daniel P. Moynihan, Alan Paton, D. B. Robertson, Arthur M. Schlesinger (1917-2007), Ronald H. Stone, Hugh Van Husen, Geraldine Van Husen, and E. L. Woodward.
Addition IV also includes a significant group of family correspondence and professional files of Ursula Niebuhr . Letters exchanged by Reinhold and Ursula Niebuhr during the 1930s comprise the bulk of the family correspondence and provide insight into Niebuhr's political and social activities. Highlights in the correspondence include Niebuhr's descriptions of activities relating to his Gifford lectures at the University of Edinburgh (1939), his travels to Germany with the U.S. Commission on Cultural Affairs in Occupied Territories (1946), and other trips to Europe during the late 1940s. Also included are letters Niebuhr received from his brother, H. Richard Niebuhr, during the 1930s. In 1991, Ursula Niebuhr edited and published much of this correspondence in Remembering Reinhold Niebuhr ([San Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco). Ursula Niebuhr's professional files include correspondence, articles, essays, newspapers columns, speeches, lectures, prayers, and sermon outlines. The correspondence relates to theological and personal matters and includes a scattering of letters by her husband. Significant or frequent correspondents include Tony Benn, Isobel Cripps, Sam H. Franklin, George F. Kennan, Teddy Kollek, Archibald MacLeish, Norman Mailer, Martin E. Marty, George S. McGovern, Hans J. Morgenthau, Oliver W. Sacks, Arthur M. Schlesinger (1917-2007), and Margaret Stansgate.
Addition V complements the material in Additions III and IV and is composed of correspondence, subject files, and writings. Significant correspondents include David Amiran, Ruth Amiran, Jonathan Bingham, June Bingham, Teddy Kollek, and Ronald H. Stone. The subject file details Ursula Niebuhr's work with the Jerusalem Committee and study of Christian liturgy. The writings file contains articles by both Reinhold and Ursula Niebuhr. The writings file also contains an outline entitled "The Significance of Luther's Dfisnce [Defiance] of the Pope" that Reinhold Niebuhr was working on at the time of his death.