Research Catalog

Title

Felix Adler papers, 1830-1933

Author

Adler, Felix, 1851-1933

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

27

Summary

• Felix Adler, religious leader and educator, taught courses in social and political ethics at Columbia between 1902 and 1933. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, notes, photographs, and printed materials.
• Correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, notes, photographs, and printed materials. Included are letters from the leaders and members of the Society for Ethical Culture which Adler founded in 1876; the ethical movement abroad; religious and political figures; and extensive correspondence with his family, particularly his wife, Helen Goldmark Adler, to whom Adler wrote long, detailed letters about his activities. The family letters date back to his parents' generation when they were still living in Germany and many are in German and Hebrew. Among the correspondents are Louis D. Brandeis, John Dewey, Abraham Geiger, Charles Evans Hughes, William James, Jacob Riis, and Lillian Wald. There is a series of typescript copies of letters to and from Adler which were probably prepared for Adler's wife and daughter Eleanor as working copies for a projected life and letters of Adler. Both have made annotations on the copies, The manuscripts and typescripts span Adler's life. Included are childhood and school days poems and essays, and later manuscripts for published and unpublished lectures, articles, essays, books, notes, diaries, and random jottings on a wide range of topics: ethics, morality, philosophy, theology, Bible, Judaism, politics, social reform, arts and letters. There is a full set of lecture notes for his courses at Columbia University. In addition to his voluminous diary entires, he also kept records of conversations with individuals he met over the years.
• Also included are records for the Society for Ethical Culture and its schools.
• There is an incomplete index of personal names for Classification 200 only.

Subject

• Adler, Helen Goldmark
• Brandeis, Louis Dembitz, 1856-1941
• Dewey, John, 1859-1952
• Geiger, Abraham, 1810-1874
• Hughes, Charles Evans, 1862-1948
• James, William, 1842-1910
• Riis, Jacob A, 1849-1914
• Wald, Lillian D., 1867-1940
• Society for Ethical Culture
• Religion
• Philosophy and religion
• Ethics

Genre/Form

• Diaries
• Photographic prints

Access (note)

• The following boxes are located off-site: 6-86. You will need to request this material from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
• This collection has no restrictions.

Cite As (note)

• Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Felix Adler papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Original Location (note)

• Josephine Shaw letters are on: microfilm.

Terms of Use (note)

• Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Source (note)

• Papers: Source of acquisition--Friess, Mr. and Mrs. Horace L. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1974.
• Papers: Source of acquisition--Gutmann, Ruth Adler Friess. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1977.

Biography (note)

• Felix Adler (Columbia A.B., 1870), religious leader and educator, taught courses in social and political ethics at Columbia between 1902 and 1933.

Provenance (note)

• Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Horace L. Friess, 1974 and Mrs. Ruth Adler Freiss Gutmann, 1976-78 and 1981.

Processing Action (note)

• Papers Processed BRC 04/24/74.
• Papers Processed JL-W 03/--/84.

OCLC

• 458423752
• ocn458423752
• SCSB-4796447

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries