This finding aid is made available for public use following the Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons designation.
This collection is open for research.
The following boxes are located offsite: entire collection except Series 2 Box 9 OS. Please note that requests for use of boxes held in offsite storage must be made three business days in advance.
The Edgar Simmons Buchanan papers were donated to the Union Theological Seminary in 1943.
This collection is arranged in four series: Series 1: Correspondence; Series 2: Writings; Series 3: Reviews and publicity; and Series 4: Personal materials.
Edgar Simmons Buchanan was a scholar of early Biblical manuscripts and an Anglican Church minister. He was born in Southampton, England on May 6th, 1872 to John Edgar Buchanan and Elizabeth May Saunders. When Buchanan was four, the family moved to New Zealand where he grew up. Buchanan graduated from University of New Zealand with an M.A. and B.Sc. In 1896 he returned to England where he attended Theological College in Salisbury. The College was headed by Bishop Wordsworth for whom Buchanan worked as his pupil and assistant. Their close relationship lasted until Bishop Wordsworth's death in 1911. After being ordained in 1897 Buchanan served as a curate in a number of churches in England and on the continent. During this period he also studied early Biblical manuscripts in libraries in London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Milan, and Verona. He published numerous articles and books based on his research. In 1914, Buchanan came to New York and stayed in the United States for the rest of his life. In the United States Buchanan continued working on early Biblical manuscripts, as well as teaching and lecturing, including teaching at Columbia University. In 1915 Buchanan became a Curator of Manuscripts in the Hispanic Society of America. While working there, he began studying a manuscript belonging to Archer Milton Huntington, the founder of the Hispanic Society (referred to as the Huntington Palimpsest). Buchanan announced that the manuscript was a palimpsest and declared that the erased text constituted the earliest, previously unknown version of the Gospels. He dated the erased text to the 2nd century AD and claimed that the text was very distinct from the traditional Bible as it was known and that the newly discovered text revolutionized our understanding of Christ and Christianity. Buchanan prepared the text for publication and was working on correcting the proofs when the owner of the manuscript started having doubts about the validity of Buchanan's findings. Other scholars disagreed with Buchanan's assertions and the type of the book was broken up and it was never published in the United States. Buchanan published it later in England. Subsequent to the controversy with the Huntington Palimpsest, Buchanan continued to fight for recognition of his discoveries, writing letters to other scholars, to the media, and even to Pope Pius XI, who Buchanan met prior to his election while they were doing Biblical research in Italian Libraries. Buchanan supported England during WWI and the archive holds correspondence with the English government and benevolent societies reflecting that association. Later Buchanan taught at a number of private schools. He continued to do research and publish. He also lectured around the country. In 1930 Buchanan fell sick and sailed to Australia at his doctor's advice, where he died on August 19th, 1932.
Union Theological Seminary Archives: UTS 1, papers of faculty and students
Item description, UTS1: Edgar Simmons Buchanan papers, series #, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Correspondence, articles, newspaper clippings, photographs, reviews, and autobiographical materials were cataloged by Lynn A. Grove on 1988-07-07. Metal clips were removed from the material if they were rusted. Material was flattened where necessary. The collection was placed in archival folders and boxes. Acidic items were interleaved with acid-free paper. Photographs and fragile materials were placed inside Mylar envelopes. The finding aid was created by Maya Naunton in 2017 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2024.
This collection contains correspondence largely relating to Buchanan's research into early Gospel manuscripts and his teaching career, as well as correspondence of a more social nature; material relating to Buchanan's writings and research on early Biblical manuscripts, ESB's writings about his research, papers associated with Bridport, England Reading Society, and other various writings including sermons, poetry, and autobiographical writings; clippings that relate to Buchanan's scholarly publications and publisher's notices announcing publication of Buchanan's books; as well as personal materials and legacy processing information.
Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.
This series is open for research.
This series is arranged in rough chronological order.
This series contains correspondence largely relating to Buchanan's research into early Gospel manuscripts and his teaching career. Some of the correspondence is of more social nature. A large number of the letters concern Buchanan's interactions with libraries where he worked on his research; these include Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona, the British Museum, Morgan Museum and Library, the Bodleian Library, Harvard College Library, The Hispanic Society of America, Oberlin College Library, National Library of Wales, Library of Congress, Bibliotheque Universitaire Bordeaux, and New York Public Library. Buchanan also corresponded with clergy and religious organizations, including Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Bishops of Salisbury, Carlisle and Birmingham, Society for Promoting of Christian Knowledge, Drew Theological Seminary, Theological Seminary at Princeton, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, American Sunday-School Union, Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, Episcopal Theological School, the office of Pope Pius XI, American Tract Society, Evangelical Theological College, Pentecostal Holiness Church, Biblical Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary. Individual scholars that Buchanan corresponded with include Alexander Souter, Francis Crawford Burkitt, Dr. Erwin Nestle, Eduard Naville, James Rendel Harris, and Homero Seris. Further notable correspondents include Theodore Roosevelt, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Dr. Achille Ratti (later Pope Pius XI), E. Rutheford ("father of nuclear physics"), Stanley Baldwin (British Prime minister during WWI), and William Inge (Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral).
This series is open for research.
This series is arranged by piece of writing.
This series contains material relating to Buchanan's writings and research on early Biblical manuscripts, including Fleury Palimpsest (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris), which resulted in a book "The Records Unrolled", published in 1911; Codex Corbeiensis = Codex H2 (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris), published as "The Four Gospels from the Codex Corbeieinsis… Together with Fragments of the Catholic Epistles of the Acts and of the Apocalypse from the Fleury Palimpsest" in the Old-Latin Biblical Texts series in 1907; Codex Veronensis (Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona), published as "The Four Gospels from the Codex Veronensis" in 1911; Beatus Apocalypse = Morgan Ms. (Morgan Library), published as "A New Text of the Apocalypse from Spain" in 1915; Huntington Palimpsest (The Hispanic Society of America, New York); Harkness Manuscript (New York Public Library); and various other manuscript transcriptions and translations. Also included in this series are ESB's writings about his research, papers associated with Bridport, England Reading Society, and other various writings including sermons, poetry, and autobiographical writings.
Proofs of the "Fragments of the Catholic Epistles", 1906; Latin text from "Prologus" in Epistulas Canonicas, c. 1906; Book "The Records Unrolled", 1911; Text "About Some Old MSS", 1928
Text from Codex, 1901-1905, Text from Codex, c. 1907, "The Four Gospels from the Codex Corbeiensis… Together with Fragments of the Catholic Epistles of the Acts and of the Apocalypse from the Fleury Palimpsest", Old-Latin Biblical Texts: No. V, 1907; Collations from Codex Corbeiensis, 1907; collations from Codex Veronensis, 1911.
Notes on Codex, 1906, Text probably from Codex, c. 1910, Text, published as "The Four Gospels from the Codex Veronensis" in 1911
Latin text and notes, c.1914, "The Catholic Epistles and Apocalypse", published in 1914, "A New Text of the Apocalypse from Spain", 1915
Transcription of the Palimpsest, 1916, Transcription of the Palimpsest, The Acts of the Apostles, 1916, Wordlist, possibly relating to the Palimpsest, c. 1916, Notes and transcriptions from the Palimpsest, proofs of the same, 1916, List of 12 parables from the Palimpsest, followed by typed text and Buchanan's translation of the same, c.1917, Transcription of the Palimpsest. Some pages contain addresses of various people,1917, Transcription of the Palimpsest, Gospel of St. Luke, c. 1917
Proofs of the text from the Palimpsest, 1917, Proofs of unpublished Comparative Edition of the Palimpsest, 1917, Printed cards with passages from the Palimpsest, 1917, Two articles on the Palimpsest, Proofs of the top (latest) writing in the Palimpsest, 1918, Transcription of the Palimpsest, Gospel of St. John, 1918, Foreword for a publication of the Palimpsest, 1918, Notes on Palimpsest, 1919?, "The Oldest Text of the Gospels". Introduction is by ESB, 1924, Article printed in the Mercure de France on September 15th, 1925.
Transcriptions and notes, 1928, English version of the MS, 1929, Transcription of the MS, 1929, "Calendar of the New Gospel Texts with Poetic Commentaries by their Discoverer", 1932
Notes and wordlists, 1899-1905, Transcriptions from manuscripts, c. 1905, Text from St. Matthew's Gospel, from unidentified manuscript, c. 1910, "Early Spanish Marriage Rite" from a missal written c. 1300, copied and translated by ESB in 1916, "The Confession of St. Patrick" translated by ESB from Latin, 1930, "Cuthbert's Story of Bede's Death" translated by ESB, 1930
The Story of Changing Manuscripts", 1929, Drafts of "The Search for the Earliest Gospels", 1930, Draft of "The Search for the Earliest Gospels", 1930, Unpublished articles, 1930, List of libraries ESB sent his books to, 1920's?
Notes on Browning, 1899, "Wordsworth's "Prelude", 1899, Dante's "Inferno", c. 1900, Spenser's "Faery Queen", 1900, Critique of a paper by Mrs. Solly, contributed to the Bridport Reading Society, 1900, Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound", 1901
Notes on a sermon preached in 1897, "Church and Empire in Australia", c. 1909, "George Herbert – Melodist", published in 1910, "Victor Hugo on the Rape of Alsace-Lorrain", c. 1914, "Booker T. Washington [an appreciation]", written on his death, 1915, "Religion Re-revealed", 1924, "Prophet or Quack" – a review by ESB of "H.G. Wells: Educationalist" by F.H. Doughty, c. 1926, "Luther's Reply to King Henry VIII", 1928, "Martin Luther Against King Henry of England" translated by ESB, 1928, Religious poems, 1918-1930, "Thoughts Concerning God", n.d.
Diary, 1896-1897, Travel notes, 1897, Autobiographical, 1898, Travel writings, 1901-1909, Diary, 1915, "Growth", autobiographical, 1917, "A Spiritual Progress", autobiographical, 1917, "The Story of a Seeker", autobiographical, 1922, Autobiographical notes, 1922, "Canterbury College as I Knew it", 1923, Thoughts dictated by ESB during his final illness in Australia, 1931-1932
Facsimiles of manuscript related research materials, 1911-1930, proofs of Huntington Palimpsest, 1916-1919, rubbing of the memorial plate installed by ESB's wife in the Ashburton High School, New Zealand, 1930's
This series is open for research.
This series is arranged in rough chronological order.
This series contains clippings that relate to Buchanan; most of the clippings concern his scholarly publications. This series also contains publisher's notices announcing publication of Buchanan's books.
Relating to Buchanan's high school, sermons, and publications
This series is open for research.
This series is unarranged.
This series contains personal materials, including teacher recommendations, church licenses, a resume that Buchanan wrote in 1914, his photograph, and his business card. This series also contains legacy processing information.