This collection contains some restricted material. Restrictions related to specific material are listed in the detailed contents list.
Onsite storage.
This collection contains correspondence, including from the American Bible Revision Committee and the British Committee on Bible Revision; notes and lectures; diaries; and scrapbooks and memorabilia, including a photograph album.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1839 -- 1937
This series contains letters; the bulk of all correspondence is written to Schaff, however, Box 2, Folder 1 contains correspondence to and from David Schaff, and Box 2, Folder 2 contains letters from Schaff. The material in this collection probably represents only a fraction of Schaff's total correspondence, much of which was evidently lost or destroyed by his son (see letter from David Schaff to Dr. Rockwell of UTS, Aug. 17, 1896 in (Box 2, Folder 1). Key correspondents include: George Prentiss, Schaff's closest friend in the United States, Ezra Abbot, founding member with Schaff of Society of Biblical Literature, and Joseph Angus, member of British Bible Revision Committee who recruited Schaff to lead the American Committee. The American Bible Revision Committee1 met for the first time in Dr. Schaff's study in New York on December 7, 1871, and a significant amount of correspondence in this series is between Schaff and the members of this committee, often related to committee work. Schaff also corresponded with members of the British Revision Committee and the Bible Revision Finance Committee.
Series 2: Diaries, 1844 -- 1890
This series contains diaries, including some in German. Seven of the diaries contain extensive travel logs of trips to Europe and the Middle East that lasted from three to eight months. In addition, the diaries contain frequent entries that record Schaff's attendance at meetings and church services, his deliverances of sermons and lectures, his travel itinerary within the United States, his progress on academic projects, and events related to his teaching career. There are several notable entries that pertain to the illness or death of his loved ones: the sudden death of his son Johnny on August 21, 1870; his wife's near fatal struggle with small pox beginning February 4, 1872; the serious illness of his son David Schley during the last two weeks of December 1872; the death of his mother on May 25, 1876; and the death of his daughter Meta on July 14, 1876.
Series 3: Notes and lectures, 1838 -- 1877
This series contains lecture notes, study notes, and one sermon. Schaff's notes on the Baur lecture along with Schaff's Essingen sermon are from his time as a student in Tubingen. The lecture notes on August Neander (Schaff's close mentor) were taken by Schaff as a student at the University of Berlin. The notes on Schleiermacher and Jacobi were possibly acquired during this time as well. (See also Schleiermacher notebook in series 4). This series also includes Schaff's lecture notes from his two earliest teaching assignments, as a private docent at the University of Berlin and as a professor of Mercersberg Seminary. Finally, Schaff's lectures at Union can be read in notes taken by Charles R. Gillett during his time as a UTS student. The lecture notes cover three sections: 1) Theological Encyclopedia, 2) Biblical Introduction to the New Testament, and 3) Exegesis of the Gospel of Mark.
Series 4: Scrapbooks and memorabilia, 1827 -- 1923
This series contains a variety of Schaff's memorabilia, including a photograph album, books of pressed flowers from the Holy Land, an autobiographical scrapbook, periodicals, two books, and a semi-centennial booklet dedicated to Schaff. In the photograph album are 58 photographs of Schaff's Academic contacts, most of which are named in Schaff's own hand, e.g. Patrick Fairbairn of Glasgow, Dr. Grimm of Jena, "Winchester", Dr. Harnack. Some however are named in another later hand with some inaccuracies. Philip Schaff dedicated his autobiographical scrapbook "For my Children," giving rise to the possibility that this may have been used by David Schaff in his published biography of his father. Contents include: biographical note, list of publications, and clippings, articles, invitations, programs, and letters, including one from Schaff's daughter Meta and one from William Gladstone. The Semi-Centennial booklet was produced in 1892 in honor of Schaff's fifty years of teaching, dating from his first lecture at University of Berlin in 1842. The booklet includes a congratulatory address from the University of Berlin, notes or letters from Dr. Weiss, Dr. Harnack, the Union Seminary faculty, and Charles Butler, a student publication in honor of Schaff, and newspaper clippings.
Union Theological Seminary Archives: UTS 1, papers of faculty and students
This collection is arranged in 4 series: Series 1: Correspondence; Series 2: Diaries; Series 3: Notes and lectures; and Series 4: Scrapbooks and memorabilia.
This collection contains some restricted material. Restrictions related to specific material are listed in the detailed contents list.
Onsite storage.
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.
Item description, UTS1: Philip Schaff papers, series #, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
This collectin was donated to the Burke Library by David Schaff in 1896. Semi-Centennial Documents, Berlin 1842 - New York 1892, were added to the collection from an undocumented source in September 1995. Charles R. Gillett's student notes on Schaff lectures were added to the collection at an unknown date, possibly while Gillett was librarian for UTS.
Columbia University Libraries, Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary
Some correspondence, lecture material, diaries, and memorabilia were cataloged by Lynn A. Grove on 1988-07-13. All materials were placed in acid free folders and boxes. Folded materials were flattened and large items transferred from their original positions into oversized boxes. All folders were replaced and relabeled. Fragile materials were secured with Mylar. Fragile bound documents were wrapped with cloth binders. Some metal pins were removed. The finding aid was created by Kathleen Ford in 1985, revised by Ruth Tonkiss Cameron in 2006, revised by Todd Willison in 2012, and updated and edited by Leah Edelman in 2024.
2024-04-11 PDF converted to EAD and description updated by Leah Edelman.
Philip Schaff was born in Chur, Switzerland on January 1, 1819. He was an illegitimate child whose mother was forced out of town for that reason and whose father died a year after his birth, making him a ward of the state. In 1834, he was dismissed from his school and sent to a boarding school at Kornthal in Württemberg that was founded by Pietists. After six months at Kornthal, which Schaff called his "spiritual birthplace," he transferred to a Gymnasium at Stuttgart where he continued to be influenced by pietism and revivalism. In 1837, he began his university studies at Tübingen during the era of David Strauss, Isaac Dorner, Ferdinand Baur, and Friedrich Schmid. He was especially influenced during this time by the evangelical mediating theology of Dorner and Schmid and would go on to train with similar thinkers such as Friedrich Tholuck at the University of Halle, where he spent a winter semester in 1839-40, and August Neander at the University of Berlin, where he completed his doctoral dissertation entitled "The Sin Against the Holy Spirit" in the spring of 1842. In the summer of 1841, Schaff was hired by a widow named Baroness Von Krocher to be a tutor for her only son. He spent fourteen months traveling with the von Krochers throughout Italy and Sicily while completing his dissertation. After returning to Berlin in the summer of 1842, he prepared a second inaugural dissertation entitled "The Relationship of James, the Lord's Brother, to James, the son of Alphaeus, anew Exegetically and Historically Investigated." This qualified him to take his first teaching post as a privadozent at the University of Berlin in late 1842. In 1843, Schaff was called to a professorship at Mercersberg Seminary, the theological seminary of the German Reform Church of the United States, located in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. In April 1844, Schaff was ordained by the Prussian Evangelical Union church, a Reformed church in Elberfeld, so that he could serve at Mercersberg. He arrived in Mercersberg in August 1844 and continued to teach there until 1863. When he first arrived he gave a controversial inaugural address entitled "The Principle of Protestantism" that contained mediating views taken to be out of accord with the teachings of the German Reformed Church. In the publication of this address he added a rejection of the "Waldensian theory," which held that the Roman Catholic Church was apostate and that true apostolic succession ran only through the Waldensian medieval sect. Schaff's rejection of this doctrine led him to be tried for heresy in October 1845. He was acquitted of all charges. He was threatened with a second heresy trial in 1846, but the Synod of the German Reformed Church did not take action. On December 10, 1845, Schaff was married to Mary E. Schley. They had 8 children, 5 of whom died before 1876. In 1863, when the Civil War began, Mercersberg Seminary was closed and the buildings turned into a military hospital. To avoid the turmoil, Schaff moved his family to New York City, where he worked as Secretary of the New York Sabbath Committee until 1869. After lecturing intermittently during these years at Andover, Drew, Hartford, and Union seminaries, he was invited to join the faculty at Union Theological Seminary in 1870. There he was appointed Professor of Theological Encyclopedia and Christian-Symbolics (1870-73); of Hebrew (1873-74); of Sacred Literature (1875-1887) and finally as Washburn Professor of Church History (1887-1893). During his years at Union he traveled to Europe thirteen times, often for Bible revision work, for conferences of the Evangelical Alliance and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and for archival consultation in preparation for his church history volumes. His many original writings include The Principle of Protestantism (1845), Creeds of Christendom (1877), and History of the Christian Church (12 vols, 1838-1893). He also edited, among many other works, John Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (1864-1880) and the sets of patristic translations known as the Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers (Series I, 14 vols., 1886-9; Series II, 14 vols., 1890-1900). Schaff was a founding member of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis (1880), the American Society of Church History (1888), and the American branch of the Evangelical Alliance (1867). He was also the first president of the American Bible Revision Committee, which he organized in 1871 at the request of the British Committee. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Berlin University in 1854, the University of St Andrews in 1887, and the University of the City of New York in 1892. He was awarded an LL.D. from Amherst College in 1874. Philip Schaff died in New York City, October 20, 1893.
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