The Relation of Public Schools to Life

This manuscript is very likely a public high school commencement address. Earl Davis discusses three serious issues he finds with public education. (1) The tend to crush the child\u27s innate desire for adventure, a desire Davis sees as seminal to the achievements of history. (2) They do not support a child\u27s interest in doing real work -- because real factories are too dangerous and inhuman, and this undermines the emerging adults appreciation for labor. (3) They do not support the healthy idealism that young adults can bring to clean up the messes of their elders. Through all of this, there is an interesting discussion of the labor problem. Davis thinks vocational education is a kind of faux substitute, although perhaps in the current world the only route towards a solution to the labor problem. He is clear that a child\u27s personality is the most potent force in the universe. The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.https://commons.clarku.edu/pittsfield_manuscripts/1035/thumbnail.jp

Lecture Nine: Thomas Paine and Theology Without the Church

This lecture focuses on the religious writings of Thomas Paine -- famous for his political revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense. His subsequent book, The Age of Reason, was very controversial upon release. But Davis argues that it accurately described the liberal tendencies emerging at this time. The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.https://commons.clarku.edu/history_manuscripts_2/1008/thumbnail.jp

The Class Struggle [Twine Bound Bundle)

This is one of twelve sermons Earl Davis kept together in a twine-bound bundle. While these manuscripts are undated, internal evidence clearly dates them to the years 1909-1911. The United States went through a recession in 1908, and there was increasing labor unrest, including a general strike in Philadelphia in 1910. These difficulties provide some of the backdrop to these manuscripts, including this one here. One of the manuscripts, “What about City Government,” has a clear notation that it was written for the “Pipe and Pen Club,” presumably some periodic gathering to discuss issues of the day. It is possible that all – or nearly all – of these manuscripts were prepared for that gathering, as they do not read like sermons. Earl Davis writes about the current class struggle in the United States. He notes that there is a resistance to thinking of the United States in terms of classes because it was founded, in a way, to make a clear break with feudalism\u27s class structure. However, in place of that class structure we have the Capitalistic class structure, and the class struggle therein. He makes reference to the 1910 general strike in Philadelphia. Socialism is his solution to the class struggle.https://commons.clarku.edu/pittsfield_manuscripts/1026/thumbnail.jp

The Compelling Power of the Christ Like Life [Notes]

When Davis Baird was going through his grandfather\u27s materials, he observed that many sermons were pinned together with a straight pin in the upper-left corner. This led him to expect another beginning-to-end sermon here, but it is clear that this sermon was never completed. Furthermore, the notes as they were pinned together are almost certainly out of order, with the last page of what we\u27ll call “Version 3” out of place. We provide both the notes in the original order they were found, and the notes as Davis Baird reordered them. As always, there also a transcription of the reordered notes. The primary document combines all of these together. In these notes are five different beginnings; five attempts, none finished, to argue for the power of a Christ Like Life as against a life of sin. The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.https://commons.clarku.edu/pittsfield_sermons/1027/thumbnail.jp

Lecture One: The Church at Scrooby

The \u27Rise and Development\u27 series starts with the Church at Scrooby, England, from whence the Pilgrims came. They were a Separatist Church that advocated for a more strict Calvinism than the Church of England, but also advocated for the right to free inquiry in matters religious and universal priesthood (i.e., against a special class of priests whose job it is to tell people what to believe). Davis\u27 use of these lessons suggests that these manuscripts were intended for, and delivered to, a congregation. For this reason the most like date from 1905-1906 in Pittsfield. The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.https://commons.clarku.edu/history_manuscripts_2/1000/thumbnail.jp

Man\u27s Responsibility

This sermon, preached in Pittsfield’s Unity Church on November 27, 1904, and the previous one, “The Modern Pioneer,” also preached in Pittsfield’s Unity Church a week earlier on November 20, 1904, are sermons likely preached as part of the process through which Earl Davis secured the ministry of the Unity Church in Pittsfield, which commenced in April, 1905. This sermon was also given in Canton, MA on December 4th, 1904, Billerica, MA (not date given), and Sterling, MA (January 22, 1905). Davis uses this sermon to argue for the individual and collective responsibility to think through the meanings of the Bible and Jesus\u27 messages. He emphasizes not relying on authority, and extends this line of thinking to acting through moral issues. Davis also refers to William Ellery Channing\u27s views of Man\u27s divinity. Date refers to Date Given. The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.https://commons.clarku.edu/sermons_1902_04/1008/thumbnail.jp

Address Given at the Presentation of Diplomas to Members of the Graduating Classes of Grammar Schools of Pittsfield

A graduation address for the Grade 9 class of all Pittsfield schools. He focuses on the importance of education in rendering better and more useful citizens. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.https://commons.clarku.edu/pittsfield_manuscripts/1003/thumbnail.jp

Edgar Allan Poe [Twine Bound Bundle]

This is one of twelve sermons Earl Davis kept together in a twine-bound collection. While these manuscripts are undated, internal evidence clearly dates them to the years 1909-1911. The United States went through a recession in 1908, and there was increasing labor unrest, including a general strike in Philadelphia in 1910. These difficulties provide some of the backdrop to these manuscripts. One of the manuscripts, “What about City Government,” has a clear notation that it was written for the “Pipe and Pen Club,” presumably some periodic gathering to discuss issues of the day. It is possible that all – or nearly all – of these manuscripts were prepared for that gathering, as they do not read like sermons. Davis provides a kind of psychological analysis of what he sees as Poe failing to live up to his genius. He blames Poe\u27s step-parents, who gave him things and luxury, but not warmth and discipline. Two of the author\u27s works briefly discussed, William Wilson (1839) and Eureka: A Prose Poem (1848). The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.https://commons.clarku.edu/pittsfield_manuscripts/1022/thumbnail.jp

An Appeal for Self-Assertion

Davis describes humanity as directed by two impulses: In the first place, by the impulse to live a full, rich, abundant life, and in the second place, to assure to our children all that we have had and more. Davis believes the second to be more powerful. This is from the bound collection—“bundle #5”—that includes sermons from January 2, 1910 to January 15, 1911. Date refers to Date Given. The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.https://commons.clarku.edu/pittsfield_sermons/1043/thumbnail.jp

A New Note in Fiction

This writing is an analysis of fiction\u27s role in showing the human struggle with the changing forces of history, particularly the move away from authoritarianism. Authors mentioned include, Hervey Allen\u27s Anthony Adverse, Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Leo Tolstoy, Knut Hamsun\u27s Growth of the Soil, John Galsworthy\u27s The Forsyte Saga, Mazo de la Roche\u27s Jalna series, and Sinclair Lewis\u27 Main Street and Babbitt. While this manuscript does not have a date, the fact that it mentions Hervey Allen’s novel Anthony Adverse, published in 1933, and does not mention the award-winning movie of Anthony Adverse that premiered in 1936, suggests a date of 1934 or 1935. The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.https://commons.clarku.edu/petersham_manuscripts/1002/thumbnail.jp