Silas McBee papers, 1872-1923.

Creator: McBee, Silas, 1853-1924.
Collection number: 2455
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Abstract: Native of North Carolina, active Episcopal layman, author, editor of “The Churchman” and founder of “The Constructive Quarterly.” Correspondence with leaders in the Christian and other faiths, statesmen, diplomats, educators, and philanthropists; much of it written in connection with McBee’s work s editor of “The Churchman” and “The Constructive Quarterly,” and as vice president of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. The papers reflect McBee’s interest in social, political, religious, and intellectual questions, particularly his concern with Christian world unity, foreign missions, church architecture, and the propagation of the social gospel in American politics and international affairs. Correspondents include James Bryce, Alfred Thayer Mahan, William Thomas Manning, John R. Mott, Gifford Pinchot, Jacob August Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, Speck von Sternberg, and William Howard Taft.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Worldwide correspondence with church and national leaders of McBee, native of North Carolina, active Episcopal layman, author, editor of The Churchman in New York City, and founder of the Constructive Quarterly . Letters concern McBee’s editing activities; church organizations, conferences, and architecture; the University of the South; foreign missions; Christian world unity; and the application of the social gospel to American political and international affairs, including racial tensions. Contains references to missionary work among the black population (1899); lynchings and Booker T. Washington (1902); discussion of the “race question” (27 Nov 1898 and 15 Jan 1903); and black troops in the Civil War (1906).