Guide to the William Herbert Perry Faunce papers , 1845-1968, undated

(Bulk 1890-1929)

John Hay Library , Special Collections
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-863-2146
email: hay@brown.edu

Published in 2013

Collection Overview

Title:	William Herbert Perry Faunce papers
Date range:	1845-1968, (bulk 1890-1929)
Creator:	Faunce, William Herbert Perry, 1859-1930
Extent:	9.25 Linear feet
Abstract:	The William Herbert Perry Faunce papers contain outgoing and incoming correspondence, writings, diaries, and reprints of publications. The writings include poems, sermons, speeches, and essays. The material is dated from 1845 to 1968.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library , Special Collections
Collection number:	MS-1C-9

Scope & content

The William Herbert Perry Faunce papers consist primarily of correspondence, but also include sermons, addresses, journals, and clippings dating from 1845 to 1968. Most of the materials are dated from the 1890 to 1929. The collection documents Faunce's experiences as a student at Brown University and the Newton Theological Institution; his ordination; his travels in Europe, the United States, and Asia; the years he was a pastor; sermons and addresses given throughout his lifetime; and his tenure as Brown University President. The Journals series also documents family life. Brown University subjects documented in the collection include student life, curricula, addresses and sermons delivered to the student body, the selection of candidates for honorary degrees, commencements, and the library. In letters to his parents and in journals written while he was a student at Brown, Faunce describes student life, including Delta Upsilon activities, working for the Brunonian, courses, and elocution classes; the teaching of Ezekiel Gilman Robinson and Jeremiah Lewis Diman; his roommate J. Lee Richmond; his spiritual life; and playing the organ for various churches. While he was a student at Newton Theological Institution, Faunce wrote about teaching elocution, preaching at various churches, and his decision to become a pastor. Faunce's ordination is documented in some detail, including the charge which was given by his father, D.W. Faunce.

Faunce's work as a pastor for the State Street Baptist Church, in Springfield, Mass. and the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in New York, N.Y., is documented in the Sermons and Journals series. His election as Brown University President and the decision making process he engaged in before accepting the appointment are documented in the Letters by others and the Journals series. The collection contains the correspondence of other members of the Faunce family, including D.W. Faunce and Sarah Edson Faunce. Letters by D.W. Faunce, in the Letters by others series, were written while he was a student, teacher, and an ordained minister. W.H.P. Faunce's journals also describe D.W. Faunce's work as a clergyman. The relationship between W.H.P. Faunce and his wife Sarah Edson Faunce and the Rockefeller family is documented in their correspondence with Laura C. Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Other correspondents include Harry Lyman Koopman and Clarence A. Barbour. W.H.P. Faunce wrote many letters from Lake Mohonk, N.Y.

Faunce began to train in oration and elocution when he was in high school and his training is documented in his journals. The collection includes 190 texts of addresses written and delivered by Faunce. Subjects include religion, education, ethics, citizenship and patriotism. Addresses were given at various Brown functions; at other educational institutions; at religious, professional and business association meetings; building dedications; anniversary commemorations; at Lake Mohonk, N.Y., and in China. Faunce traveled to Europe, Asia, and the American West. He wrote detailed letters and journal entries that described the places he visited; the people he met, including educators, political leaders, and clergy; his activities, including conferences, preaching engagements, and sight-seeing; and his transportation and accommodations. He traveled to London, Scotland, Paris, Italy, and Switzerland in 1887, on a trip sponsored by his Springfield, Mass., pastorate. In 1895 the Faunces traveled to Germany. In 1905 Faunce attended The Baptist World Conference in London; traveled to Oxford University where he met a number of educators; and visited Paris, Vienna, Constantinople, and Greece. In 1907 Faunce traveled by train through the U.S. West and attended the NEA [National Education Assoc.?] meeting in Los Angeles; as well as visited the San Francisco area after a recent earthquake, the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; Seattle, where he preached at what was probably a United Society of Christian Endeavor convention; and Yellowstone Park. From late 1912 to 1913, Faunce traveled to Egypt, Ceylon, India, Burma, and China. In 1922, he traveled to London and addressed the English Speaking Union; to Copenhagen, where he attended the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship Through the Churches and was made chair of the "Committee on Findings;" and to Switzerland, where he attended the opening of the League of Nations. He described post-war conditions in Paris and its environs.

Access Points

Subject Organizations

• Brown University. Office of the President

Subject Topics

• Universities and colleges--Administration

Occupations

• College presidents

Document Types

• Diaries
• Essays
• Letters (Correspondence)
• Manuscripts (document genre)
• Sermons
• Writings (Document genre)

Subject Topics

• Education

Arrangement

The William Herbert Perry Faunce papers have been organized in six series: I. Manuscripts and Journals, 1875-1920; II. Sermons, addresses and essays, 1883-1929, undated; III. Letters by Faunce, 1873-1930, undated; IV. Letters by others, 1845-1930; V. Publications (reprints), undated; VI. Additions, circa 1874-1968.

Biographical note

William Herbert Perry Faunce (1859-1930), ninth president of Brown University, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on January 15, 1859, the son of Reverend Daniel W. Faunce, a graduate of Amherst College and Newton Theological Institution and Mary Parkhurst Perry of Bristol. After high school in Concord, New Hampshire, he entered Brown in 1876. It is difficult to imagine a more maladjusted freshman, and equally difficult to imagine that he would in the future be president of the University for thirty years. On January 12, 1879 during the week of his twentieth birthday he wrote a twenty-page letter to his father, full of memories of past problems and uncertainty about the future:

At home you kept me indoors, or I kept myself in, and I grew up ignorant of the sports of childhood.... But when I got here my eyes were opened. I was astonished beyond measure. Instead of finding the fellows devoted to study I found they cared nothing about study. The best fellow was the one who would pull the best oar or run the fastest in football or play baseball the best. ... I might have withdrawn closer into my shell, as many fellows in my class have done, and grown up alone, never catching the 'spirit' of college, never getting into college society, afraid of everybody, utterly unknown and obscure. ... That I did not become one of these, is largely due to Hardy. He was always independent and not over-careful of another’s feelings. He smiled at my greenness, laughed at my sensitiveness, called me an old maid when I deserved it, and yet stood by me as a true friend, and taught me how to act. ... I acquired an intense admiration for physical strength and prowess. Yet I dared not go into the gymnasium, for all could beat me. Thus you see I had a peculiar time. I do not like to speak of it, for it is painful even now to think of. Yet still I was not on the whole unhappy.

His popular roommates, first Henry Hardy and later J. Lee Richmond, a star athlete, helped him to advance socially, and his election to Delta Upsilon and to the Brunonian board, and capturing the first prize in declamation gave him confidence. He was worried about his future and continued in his letter, "I have always imagined that sometime I should be a minister. ... Then, to look at it negatively, what other calling could I enter? I am not keen enough to be a lawyer; I have no taste for medicine; teaching seems to be the general resort of people who are educated, but good for nothing else.... I am constantly finding out how little I know, and my ignorance increases faster than my knowledge."

After graduation he taught freshman mathematics at Brown while Professor Benjamin F. Clarke was in Europe in 1881-82. He decided to be a minister and graduated from Newton Theological Institution in 1884. He was pastor of the State Street Church in Springfield, Massachusetts from 1884 to 1889. In 1889 he became pastor of the Fifth Avenue Church in New York City. Then in 1899 came the offer of the presidency of Brown University. Faunce still had his uncertainties about his abilities. He considered carefully what his decision should be by making two lists headed "Pro" and "Con." Under the Pros he noted his interest in education, enjoyment of teaching, the opportunity for contact with and influence on young men, and the fact that his church had reached the maximum growth for a Baptist church in its location. He felt he could offer love of the college, power to conciliate, the confidence of the Baptists, and emphasis on character and religion. Also, "Brown University is the opportunity of a life-time. I must not decline it for want of courage." The items under "Con" included his happiness in his present situation, a new work just undertaken, the risk of changing to another sphere at age 40, the thought that the Baptist cause in New York City would suffer, and the realization that his work involved far less anxiety and burden than the presidency of Brown. Still modest about his accomplishments, he wrote, "I am deficient in financial ability, in impressiveness of personality, in creative power." Finally, he accepted. He was inaugurated on October 17, 1899.

Faunce's administration was to span thirty years, the longest presidential administration in Brown's history, and the change would be significant. The growth of the physical plant was extraordinary – a new president's house in 1901, the Van Wickle Gates in 1901, an administration building in 1902, a modern engineering building and a swimming pool in 1903, Caswell Hall, a dormitory, in 1904, Rockefeller Hall, the student union, in 1904, the John Carter Brown Library in 1904, the John Hay Library in 1910, Arnold Laboratory for biology in 1914, Metcalf Laboratory for chemistry in 1923, an engineering laboratory in 1925, Marston Hall for modern languages and two more dormitories, Hegeman and Littlefield Halls, in 1926. On the campus of the Women's College, Sayles Gymnasium was built in 1907, two dormitories, Miller Hall in 1910 and Metcalf Hall in 1919, and Alumnae Hall in 1927. The total assets of the University in 1899 when Faunce became president were $1,177,966; in January of 1912, they were $9,931,005. Faunce's personal administration was interrupted several times. In 1912 he visited Egypt, India, and China, and in 1922 he went to Europe to address the English Speaking Union in London and the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches, and to be present at the opening of the League of Nations.

Meanwhile the condition of the University had been bolstered by two major endowment funds and threatened by the World War. As the University grew, so did the student body. In 1899 there were 631 undergraduate men, 152 undergraduate women, and 85 graduate students. In 1929 the undergraduates and graduates totalled 2,201, and there were 1,936 registrations in the extension courses. The teaching staff had grown from 68 faculty members and 21 other staff in 1899 to 230 faculty and staff in 1929.

Some of Dr. Faunce's philosophy is expressed in these excerpts from his speech on the occasion of his twenty-fifth anniversary as president:

To me an institution is a biological unfolding, is a sacred living organism whose roots are buried deep in the past and whose branches spread out, always in unpredictable fashion, into the sky above. To cherish and nourish such a growth, now with the tears of anxiety and now with those of joy, is to have a part of life.... The first thing is to push out the horizon beyond the hat brim, to enable a man to survey more than his own dooryard.

I believe in keeping the open mind, in facing facts in every quarter of the globe. I believe with James Russell Lowell that the world is fireproof and that it is safe to strike matches.

Hence I have welcomed at Brown University men of every faith and every creed and ever shall. Many times I have heard men say from platforms at Brown things which I could never believe, and I have bid them go on. In the State founded by Roger Williams, the university will always stand for giving a platform to every man of whatever faith or creed who speaks with the proper courtesy and consideration for his fellow man. ...

I wrote out my resignation a short time ago and tried to present it to the corporation. But a certain combination of finesse and filibuster prevented me from presenting it. It is written, and it is there any time they call for it.

When the beloved president known to students as "Prexy" and "Willie Horse Power Faunce" retired in 1929 at the age of seventy, the Corporation wanted to provide a residence for him, and $40,000 was contributed by five friends to acquire the house at 41 Lloyd Avenue where he lived until his death on January 31, 1930. Vice-President James P. Adams reminisced about Faunce, "Dr. Faunce was the last President of Brown who could be affectionately described as 'Prexy.' He could easily be thought of in that way because he was a man who had fine relationships with members of he faculty but was a person of dignity. He always wore a morning coat in his office. His diction was superb.... I have seen him go into an assembly that was perhaps boisterous or a bit rowdy for the niceties of behavior at the moment. And I have seen him, without a gesture or an exclamation, bring the whole assembly to a quiet hush when he rose to speak."

The above entry appears in Encyclopedia Brunoniana by Martha Mitchell, copyright 1993 by the Brown University Library.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Use of the materials:	Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	William Herbert Perry Faunce papers, MS-1C-9, Brown University Archives.
Contact information:	John Hay Library , Special Collections Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Tel: 401-863-2146 email: hay@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Brown University Library staff.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2013 January 23
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
Sponsor:	Processing funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Additional Information

Inventory

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