Papers of William Eugene Blackstone - Collection 540

[Note: What follows is a description of the documents in this collection which are available for use at BGC Archives in Wheaton, Illinois, USA. The actual documents are not, in most cases, available online, only this description of them. Nor are they available for sale or rent.]

Table of Contents

Brief Description of This Collection

Title Page and Restrictions

Biography of William Eugene Blackstone

An Essay on the Contents of the Collection (Scope and Content)

Lists of Books, Periodicals, and Photographs in This Collection (Location Records)

Books
Periodicals
Photographs

List of the Contents of Boxes of Paper Records in This Collection (Container List)

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Collection 540 [April 25, 2001]
Blackstone, William Eugene; 1841-1935
Papers; 1891-1979
8 Boxes (DC; 3.4 cubic feet), Photographs

Restrictions: None

Biography:

Full name: William Eugene Blackstone
Birth date: October 6, 1841, in Adams, New York
Family:
Marital Status: Married Sarah Lee Smith, June 5, 1866
Children: Andrew, Harry (missionary to China), and Flora
Conversion: Age 11 at evangelistic meetings at the Methodist Church
Death: November 30, 1935
Education: No formal college education, self-educated
Career:
1870 - Building and property investor
Preacher and evangelist
1889 - Helped organize and became the first superintendent of the Chicago Hebrew Mission, incorporated in 1891
Sole trustee of the Milton Stewart Evangelistic Fund

Selected publications:
Satan: His Kingdom and its Overthrow. New York: Fleming H Revell Company, 1900 (see folder 1-1)
The Millennium. New York: Fleming H Revell Company; 1904 (see folder 1-1)
Jesus is Coming. New York: Fleming H Revell Company, c. 1908. Translated into many languages

Scope and Content

[Note: In the Scope and Content description, the notation "folder 2-5" means box 2, folder 5.]

Arrangement: Alphabetical and then roughly chronological
Date range: 1891-1979
Volume: 3.4 cubic feet
Geographic coverage: China, Egypt, India, Israel (Palestine), Poland, Russia, United States
Type of documents: Correspondence, organizational reports, petitions to U. S. presidents (called Memorials), miscellaneous mission organization reports, book orders, financial statements
Correspondents: Home and foreign missionaries, Presidents Harrison and Wilson, people and organizations who received support from the Milton Stewart Evangelistic Fund of which Blackstone was sole trustee
Subjects: Establishment of a homeland for Jews in Palestine (Israel), Zionism, and the evangelization of Jews
Notes: Much of the collection was damaged to varying degrees by fire and water and some letters could not be salvaged and were disposed of; the numbers in parentheses in the Container List were assigned by Blackstone to distinguish between correspondents
Exceptional items: Documents which show the early work of Blackstone and the resultant letters of petition to presidents Harrison (folder 6-9) and Wilson (folder 7-5) to establish in Palestine a state for displaced Jews, especially those from Russia (folders 7-2 through 8-6); the debate over liberalism in the Methodist Episcopal Church (folder 3-5). There are also several manuscripts and a thesis which deal with the Zionist movement (folders 6-1 through 6-5). Many correspondents were recipients of funding from the Milton Stewart Evangelistic Fund, such as the All Russian Union of Evangelical Christians (folder 1-2, 3), American Bible Society (folder 1-3), Barbican Mission to the Jews (Poland)(folders 1-7, 8), China Inland Mission (folder 2-9) Greek work in Los Angeles (folder 2-15), Mount Carmel Bible School, Haifa, Palestine (folders 4-7, 8); New York Gospel Mission to the Jews (folder 5-1), North China Theological Seminary (folder 5-3), Union Methodist Seminary and Union Chinese Church of Korea (folder 5-7), Women's Bible Institute, Korea (folder 5-9), among others. Folder 1-9 includes notice from Charles Hurlburt of new mission called Unevangelized Africa

Provenance

The materials in this collection were given to the Billy Graham Center Archives by the American Messianic Fellowship in March, 1990.

Accession 90-31
January 22, 1998
Janyce H. Nasgowitz
M. Bergstedt
J. Taussig

LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 90-31
Type of Material: Books
The following items have been given to the BGC LIBRARY:

Lindberg, Beth M. A God-Filled Life/The Story of William E. Blackstone. A tract, no date. Probably published by the American Messianic Fellowship

LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 90-31
Type of Material: Periodicals
The following items have been given to the BGC LIBRARY:

The Jewish Era Volume XLVII, Number 11, December 1937. Contains a fifty year history of the Chicago Jewish Mission.

LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 90-31
Type of material: Photographs
The following items are located in the PHOTO FILE; request by Folder Titles (in bold) at the beginning of each entry below.

MISSIONS TO JEWS. These photographs (29 b/w, 1 color; 1924-1928), regardless of identification or country, came from the correspondence of missionary workers supported by the Milton Stewart Evangelistic Fund, whose primary function was evangelizing Jews around the world. The images include:
-- Chapel and workers and missionary Paul M. Hosler and family of Shek Lung Station, South China Mission
-- Rev. S. B. Rohold of Mount Carmel Bible School and colporteurs at Baghdad, dealing with Jews. Rev Rohold and Rev. A. J. Edwards in ancient Babylon; earthquake scenes: inside yard of St. John Convent near Jordan, cracks at edge of Jordan baptismal place, streets in Ramah, aerial view of Mount Carmel Bible School in Haifa, Palestine
-- Three generations of the Lang family
-- Christians from Manchuria
-- Pastor Peter Gorodishz, Barbican Mission to the Jews, and photos of the Gospel van in Bialystock, Poland
-- Jewish woman, 106 years old, waiting for Messiah
-- Grave of Prof. Zia Hung Lai, Christian literary man of China
-- School for Blind Girls, Wushang, China
-- Christian Literature Society in Haifa, Palestine
-- Quartet of musicians, Edythe Flower, director, and final rehearsal of "Elijah," Dr and Mrs Howdon in rickshaws (in letter of Edythe Flower, Shantung, China)
-- School in Korea (?)

NOWACK, WILLIAM. Photo includes William and Katherine Nowack with Esther and Helen, from a letter of Edythe Flower to Blackstone. 1 b/w, 1925.

CONTAINER LIST

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Last Revised: 4/26/01
Expiration: indefinite