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Ethical Society of St. Louis Records (S0444) PRELIMINARY INVENTORY S0444 (SA1439, SA1440, SA1441, SA2603, SA2636, SA2641, SA2662, SA3122, SA3385, SA4369, SA4372, SA4383) ETHICAL SOCIETY OF ST. LOUIS RECORDS This collection is available at The State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center- St. Louis. If you would like more information, please contact us at [email protected]. Introduction Approximately 58 cubic feet The Ethical Society of St. Louis Records contains meeting minutes, correspondence, newsletters, marriage applications, and cassette and VHS tapes relating to the group’s mission to create and sustain an ethical humanist congregation dedicated to the advancement of ethical values and behavior without reference to religion or a deity. Materials of interest include meeting minutes of the Board of Trustees and annual membership meetings, which include discussions on the Society’s move from Sheldon Memorial to 9001 Clayton Road, finances, and membership outreach. In April 1886, several progressive St. Louisans gathered in the office of attorney Charles Nagel Sr., to meet with S. Burn Weston and Walter Sheldon (1858-1907), representatives of the burgeoning Ethical Culture movement, to discuss establishing an ethical society in St. Louis. The progenitor of this movement was Felix Adler (1851-1933), a scholar of religion and philosophy, with roots in Reform Judaism. His father, Samuel Adler, was the rabbi for Temple Emanu-El’s in New York City from 1857 to 1891. In May 1876, Felix Adler gave a series of lectures before liberal members of his father’s temple at Standard Hall in New York City, calling for the creation of a lecture movement focused on creating a “practical religion,” dedicated to fostering ethical behavior in all individuals, without adhering to belief in a deity or traditional religious liturgy or customs. Inspired by Adler’s vision, attendees began purchasing subscriptions for Adler’s continuing lecture series, leading to the establishment of the New York Society of Ethical Culture on February 21, 1877. The New York Society, led by Adler, held Sunday meetings, known as platforms, where Adler and others could lecture on topics such as religion, philosophy, and ethics. Adler also embarked on social service projects, including the establishment of the Workingman’s School in 1880, which provided attendees with elementary, secondary, and industrial arts education. Between 1882 and 1886, the popularity of the New York Society lead to the movement’s expansion into Chicago, Philadelphia, and eventually St. Louis, leading to the creation of the American Ethical Union in 1889 to serve as an umbrella organization for ethical societies in the United States. After the St. Louis group met with Weston and Sheldon in April 1886, they invited Sheldon to deliver a series of lectures about the Ethical Culture movement to other interested St. Louisans at Memorial Hall in the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts on May 21, 26, and 30, 1886. Sheldon’s talks convinced the attendees to begin raising funds for an ethical society in St. Louis, which they organized as the Society of Ethical Culture on November 27, 1886, at Pickwick Theater Hall (The Society changed its name to the Ethical Society of St. Louis on May 14, 1896). During this meeting, members adopted a constitution and bylaws for the Society and elected Manning Tredway and James Taussig as president and vice president of THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION 4/23/2020 S0444 (SA1439, SA1440, SA1441, SA2603, SA2636, SA2641, SA2662, SA3122, SA3385, SA4369, SA4372, SA4383) ETHICAL SOCIETY OF ST. LOUIS RECORDS the Society Board of Trustees, respectively. The Missouri Department of State later approved the Society’s certificate of incorporation on May 14, 1889. According to the bylaws established at the Society’s November 27, 1886, meeting, with the last revision on May 15, 2018, the Ethical Society of St. Louis governs itself in partnership with the Board of Trustees, the ministry team, and the congregation. Ethical Society congregants are responsible for selecting the seven-member Board of Trustees, who serve staggered, three-year terms. The Board meets monthly and is responsible for overseeing the Society’s leadership, finances, and the programs developed by the Society’s committees. An executive committee, chaired by the president of the Board of Trustees, handle issues that arise between Board meetings. The Board of Trustees is also responsible for selecting the Ethical Society’s leader, per approval by the Society’s membership, who oversee the Society’s staff, volunteers, provide ethical guidance and counseling to the membership, and implement policies established by the Board. The Board also holds an annual membership meeting at the end of the fiscal year (May), where members vote on candidates for the Board of Trustees, the Society’s upcoming budget, and other issues put forth by the Board and the Society’s various committees. During the November 27, 1886 meeting, the Society’s founding members selected Walter Sheldon as their principle lecturer. Under his leadership, the Society established Sunday platforms similar to the New York Society for Ethical Culture, which included an address by Sheldon or a visiting lecturer, as well as music. Early guest lecturers included Felix Adler and Dr. Stanton Coit, the founder of the West London Ethical Society. The Society held platforms from October to May, in the tradition of New York Society for Ethical Culture. Other initiatives begun by Sheldon included the Society’s first Sunday school, the Children’s Sunday Assembly (February 1887) and the Wage Earner’s Self Culture Clubs (1888), which provided educational opportunities to St. Louisans, including free reading rooms and classes in Domestic Economy at 1532 Franklin Avenue. The success of the Self Culture Club led the Society to spin off the club into a separate organization, the Self-Culture Hall Association, on June 1, 1893. Sheldon was also instrumental in establishing the Greek Ethics Club (1891), which held discussion and talks on historical Greek politics, art, and theology, as well as the Political Science Club (1892). Walter Sheldon’s passing on October 12, 1907, resulted in the ascension of his widow, Anna Sheldon (1863-1924), to the leadership position. During her tenure, the Society’s membership focused on finding a permanent home for the Ethical Society. For over twenty years, the Society had used Memorial Hall at the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts as its principal home. Shortly after the 1904 World’s Fair, however, the museum’s director, Halsey C. Ives, decided to move the museum to the Palace of Fine Arts at Forest Park in 1909. Spurred by Ives’s decision, Anna Sheldon donated $37,000 to the Society on November 1, 1909, for the construction of a permanent home for the building. The only stipulations Sheldon attached to the gift were that the Board of Trustees had to purchase the lot and secure pledges to help with the building’s construction. In January 1910, the Society purchased a lot on Washington Avenue for $25,000. Members eventually pledged $82,848 Page 2 of 70 S0444 (SA1439, SA1440, SA1441, SA2603, SA2636, SA2641, SA2662, SA3122, SA3385, SA4369, SA4372, SA4383) ETHICAL SOCIETY OF ST. LOUIS RECORDS for the building’s construction. Named Sheldon Memorial, after Walter Sheldon, the Society held their first event at the building, a musical recital, in September 1912. Percival Ashley Chubb (1860-1960) succeeded Anna Sheldon as leader of the Ethical Society in 1911. Chubb, a native of Davenport, England, and a founding member of the Fabian Society, had previously served as assistant leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture from 1905 to 1911. One of Chubb’s significant contributions to the Ethical Society of St. Louis was instituting ritual celebrations acknowledge the cycles of human life. Chubb believed these secular rituals fostered a sense of community and belonging among humans. As a result, celebrations such as ‘Thanksgiving Festival,’ which focused on ‘giving thanks to the human family,’ and ‘Recognition Day,’ honoring the Society’s Sunday school graduates, became mainstays of the Society. Chubb was also responsible for rejuvenating the Greek Ethics Club, which he renamed the Contemporary Literature Circle to focus on literature and poetry. He was also instrumental in restructuring the Children’s Sunday Assembly—later renamed the Junior Sunday Assembly in 1929—along with Cecelia Boette, who was the Assembly’s associate superintendent and superintendent from 1907 to 1929. Eschewing Sheldon’s didactic methods, Chubb permitted Boette greater freedom to expand the school’s curriculum, with lessons focused on teaching children to explore and learn about community welfare, outside familial relationships, including sexuality, and critical examination of the Bible and traditional religion. Upon Chubb’s retirement in 1933, the Board of Trustees selected J. Hutton Hynd (1898- 1969) to replace Chubb as leader on February 19, 1933. A native of Scotland, Hynd was a follower of Dr. Stanton Coit. Despite Hynd’s creative platform lectures on science and art, membership contracted from 411 in 1933 to 342 in 1939 due to what some members considered his cold demeanor. When Hynd resigned from his post as leader on April 10, 1950, the Board of Trustees recommended John F. Hornback (1919-2009) as Hynd’s replacement at the annual membership meeting on May 24, 1951. The members present at the meeting voted in favor of the Board’s decision. Hornback was a graduate of Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri, and joined the Chicago Ethical Society in 1941, before becoming the leader of the Westchester County Ethical Society in 1947. Hornback’s platforms espoused the scientific naturalism, the theory that humans could reach objective principles by studying contrasting values using deductive reasoning. During Hornback’s tenure, the Society began making plans to secure a new home in St. Louis County. On December 13, 1954, the Board of Trustees established the Growth and Development Committee to study and devise plans for the growth of the Society’s membership, location, activities, and physical plant.
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