Born June 26, 1850, to Rev. Leonard Bacon, Thomas R. Bacon was raised in New Haven, Connecticut, graduated from Yale University, circa 1876, and served several years as a Congregational minister before joining the history faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, around 1890. Bacon wrote and lectured extensively on theology and world history. He held his professorship until his death on March 26, 1913.
The collection contains correspondence between Bacon and Houghton Mifflin Company, addresses, lectures, handwritten Bible verses, essays, an untitled story, a typed and partially completed textbook on European history, and publications from journals and magazines.
Researchers are advised to contact Rhode Island College Special Collections for questions regarding permissions to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise publish material from this collection. Although Rhode Island College has physical ownership of the collection, it does not necessarily hold literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
The collection is open for research.
Thomas Rutherford Bacon papers, MSS-0091, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.
The collection is arranged into the following series:
The collection was given to Rhode Island College in 1968 by Martha Bacon Ballinger, with the consent of her husband, Ronald B. Ballinger, as well as her sister, Helen Bacon Westlake, and Helen’s husband, J.T. Westlake.
After the collection arrived in 1968 as part of the Nathaniel Terry Bacon papers, Rhode Island College Professor Norman Smith conducted preliminary sorting of the collection. The processing of the papers and the preparation of the original finding aid was funded by a National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant. The initial finding aid was prepared by Norene Rickson, library assistant in RIC Special Collections, with the assistance of Michael Kohl, Assistant Librarian in Special Collections. In 2023, the finding aid was converted to current archival standards by Special Collections intern Melissa Moniz, under the supervision of Veronica L. Denison, Digital Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Rhode Island College. At this time, the collection was removed from the Nathaniel Terry Bacon papers and made into its own collection.
Rhode Island College Special Collections contains additional collections relating to the Bacon family:
Additionally, Yale University Manuscripts and Archives holds the
This collection was separated from the Nathaniel Terry Bacon papers (MSS-0005) and made into its own collection in 2023. Contact the Rhode Island College Special Collections for further information.
This collection has not been digitized. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact the Rhode Island College Special Collections.
The majority of the correspondence in this series is from Houghton Mifflin Company representatives concerning Bacon’s progress in completing a history textbook. There are four letters from Houghton Mifflin editor, Horace E. Scudder, encouraging Bacon to complete the book. Also included is a letter from Bacon to the publisher, 1903, stating that he is abandoning the project.
This series includes speeches, lectures, and essays in manuscript and printed form. Also included is a typescript copy of Bacon’s partially completed textbook on European history.