Ora Delmer Foster Papers

Collection

Identifier: MsC0211

Staff Only
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Scope and Contents

The papers of Ora Delmer Foster date from 1895 to 1965 and document his life and career. Autobiographical materials, memoirs, and diaries give insights into Foster's private life. His correspondence (both personal and professional) which spans seventy years is contained in five boxes. Many of his writings, especially those on Mexico and South America as well as those concerning religious issues, are included in manuscript form, with typescript drafts and notes.

Religion courses that he taught at the University of Iowa are documented in the papers with lectures, notes, research, and memoirs. Iowa's School of Religion is the subject of one entire box. Information regarding Dr. Foster's work with Comrades in Service, the American Association on Religion, and the North American Board for the Study of Religion in Higher Education is included as well. There are also boxes of photographs, books and pamphlets relating to Latin America, and slides.

Dates

Creation: 1895-1965

Creator

Foster, Ora Delmer (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Biographical / Historical

A Congregational minister, Ora Delmer Foster (1877 -- 1965) graduated from Manchester College in Indiana. He received his B.D. and A.M degrees at Oberlin and his Ph.D. at Yale. Toward the end of World War I, he organized and directed the Comrades in Service Movement. This was an interfaith project that included all of the welfare agencies along with officers and soldiers. Dr. Foster was for many years the university secretary of the Council of Church Boards of Education. In 1922, at the Conference of Church Workers in Universities, he presented a paper proposing the idea of a School of Religion as a part of a tax-supported university. His idea was picked up by Iowa officials attending the meeting, and the University of Iowa's School of Religion was born. Dr. Foster was a guest professor there in the 1940s. He was a promoter of interfaith and church-state understanding and cooperation. His life's work was in the field of inter-cultural relations. A wide traveler and unofficial ambassador of goodwill, he spent many years working and studying in Mexico and South America. Dr. O. Delmer Foster died in Claremont, California, at the age of eighty-seven.

Extent

24.50 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Congregational minister, lecturer, and professor. Subject files, literary manuscripts, diaries, photographs, and books relating to Foster's life and career.