Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Silas McBee Papers, #2455, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Estelle McBee of Charleston, S.C., 1942. Additional material received from Maria W. (Mrs. Peter M.) Rippe of Houston, Tex., June 1973, and transferred from the Bureau of Public Records Collection and Research of the University of North Carolina Records #40179, University Archives, April 1977.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, March 2010

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Brotherhood of St. Andrew.
• Bryce, James Bryce, 1838-1922.
• Christian sociology--Anglican Communion.
• Church architecture--Study and teaching.
• Churchman.
• Constructive quarterly.
• Ecumenical movement.
• Episcopal Church--History.
• Mahan, A. T. (Alfred Thayer), 1840-1914.
• Manning, William T.
• McBee, Silas, 1853-1924.
• Mott, John Raleigh, 1865-1955.
• Pinchot, Gifford, 1865-1946.
• Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August), 1849-1914.
• Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919.
• Social gospel.
• Sternberg, Speck von.
• Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930.

• See also McBee Family papers (#2263) in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• See also James Thomas Williams Junior papers in the Rare Book, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.

Silas McBee (1853-1924) was a native of North Carolina, active Episcopal layman, author, editor of The Churchman and founder of The Constructive Quarterly, and vice president of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. McBee was married to Estelle Sutton of Jackson, Miss., and later to Louise Post.

The collection includes Silas McBee's correspondence with leaders in the Christian and other faiths, statesmen, diplomats, educators, and philanthropists; much of it written in connection with his work as editor of The Churchman and The Constructive Quarterly, and as vice president of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. The papers reflect McBee's interest in social, political, religious, and intellectual questions, particularly his concern with Christian world unity, foreign missions, church architecture, and the propagation of the social gospel in American politics and international affairs. Correspondents include James Bryce, Alfred Thayer Mahan, William Thomas Manning, John R. Mott, Gifford Pinchot, Jacob August Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, Speck von Sternberg, and William Howard Taft. Letters between McBee and Theodore Roosevelt, 1902-1919, discuss American and international military affairs including the second Boer War and World War I; questions of race and racial tension, including some discussion of lynching and the Brownsville, Tex., race riots, 1906; and political matters including Roosevelt's campaign and election and the Progressive Movement.