Lecture notes taken down by David H. Stam

Scope and Content

The collection is composed of Lecture notes on English Literature and Divinity taken down during 1955-1956, with the English Literature notes including:

  • - Dr. Johnson
  • - Critical Theory, given by A. M. Clarke
  • - The seventeenth century, also given by A. M. Clarke

There are also Supplementary notes on: Wordsworth; Shelley; Matthew Arnold; and, A.C. Swinburne.

The Divinity notes are those on/for:

  • - Galations
  • - Ethical theories
  • - Junior Divinity, given by Baillie
  • - Eschatology, given by Baillie
  • - The Stoic and his relationship to Christianity, given by Baillie
  • - Christian teaching about God, given by Baillie
  • - Jewish backgrounds of the Gospels, given by J. Stewart

Further material is composed of Lecture notes on English Literature and Divinity, being:

  • - English Literature - Evaluation criticism - and, Dr. Johnson
  • - Dogmatics - Kierkegaard
  • - Divinity - New Testament

and ms and ts notes of Torrance and Baillie lectures, on...:

  • Japanese religions
  • Christian doctrine of the World
  • Dogmatics
  • etc

Administrative / Biographical History

David H. Stam was born in 1935. He attended Eastern Academy, Prospect Park, New Jersey USA, 1947-1951. He then studied at Wheaton College, Illinois, studying English Literature, and then prior to attending Rutgers University Graduate School of Library Service between 1959 and 1962, he studied at the Divinity School (New College), Edinburgh University, during academic session 1955-56. After Rutgers, Stam began studies at the City University, New York, but withdrew to take up the post of Librarian at Marlboro College Library, Marlboro, Vermont, in 1964. A year earlier, in 1963, David H. Stam was married.

After Marlboro College Library he was appointed Head of the Technical Services Department at Newberry Library, Chicago in 1967, and then its Associate Librarian in 1969. At the same time he had begun (in 1968) studying and researching for the degree of Ph.D. Northwestern University.

Between 1973 and 1978, Stam was the Librarian at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore., and then between 1978 and 1986 was the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Research Libraries, at New York Public Library. Earlier, in 1978, he was awarded the degree of Ph.D. in English History from Northwestern University. The title of his dissertation wasEngland's Calvin: A study of the translators, printers, and patrons of Calvin's works in Tudor England.

In 1986, Stam became the University Librarian at Syracuse University, from which post he retired in August 1998. From 1998 he has been University Librarian Emeritus, and Senior Scholar at the History Department, Syracuse University.

Between 1960 and 2001, David H. Stam has written for a great number of bulletins, journals, encyclopaedias and dictionaries of relevance to the library and information environment.

Access Information

Access should be unrestricted but please check in advance of any consultation.

Acquisition Information

Accession nos: E2003.4; E2008.52; E2012.39.