Delavan Levant Leonard Papers

The papers of Delavan Levant Leonard provide an outline of the life of a college and seminary trained minister working in the Midwest as a struggling young minister in the 1870s, and in the developing American West during the 1880s. Leonard's work in the West was conducted under the auspices of the American Home Missionary Society, for whom he served as superintendent of Home Missions for Utah, Idaho, Montana, and western Wyoming. Based in Utah, Leonard observed the Mormon community and wrote frequent articles for midwestern and eastern magazines and newspapers as an outsider among the Mormons. Many of his articles, compiled in several scrapbook volumes, describe Leonard's feelings toward the Mormons. A travel log kept from 1881 to 1883 illustrates the extensive travel of Delavan Leonard. When Leonard resigned his post with the Home Mission in 1887, he served as a Congregational Minister in Bellevue, Ohio. Upon his return to the Midwest he traveled throughout northeastern Ohio giving lectures on Mormonism and other topics, with such spectacular titles as, "Six years among the Mountains and the Mormons." A selection of handbills advertise these lectures and the "large wall maps" which accompanied his lectures are also included. These period pieces provide rich artifactual evidence of the nature of his presentations.

Programs, fliers and leaflets from the various churches served by Leonard in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota help to illustrate the life of a minister in the expanding Midwest. The records document the church's articles of faith, membership, and social functions. A printed sermon delivered in 1874 illuminates Leonard's theology, and a scrapbook of clippings from Northfield, Minnesota describe his involvement in religious debate of the period.

Leonard's historical interest is recorded in his interviews with Oberlin College President James Harris Fairchild (1817-1902). The notes taken by Leonard during these interviews were used to produce his volume, The Story of Oberlin, published in 1898. Newspaper excerpts from this endeavor are compiled in the scrapbook, "The Legacy of Fairchild," which contains articles printed in the local paper. In addition to his numerous newspaper articles, a few of his magazine pieces are contained in the collection.

The Leonard collection also contains several unusual and miscellaneous items. Among the items is an undated handwritten book of recipes and household hints. This volume offers fascinating insight into the culinary and housekeeping practices of the late 1800s. The diary of Randall Wightman Leonard (1812-1836), Delavan's brother, describes life in New York between 1834 and 1835. Diary entries describe weather, religion and politics in brief daily entries.

Photographs in the collection offer evidence of the progression of photographic processes. Included here are daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes and studio photographs. The items portray Delavan and his wife, Mary Raymond Leonard, and their children as well as some unidentified subjects. Included among the cased images is one painted miniature of an unidentified subject.

A selection of materials from the Delavan L. Leonard Papers were microfilmed in 1971; these are noted on the Inventory.