Carleton Family Papers

The Carleton Family Papers primarily document the life and career of Alford Carleton as a missionary, teacher, minister, college president, and observer of the cultural and political climate in the environs of the Middle and Near East.

During his time abroad (mostly in Syria, Turkey, and present-day Lebanon) Carleton wrote hundreds of letters to family members, friends, and colleagues. Of great historic value are his first-hand accounts of the region’s unrest due to the repeated intervention of foreign powers (namely France, Great Britain, and the United States) as well as the turmoil caused by years of religious strife and cultural differences existing between the numerous tribes residing there.

Carleton directed most of his personal correspondence to his mother, Mary Chamberlain (Wilson) Carleton. In these letters (1920-1949, undated), most of them numbered sequentially by the author, Alford described both the daily activities of his family life, traveling to and within the regions of the Middle and Near East, and his work as a missionary, teacher, and college president. In turn, Mary Chamberlain (Wilson) Carleton wrote to Alford to keep him abreast of family matters and the activities of friends back in the United States.

The professional correspondence series, while less voluminous than the personal letters, includes communication with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), Aleppo College administrators, and various other missionary colleagues, as well as exchanges with senior United States government officials and world leaders. Of significance here is the mediating role that Carleton assumed in reaching out to governments and tribal leaders in an effort to bring about peace to the Middle East region. For example, in a 14 November 1972 letter, Alford Carleton asked King Hussein bin Talal of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for any advice he could give to the United States government regarding the Middle East conflict following Richard M. Nixon’s second term election to the presidency earlier that same month. Likewise, in an 8 August 1972 letter to President Nixon, Alford Carleton explained the futility of an “imposed” plan by the United States, Soviet Union, and/or United Nations with regards to the Middle East conflict, while at the same time he acknowledged the power of influence that such “Great Powers” could yield in bringing about peace to the region. Letters such as these are testaments not only to Alford Carleton’s particular views regarding the conflict, but they also shed light on the value that the United States and foreign governments placed on his expertise on Middle East cultural and political matters.

The scrapbooks (Series XXII) provide further documentation on Alford Carleton’s professional activities in the Middle East. A scrapbook entitled “A Rare Collection of Mementos of the Carletons During the Years of the Second World War” (1939-1945), includes various travel documents as well as several important letters exchanged between Carleton and professional colleagues within the Middle East region and the United States. The letters found in this scrapbook point to the nature of his missionary activities and the importance of his involvement in the mission during the years of World War II. For example, found in the scrapbook is a letter of 28 April 1943 to Alford Carleton from Ralph Bain, Director of Middle East Operations of the American National Red Cross in Cairo, Egypt, in which the director praised Carleton for his help with the refugees who had fled Europe (mainly Greece) to Syria during the war. Contained in this scrapbook documenting his wartime missionary activities are other notable letters written to Alford, including those from the American Consulate General in Beirut, Lebanon, C. Van H. Engert, the Foreign Service Branch of the State Department, and the American Economic Mission in the Middle East. A second scrapbook in the series contains photographs and transcripts of speeches from a banquet that honored Alford Carleton for his lifetime of service to the missionary cause. The occasion also celebrated the tenth anniversary of his acceptance as executive vice president of the American Board of Foreign Missions.

While the correspondence series provides the most significant corpus of documentation relating to his career from year to year, his memoirs also contain detailed information concerning Alford Carleton’s life’s work. Found here in Series XV is one published (1983) and several unpublished accounts (1929-1930, 1964, 1968, 1978, 1981-1982) written by Alford Carleton that chronicle his career as a missionary, teacher, college president, and spiritual leader. As noted elsewhere, Carleton did not complete his memoirs due to ill health and his overall reluctance to commit time to writing his life story. In the writings that exist here, however, Carleton recounted his life of service and described his personal relationship with God, his attraction to the missionary field, and his apparent ongoing perception of himself as a student of religious thought.

The photographic series contains only seven photos relating to Alford Carleton’s professional life and experience in the Middle East. Two of these are undated prints of Alford Carleton granting diplomas at Aleppo College graduation ceremonies. The bulk of the series, however, consists of inherited prints and daguerreotypes, 1866-1981 (many undated) of the Carleton, Chamberlain, and Wilson families.

Although the Carleton Family Papers chiefly relate to the life and career of Alford Carleton, there exists a significant amount of documentation, letters (Series V), diaries (Series VII), photographs (Series XXIX), and genealogical histories (Series XI) of the extended family and ancestors of the Carletons throughout the collection; please consult the inventory and series descriptions for further listings of this important body of inherited family materials. The Chamberlains' commitment to preserving their genealogy led them to form the Chamberlain Association of America in 1897. The goal of the organization was to bring together all branches of the family throughout New England and elsewhere around the United States. Filed in this collection (Series XXI. Printed Matter) are the annual reports of the association, dated 1897-1908, which document meetings of the organization and list the members’ names alphabetically along with their respective places of residence.

Of particular interest among the inherited family materials are those relating to Civil War hero and former Republican governor of Maine, Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (cousin of Alford Carleton’s grandmother, Martha Burr Chamberlain), 1828-1914. Filed in Series XXI. Printed Matter, are two published articles: “Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, A Sketch,” an undated and uncredited biographical piece originally prepared for the Chamberlain Association of America, and “My Story of Fredericksburg” written by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in which he recalled his experiences in the Civil War. Also located in the newspaper clippings series (Series XVII) is a 1908 article honoring the 45^th anniversary of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s defense of Little Round Top during the 1863 battle at Gettysburg, as well as several of his obituaries (1914-15) following his death in 1914. For further information on Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, please consult a biographical entry in the Dictionary of American Biography, under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 3, edited by Allen Johnson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929).

A significant portion of the inherited family materials relates to Rev. Gowen Wilson (grandfather of Alford Carleton). Several materials exist in the collection documenting Gowen Wilson’s ministerial activities and, therefore, illustrating the theological tradition of biblical study and spiritual leadership that ran through Alford Carleton’s ancestry. Found in the inherited family correspondence series (Series V) are letters regarding Gowen Wilson’s call and resignation from churches in Winterport, Maine, and Windsor, Connecticut. Gowen Wilson’s diploma (1861) from the Theological Seminary in Bangor, ME (found Series VIII. Diplomas), and his discharge from the U.S. Christian Commission in 1864 (Series II. Commissions and Appointments) are also incorporated into the collection.

The Carleton Family Papers are arranged into twenty-nine record series: Series I. Awards and Honors; Series II. Commissions and Appointments; Series III. Personal Correspondence of Alford Carleton; Series IV. Letters of Alford’s Parents and Extended Family; Series V. Inherited Family Correspondence; Series VI. Professional Correspondence of Alford Carleton; Series VII. Diaries, Journals, Planners, and Travel Chronicles; Series VIII. Diplomas; Series IX. Education Related Files; Series X. Financial Records; Series XI. Genealogical or Family History Files; Series XII. Invitations and Tickets; Series XIII. Maps; Series XIV. Membership Files; Series XV. Memoirs; Series XVI. Miscellaneous Files; Series XVII. Newspaper Clippings; Series XVIII. Passports, tickets, and Travel Documents; Series XIX. Poetry and Quotations; Series XX. Posters and Drawings; Series XXI. Printed Matter; Series XXII. Scrapbooks; Series XXIII. Sermons and Other Religious Pieces; Series XXIV. Speeches and Talks; Series XXV. Topical Files; Series XXVI. Vital Records and Related Documents; Series XXVII. Writings by Alford Carleton; Series XXVIII. Writings by Others and about Alford Carleton; and Series XXIX. Photographs.