Rev. Dr. Mortimer P. Giffin (1869-1952) served as a lecturer on homiletics at Drew Theological Seminary from 1922-1935 and on History and the Appreciation of Fine Arts at Brothers College from 1929-1935. Despite his part-time faculty status, Giffin was a well-beloved professor, who contributed scholarships to Brothers College and a number of portraits of prior faculty members, including Dr. Charles Fremont Sitterly, Dr. Lynn Harold Hough, Dr. John Alfred Faulkner, and Bishop Anderson.
Giffin received his Bachelor of Divinity degree at Drew Theological Seminary, going onto study at Union Theological Seminary, New York University, and Syracuse University, where he received his Doctorate of Divinity degree. Between 1898-1922 he served in a number of churches in the New York area, followed by time in the Midwest.
The Mortimer P. Giffin Papers are divided between three Faculty Biography folders and two boxes. The Faculty Biography folders include correspondence with various figures in the Drew University administration, including University Presidents Ezra Squier Tipple, Arlo Ayres Brown and Fred Garrigus Holloway and College of Liberal Arts Dean Frank Lankard. A number of letters are addressed to his second wife, Lulu Hine Giffin, when Giffin’s health was in decline and after his passing. Additionally, there are photos of Giffin in protective sheets.
The collection also contains two boxes of Giffin’s papers which largely contain correspondence, including with William V. Kelley, Francis B. Upnam, Bishop William F. Anderson, and David G. Downey, and personal records, including academic, ministerial, and income tax filings, from 1863-1954. Notable items include a hardcover bound volume of Giffin’s lectures on the “History of Preaching” (no date), and a personal scrapbook of newspaper clips reporting on Giffin’s preaching.
This is an unprocessed collection and may not be available for research. For more information, please contact [email protected].