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E.J. Pace Collection

 Collection
Identifier: CN 702

Brief Description

Copies of hundreds of E.J. Pace's cartoons, which applied a Protestant Fundamentalist theology to living the Christian life, the nature of God, and moral issues in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. The collection consists mainly of lantern slides meant to be used in conjunction with prepared sermons, but there are also tracts and cartoons.

Dates

  • Created: 1917-1961

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on access to this collection.

Conditions Governing Use

There are no restrictions on the use of the materials in this collection.

Biographical Information

Christian cartoonist and lecturer; Born Ernest James Pace in 1879; after serving in the Philippines as a missionary, he was for 30 years cartoonist for The Sunday School Times as well as many other publications and also a frequent speaker and teacher at churches and Bible conferences.

Full Name: Ernest James Pace

Birth: November 11, 1879 in Delaware, Ohio

Death: June 19, 1946 in Hendersonville, North Carolina

Family:

Parents: James and Rosannah Catherine Miles Pace

Marital Status: Married to Cornelia Parker ca. 1900

Children: Helen Mae Pace Seidenspinner, born November 11, 1910 in the United Sates while the Paces were home on furlough

Conversion: As a newspaper cartoonist working in Chicago (ca. 1900) during a service at the Weaver Memorial United Brethren Church. He also regarded his decisive turn in February 1914 against Protestant Modernist (liberal) theology as another major stage in the development of his faith

Ordination: By Rev. O.C. Wright as a minister in the United Brethren denomination, ca. 1901

Education:

1897: Graduated from North High School in Columbus, Ohio

1902-1905: Attended Otterbein University and graduated with a B.D.

1910-1911: Attended Bonebrake Theological Seminary

April 1912: Graduated from the Kennedy School of Missions in Hartford, Connecticut

1916: Earned doctor of divinity degree from Princeton Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey

Career:

Ca. 1897: Worked as a cartoonist for a Columbus newspaper while still in high school

1899-1900?: Moved to Chicago to do illustrations for The Chicago Journal

1901-1902: Pastored United Brethren churches in Hamden, Pataskala, and Pickerington, Ohio

1906-1916: Contributed cartoons to The Watchword, a United Brethren in Christ publication

1911-1916: Regularly contributed cartoons to The Religious Telescope

1905-1915: Pace and wife were missionaries to the Philippines

1916-1939: During the spring summer and fall would speak at numerous churches, Bible conferences, and various special meetings around the country on themes usually related to the Christian life. From 1921-1922, he spoke on behalf of the extension department of Moody Bible Institute.

1916-1946: Drew a weekly cartoon for The Sunday School Times. The SST continued to publish his cartoons until December 20, 1947. Occasionally, when Pace was ill, political cartoonist Vaughn Shoemaker would substitute for him. He also drew occasion cartoons for many other publications, including The Christian Workers Magazine of Moody Bible Institute. In 1940 and again in 1942, Pace suffered strokes. His health from 1943 precluded his doing much drawing, and from 1944 through 1947 reprints were used in The Sunday School Times

1917-1921: Joined the faculty of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. Also began drawing cartoons and writing columns for Moody Monthly magazine

1920: Pace arranged with G.W. Bond Slide Co. (later Bond Slide Company) to produce sets of his slides, with sermons, that could be rented or bought

1922: Pace’s books, Christian Cartoons and The Law of the Octave in the World and in the Word, published by the Bible Institute Colportage Association

1929: Pace’s Pictures That Talk, Volumes 1 and 2, published by Bible Institute Colportage Association

1933-?: Gospel Truth Poster Service began publishing yearly calendars illustrated by Pace’s cartoons

Ca. 1940s: Instructor at the Hampden Dubose Academy in Orlando, Florida

Other significant information: Pace also was a teacher at Bible conferences and lecturer on Christian topics, illustrated by his cartoons.

Extent

2.75 Linear Feet (1 document case; 9 boxes of Lantern Slides, Oversize Materials)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement and Description

Paper Documents

Arrangement: The paper records are arranged alphabetically by folder title, remaining in the order in which they were received.

Date Range: 1919-1961

Volume: .50 cubic feet

Boxes: 1; also OS25

Geographic coverage: United States

Type of documents: Scripts for slide sermons, tracts, calendars

Notes: This collection consists entirely of cartoons created by E.J. Pace, most of them apparently for The Sunday School Times. The cartoons are in different formats, the vast majority of them being lantern slides, with the others being either wall calendars, tracts, or clippings from The Sunday School Times. The Archives received these materials when the collections of the former BGC Museum were divided between the BGC Archives and Wheaton College’s Special Collections. The BGC Museum staff had bought or been given the slides, scripts, and other materials from various manuscripts and antique dealers over the years. There are 573 individual cartoons in the collection, although this represents only a small fraction of the total number of cartoons Pace drew during his lifetime.

Pace’s cartoons were very popular with Protestant Fundamentalists in the United States in the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. They graphically illustrate the Christian gospel of the forgiveness of sin and eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, as well as the corrupting results of sin. His cartoons also dealt with other themes, such as the evils of alcohol, the inspiration of the Bible, and the foundations of a moral life.

Folder 1-1 contains paper copies of some forty-one Pace cartoons (not counting duplicates). Some of these were simply cut out of The Sunday School Times, while others were printed separately (usually after first appearing in the Times) by the Gospel Truth Poster Company or others. Some of these tracts consist solely of the cartoon, while others have a brief printed message on back, usually with no indication of whether it was written by Pace or someone else. These were printed in lots of tens of thousands and handed out by individuals in the same way written tracts were. The cartoons clipped from the Times were collected by Vernon Patterson (see Collection 5) and transferred to the BGC Museum and then back to the BGC Archives.

Starting in 1920, Pace apparently arranged with the Bond Slide Company of Chicago to sell sets of slides of his cartoons along with a sermon that could be used as a presentation. The script usually says at the end, “Sermon prepared by Russell Bradley Jones.” This probably means that Jones wrote the sermons, although he may just have selected the cartoons to go with each portion of the sermon. The slide list in folder 1-30 indicates that in the case of at least two of the slide sets, the sermon as well as the cartoons were written by E.J. Pace. This collection contains an extensive, although incomplete, series of these slide sets, in many cases with the accompanying sermon. The images are also tinted, although Pace’s original cartoon were almost all black and white. The Slide Set List in this guide has the images arranged according to sermon sets in which they were used. The images that are not part of a slide set (and in some cases may not even be slides) are listed at the end. The scripts for the slide/script sets that the Archives possess are in Folders 1-2 through 1-28. Besides complete slide/script sets, the collection contains scripts for which there are no slides, and slides for which there are no scripts. Also, some of the slide sets are incomplete. The sets themselves are in no particular order. The Slide Master Number list has the slides listed in numerical order according to the master number assigned each image, while an alphabetical list of Slides by Title is also available. It is unknown whether these numbers were assigned by Pace or the Bond Slide Company or someone else. However, they seem to have been the reference number for the slides, since the same slide in different scripts is assigned the same number. Slides for which no number was given were assigned numbers (all starting with A) by the Archives staff, starting with number A001. Some scripts have a title or description for the slides in its program, but no numbers.

The oversize folder (OS25) in this collection contains three wall calendars illustrated by Pace cartoons, one cartoon for each month. Like most of the cartoons in Folder 1-1, they were also printed and distributed by the Gospel Truth Poster Company.

Folder 1-29 contains advertisements and notices gathered by the Archives staff related to the commercial use of Pace’s cartoons, the Bond Slide Company, or lantern slide projectors. It also contains a copy of Pace’s obituary from The Sunday School Times.

Other Pace cartoons in the Evangelism and Missions Archives can be found in Collection 624 and Collection 625. The Vernon Patterson Papers (Collection 5) has correspondence with Pace, as well as some oral history memories about him. Collection 659 includes Pace's autograph.

Lantern Slides

Arrangement: The lantern slides are arranged into sets corresponding to the scripts with which they were sold, remaining in the order in which they were received.

Date Range: 1917-1946

Volume: 2.25 cubic feet

Slide Boxes: 12-20

Geographic coverage: United States

Type of documents: Glass lantern slides

Notes: This collection consists entirely of cartoons created by E.J. Pace, most of them apparently for The Sunday School Times. The cartoons are in different formats, the vast majority of them being lantern slides. The Archives received these materials when the collections of the former BGC Museum were divided between the BGC Archives and Wheaton College’s Special Collections. The BGC Museum staff had bought or been given the slides, scripts, and other materials from various manuscripts and antique dealers over the years. Across the various formats, there are 573 individual cartoons in the collection, representing only a small fraction of the total number of cartoons Pace drew during his lifetime.

Pace’s cartoons were very popular with Protestant Fundamentalists in the United States in the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. They graphically illustrate the Christian gospel of the forgiveness of sin and eternal salvation through faith In Jesus Christ, as well as the corrupting results of sin. His cartoons also deal with other themes, such as the evils of alcohol, the inspiration of the Bible, and the foundations of a moral life.

Starting in 1920, Pace apparently arranged with the Bond Slide Company of Chicago to sell sets of slides of his cartoons together with a sermon that could be used together as a presentation. The script usually says at the end, “Sermon prepared by Russell Bradley Jones.” This probably means that Jones wrote the sermons although he may just have selected the cartoons to go with each portion of the sermon. The slide list in folder 1-30 indicates that in the case of at least two of the slide sets, the sermon as well as the cartoons were written by E.J. Page. This collection contains an extensive, although incomplete, series of these slide sets, in many cases with the accompanying sermon. The images are also tinted, although Pace’s original cartoon were almost all black and white. The Slide Set List in this guide has the images arranged according to sermon sets in which they were used. The images that are not part of a slide set (and in some cases may not even be slides) are listed at the end. The scripts for the slide/script sets that the Archives possess are in folders 1-2 through 1-28. Besides complete slide/script sets, the collection contains scripts for which there are no slides and slides for which there are no scripts. Also, some of the slide sets are incomplete. The sets themselves are in no particular order. The Slide Master Number list has the slides listed in numerical order according to the master number assigned each image. It is unknown whether these numbers were assigned by Pace or the Bond Slide Company or someone else. However, they seem to have been the reference number for the slides, since the same slide in different scripts is assigned the same number. Slides for which no number was given were assigned numbers (all starting with A) by the Archives staff, starting with number A001. Some scripts give a title or description for the slides in its program, but no numbers.

Folder 1-29 contains advertisements and notices gathered by the Archives staff related to the commercial use of Pace’s cartoons, the Bond Slide Company, or lantern slide projectors. It also contains a copy of Pace’s obituary from The Sunday School Times.

Provenance

The materials in this collection were given to the Billy Graham Center Archives from Wheaton College’s Special Collections department in November 2016. The materials had originally been part of the BGC Museum’s holdings and had been transferred to Special Collections. The original Museum accession numbers for the material in this collection were 81.1053 through 81.1077, 81.1827 through 81.1864, 83.213, 84.452 through 84.466, 84.472 through 84,482, 88.446A-W, 91.945, 95.133, and 95.133a.

Accession: 16-42

  • May 23, 2017
  • Bob Shuster
  • L. Dowdy
  • Lydia Stucki
  • Title
    Collection 702 Ephemera of E. J. Pace
    Description rules
    Describing Archives: A Content Standard
    Language of description
    Undetermined
    Script of description
    Code for undetermined script
    Language of description note
    English

    Repository Details

    Part of the Evangelism & Missions Archives Repository

    Contact:
    501 College Avenue
    Wheaton IL 60187 US
    630-752-5910