Henry Allan Gleason, Jr. Collection

DONOR:

Henry Allan Gleason III and Janice K. Gleason; 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015

SIZE:

65 cu ft

SCOPE & CONTENT:

Glass slides; photos: over 87,000 photos of churches and other places of worship - Uganda, India, El Paso, Dona Ana County, Connecticut, Ontario, various; manuscript; photobooks; cookbooks; hand-traced maps.

BIOGRAPHY:

Henry Allan Gleason, Jr., was born on April 18, 1917. Son of a well-known botanist with the same name and brother of a famous mathematician, Allan was a linguist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. He made significant contributions to the field of linguistics throughout his academic career, including the book, Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics. Before he became a linguist, Allan obtained a bachelor in botany and studied Divinity, eventually earning a doctorate in religious geography. His specialty was Indian religions, and after working as a librarian at the divinity school for thirty years, he traveled and taught linguistics in India for two years. During his time in India, he traveled the length of the country and took over 5,000 color slides and numerous black and white pictures.

Allan also served as a missionary and traveled to many different places, where he took many photos. Interested in church architecture and demographics, many of his photos and slides comprised of different churches around the world. He also drew and labeled detailed, precise maps of the many places he visited.

Allan Gleason, Jr., died on January 13, 2007, in El Paso, TX.

 

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