Theodor LeVander papers

The Theodor LeVander papers, 1936-1950 and undated, contains LeVander's personal papers, primarily dealing with his association with the Augustana Synod. As a member of this group, LeVander was able to participate in events such as the First Assembly of the World Council of Churches, an international meeting between delegates of various Christian denominations. Most items within the collections relate to the 1948 First Assembly, with the exception of a scrapbook following the 1936 United States presidential campaign. The collection is organized into four series: Personal, Augustana Synod, World Council of Churches, and Miscellaneous.

The Personal series contains two subseries: Travel and Miscellaneous. The Travel subseries contains a number of pamphlets, brochures, and maps that Dr. LeVander obtained during his travels abroad. The Miscellaneous subseries includes a scrapbook put together by Dr. LeVander following the presidential campaign of 1936 between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alf Landon , William Lemke, Norman Thomas, and Earl Browder. The scrapbook contains newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and transcriptions of speeches given by the various candidates. The subseries also includes an unlabeled black and white photograph.

The Augustana Synod series contains three subseries: Centennial Pageant, The Lutheran Companion, and Miscellaneous. The Centennial Pageant subseries contains papers about the pageant committee, including meeting minutes, correspondence, and miscellaneous committee papers; lists of those helping with the pageant; the cast of the pageant; the program; the script; post-pageant news articles and correspondence; and miscellaneous papers dealing with the pageant. The Lutheran Companion subseries contains copies of The Lutheran Companion, the official organ of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America published weekly by the Augustana Book Concern in Rock Island. This issues represented in this subseries date from June 1948 to May 1949 with some issues missing. The Miscellaneous sub-series contains a paper that was issued by representatives of the Augustana Synod who were delegates at the Conference on Life and Work, held in Oxford, and the Faith and Order Conference, held in Edinburgh. Both conferences were held in 1937.

The World Council of Churches series contains three subseries: Conference of USA Member Churches, First Assembly, and Miscellaneous. The Conference of USA Member Churches subseries contains meeting minutes and committee correspondence. The First Assembly subseries contains papers, publications and reports from the First Assembly held in 1948. The Miscellaneous subseries contains briefing documents, committee and commission reports and publications, the World Council of Churches constitution, and correspondence.

The Miscellaneous series is arranged into three subseries: Articles about World Council of Churches First Assembly, Booklets, and Other Organizations. While most of these items are likely related to the First Assembly as can be ascertained from the time period of their publication, they were not created by the World Council of Churches directly. The subseries Articles about the World Council of Churches First Assembly is a collection of literature written about the proceedings of the First Assembly. The Booklets subseries contains various booklets published between 1947 and 1948. The Other Organizations subseries contains information of the Faith and Order Movement and the International Missionary Council. Both of these organizations would come to be related to the World Council of Churches.