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Gerald Hamilton Beard was born in Hammersmith, England in 1862. He received the B.A., B.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale. He was a Congregational clergyman with pastorates in Norwalk and Bridgeport, Connecticut and Burlington, Vermont during the years 1892-1921. He was an Alumni Lecturer at Yale Divinity School in 1910. He died in 1921. Of particular interest in the collection is the fairly complete file of sermons and addresses delivered during the period 1888-1921. These sermons, in conjunction with Beard's extensive subject file, provide a valuable record of the style and content of preaching of a successful Congregational minister during a time of liberal resurgence in American Protestantism. The sermons address the urban problems of the Gilded Age. With the onset of the First World War, Beard participated in the prevailing surge of patriotism bolstered by theology.