Of most interest in the collection is the fairly complete file of sermons and addresses delivered during the period 1888 to 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. Beard came to the ministry from a brilliant undergraduate and graduate career at Yale. He was well equipped to grapple with the intellectual challenges facing liberal theologians of his times, such as historical criticism of the Bible, evolution, and the relationship between science and religion. During his seventeen years of ministry in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Beard was brought face to face with the urban problems of the Gilded Age. His sermons express concern with the issues of temperance, vice, housing and education. With the onset of the First World War, Beard participated in the prevailing surge of patriotism bolstered by theology. Regardless of the topic he addressed, Beard's views were informed by the spirit of confidence and hope typical of a pre-War civilization in which the ideals and patterns of American life were nearly equated with those of American Protestantism.
Connecticut's Archives Online