Marie Therese Dubalen - Nancy Corson Carter Collection on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born May 1, 1881, at the Chateau de Sarcenat at Orcines. His secondary education was completed at the Jesuit college at Mongre near Villefrance-sur-Saone and he began his studies at the Jesuit novitiate at Aix-en-Provence in 1899. From 1901 he continued his Jesuit education in Laval and later in Jersey and Ore Place near Hastings in Sussex, after the Law of Associations was enacted in France. In 1911 he was ordained. After ordination he studied paleontology in Paris under Marcellin Boule and was given permission to devote himself full-time to paleontological work in 1919. From 1923 to 1946 he spent a large portion of his time based in Tianjin and Beijing, China, conducting geological and paleontological expeditions in northern and western China as well as Mongolia and modern-day Myanmar. Returning to France at the end of WWII, he continued this work although forbidden by Rome to give public lectures or publish philosophical works beginning in 1924. After comments made at the Cercle des Intellectueles Catholiques in 1947, Teilhard de Chardin was silenced on all philosophical topics by the Jesuit Superior General so that he would not be condemned by Rome. Not until after his death in 1955 were the majority of his works published.

Marie Therese Dubalen (1905-1999) was born in Paris to Edward Franklin Dubalen and Fortunée Clotilde Darde alongside brother Pierre Ferdinand Dubalen (1891-1961). Not much is known about her early years, but in a 1987 article from the Fort Myers News-Press she describes herself as a retired anesthesiologist. In the same piece she says she was “trapped in Paris during World War II and joined the French underground” where she led a double life, escaping arrest and making it “out on the last train from Geneva before the border was closed.” Eventually Dubalen settled in the US and was naturalized in 1955. Her connection to Teilhard is unclear, although he must have known her well enough to entrust her with mimeographs of his writings--two of which are inscribed to her.

In 1986, while a student at the Academy of Senior Professional at Eckerd College (ASPEC) in St. Petersburg, Florida, she attended a lecture given by Nancy Corson Carter that discussed Teilhard. Marie later approached Nancy and gave her the materials found within this collection, recounting Teilhard as her “old friend and mentor.” In 1993 she moved from St. Petersburg to Eustis, Florida, where she died in 1999. Her obituary in the Orlando Sentinel describes her as a “registered nurse and social worker.”

Nancy Corson Carter (1943-) was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and received a BA from Susquehanna University (1965) as well as an MA (1968) and PhD (1972) from the University of Iowa. At Eckerd College she directed the Learning Resources Center (1974-1976) and later served as assistant professor of American Studies, Literature and Humanities, and Literature and Creative Writing. In her primary field of American and Women’s Studies, her areas of research include the writings of Doris Lessing, the “spiritual journey,” and the works of Jean Houston.