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

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was born on May 1, 1881 in Sarcenat, France. A noted philosopher and paleontologist, Teilhard was a gentleman farmer's son who developed an interest in geology. When he was 10 years old, Teilhard began boarding at the Jesuit College of Mongre. At 18, joined the Jesuit novitiate at Aix-en-Provence. When he was 24, he began a three year professorship at the Jesuit college in Cairo. He was ordained a priest in 1911. During World War I, Teilhard served as a stretcher bearer rather than as a chaplain, and he won the Legion of Honor. In 1923, he made his first paleontological and geological mission to China. He participated in the discovery of Peking man's skull in 1929. In the 1930s, Teilhard traveled to the Gobi desert, Sinkiang, Kashmir, Java, and Burma. From 1939 to 1945, he was in near-captivity in Peking on account of World War II. Teilhard's scientific writings were often about mammalian paleontology. His philosophical writings included "The Divine Milieu," 1957, and "The Phenomenon of Man," 1955. His other works include "The Appearance of Man," 1956, The Vision of the Past, 1957, and Science and Christ, 1965. In 1946, Teilhard returned to France, where he tried in vain to publish philosophy. In time, he moved to the United States where he worked at the Wenner-Gren Foundation in New York City. When his writings were published posthumously, they generated controversy because they attempted to combine Christian thought with modern science. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin died on April 10, 1955 in New York City. [Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online.]

Nancy Corson Carter was born March 28, 1943 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Her primary field of study is American and Women's Studies. She received a B.A. from Susquehanna University in 1965, an M.A. from the University of Iowa in 1968, and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1972. She directed the Learning Resources Center at Eckerd College from 1974 to 1976. At Eckerd College, Carter served as an assistant professor in American Studies (1976-1978), an assistant professor of Literature and Humanities (1978-1979), and an assistant professor of Literature and Creative Writing (1979-). Her areas of research include the writings of Doris Lessing, the spiritual journey, and the works of Jean Houston. [Source: "Dictionary of American Scholars"Ninth edition. Volume 1. Detroit: Gale, 1999, p. 92.]

Little is presently known about Marie Therese Dubalen. She was certainly a friend of Teilhard and he must have known her well to entrust her with some of the rare mimeographs of his writings. In 1955 she published a book called "The Worker Priests" through the Student League for Industrial Democracy, which discusses the 'worker priest' movement among French Catholic priests, who turned to industrial labor in an effort to reconnect with the working classes. She writes to Professor Nancy Corson Carter on October 17, 1986 describing Teilhard as "my old friend and mentor." Also, two of the items are presentation copies to her from him. Her last known address was in St. Petersburg, Florida and at one time she had an affiliation with Eckerd College as a member of the Academy of Senior Professionals.