Moses M. Shaw papers

Descriptive Summary

Repository: Chicago History Museum

Research Center

1601 North Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60614-6038
Creator: Moses M. Shaw
Bib number: 00066538
Title: Moses M. Shaw papers
Dates: 1920-1970
Predominant Dates: 1940-1960
Quantity: 8 linear ft. (19 boxes)
Call number: MSS AlphaV G
Call number: MSS Lot S
Language: English

Restriction(s)

This collection is open for research use.

Terms governing use

Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

Provenance statement

Gift of Moses M. Shaw (M1975.0034).

Please cite this collection as

Moses M. Shaw papers (Chicago History Museum) plus a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of a specific item.

Collection Summary

Correspondence; newsletters, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, programs, and flyers; church and youth scrapbooks, a bank marketing expenses ledger; notebooks, speaker's notes, poems, jokes, song lyrics, etc.; and other papers of Moses M. Shaw, a Chicago businessman active in community and civil rights affairs in the Woodlawn neighborhood. Most of the collection relates to Shaw’s leadership of the Young People's Christian Union, Chicago chapter, ca. 1925-1950, and his employment with the South East National Bank (1180 East 63rd Street), ca. 1950-1965, as its marketing director and the compiler of Bank Notes, a newsletter. Also includes materials on Shaw’s work in race relations during decades of changing residential conditions in the Woodlawn neighborhood and the Sixth United Presbyterian Church, which appointed its first African American minister in 1956, the Rev. Abraham Lincoln Reynolds.

Shaw’s personal notebooks and correspondence with individuals, businesses, and organizations also are present, including his correspondence with the Rev. Ted Yeats, a leader in interdenominational social service work. The collection also includes some temperance pamphlets from the era of Prohibition.

Biographical/historical note

Moses M. Shaw was a Chicago businessman active in community and civil rights affairs in the Woodlawn neighborhood, where he and his wife Mae Shaw resided. He worked with the Young People's Christian Union (YPCU), Chicago Chapter, ca. 1925-1950, and served as its youth director for many years. He also was the secretary and marketing director of the South East National Bank of Chicago at 1180 East 63rd Street, ca. 1950-1965. Shaw also was active in several other organizations, including the Sixth United Presbyterian Church (at 1210 East 62nd Street), Woodlawn Neighborhood Committee, Kiwanis Club, Associated Clubs of Woodlawn, The United Council of Presbyterian Men, and the United Christian Youth Movement. Shaw was involved in the desegregation of the Woodlawn neighborhood and, in 1956, helped to hire the first African American minister, Dr. Abraham Lincoln Reynolds, to lead the Sixth United Presbyterian Church of Chicago. Mr. Shaw's death notice appeared in the Chicago Defender, 1974 Sept. 14.

Other Finding Aids

Finding aid also submitted to Explore Chicago Collections portal.

Indexed Terms

Organization and Arrangement of Collection

The collection is arranged in ten series

Series 1. Correspondence, 1920-1970 (box 1-6)

Series 1 consists of business correspondence relating to Shaw’s work for the South East National Bank, Young People's Christian Union(Chicago chapter), United Presbyterian Church, and the Woodlawn Neighborhood Committee. Also present is personal correspondence from friends and family members and a bound compilation of business and person correspondence with Reverend Ted Yeats, Shaw’s friend and a member of the Board of Christian Education (1945-1946).

Series 2. South East National Bank materials, 1950-1965 (box 7-10)

Series 2 consists of newsletters, announcements, flyers, and other material regarding the South East National Bank of Chicago with offices at 1180 East 63rd Street. The majority of the series is copies of Bank Notes, the newsletter Shaw compiled as marketing director for the bank. Also present is a ledger of marketing expenses.

Series 3. Young People's Christian Union materials, 1925-1950 (box 11-13)

Series 3 consists of newsletters, memos, mailings, flyers, and other materials of the Young People's Christian Union (YPCU), a national organization for Presbyterian teenagers and young adults. Shaw was a leader of the YPCU, Chicago Chapter from 1925 to 1950. Also present is a YPCU scrapbook containing business correspondence, pamphlets, programs from national YPCU conventions, and other materials (1924-1928). Papers of the Young People’s Work (YPW) committee of directors, who ran the YPCU and published the Party Line newsletter, also are included.

Series 4. United Presbyterian Church materials, 1940-1968 (box 14-15)

Series 4 contains bulletins and mailings of the Sixth United Presbyterian Church of Chicago (1940-1968) at 1210 East 62nd Street and scrapbooks on the United Presbyterian Church of North America (ca. 1940). The scrapbooks include correspondence, national convention programs, and newsletters from the YPCU and other Presbyterian organization mailings. Also present are newspaper articles, correspondence, announcements, and materials regarding Abraham Lincoln Reynolds, the first African-American Presbyterian minister in Chicago (1956, 1968).

Series 5. General materials, 1929-1970 (box 16)

Series 5 consists of general mailings, newsletters, bulletins, notes, posters, and other papers from Moses Shaw’s personal and professional life. Included are typed copies of church songs as well as the booklet Banquet Pep: Two Hundred Fifty Social Songs and Yells (1927), which was compiled by Mae Shaw, Moses Shaw’s wife. Also present are brochures, information sheets and booklets on prohibition and the dangers of alcohol, and an assortment of typed poetry and jokes compiled by Shaw.

Series 6. Newspaper articles, 1940-1959 (box 17)

Series 6 contains newspapers and clippings from a variety of local Chicago and national newspapers, such as the Woodlawn Booster, American Banker, and Hyde Park Weekly. Topics include the Presbyterian Church, banking, and politics.

Series 7. Woodlawn Neighborhood Committee files, 1930-1955 (box 18)

Series 7 consists of bulletins, newspaper clippings, prohibition petitions, reports, newsletters, flyers, publicity, letters from directors, and other materials related to the Woodlawn Neighborhood Committee, of which Shaw was a member. Committee concerns include littering, building restoration, parking, economic changes, youth programs, and neighborhood safety. Materials also document the increasing numbers of African Americans in Woodlawn during the 1950s.

Series 8. Notebooks, 1920-1930 (box 19)

Series 8 contains notebooks of typed copies of poetry, short stories, song lyrics, speeches, jokes, and other material compiled by Shaw. This material is mostly of an unknown origin and spans a variety of topics, such as women, minority populations, politics, and banking.

Detailed list of contents of the collection

Series 1: Correspondence

1920-1970

Box 1

Title: Correspondence, 1920-1970

Box 2

Title: Correspondence, 1920-1970

Box 3

Title: Correspondence, 1920-1970

Box 4

Title: Correspondence, 1920-1970

Box 5

Title: Correspondence, 1920-1970

Box 6

Title: Correspondence, 1920-1970

Series 2: South East National Bank materials

1950-1965

Box 7

Title: South East National Bank materials, 1950-1965

Box 8

Title: South East National Bank materials, 1950-1965

Box 9

Title: South East National Bank materials, 1950-1965

Box 10

Title: South East National Bank materials, 1950-1965

Series 3: Young People's Christian Union materials

1925-1950

Box 11

Title: Young People's Christian Union materials, 1925-1950

Box 12

Title: Young People's Christian Union materials, 1925-1950

Box 13

Title: Young People's Christian Union materials, 1925-1950

Series 4: United Presbyterian Church materials

1940-1968

Box 14

Title: United Presbyterian Church materials, 1940-1968

Box 15

Title: United Presbyterian Church materials, 1940-1968

Series 5: General materials

1929-1970

Box 16

Title: General materials, 1929-1970

Series 6: Newspaper articles

1940-1959

Box 17

Title: Newspaper articles, 1940-1959

Series 7: Woodlawn Neighborhood Committee files

1930-1955

Box 18

Title: Woodlawn Neighborhood Committee files, 1930-1955

Series 8: Notebooks

1920-1930

Box 19

Title: Notebooks, 1920-1930

Contents

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