The educator and linguist John Maurice Hohlfeld received his doctorate in education at the University of Pennsylvania in 1950 for a dissertation focused on the teaching of foreign languages. Throughout his career as professor of linguistics at the Kennedy School of Missions at the Hartford Theological Seminary, Hohlfeld maintained an interest in the teaching of languages, and during the 1960s, he developed an interest in the linguistics of jokes and humor. The Hohlfeld Papers consist of a small assemblage of materials related to the linguistic interests and teaching of John Maurice Hohlfeld. The most valuable materials in the collection are an assortment of student papers regarding the pedagogical materials used in teaching missionaries, including materials on three African languages, Fulani, Senoufo, and Bemba, as well as Machiguenga and Asmat. The collection also includes outlines and background materials for two works by Hohlfeld that never appeared in print, "Linguistic Structure of Jokes" and "Introduction to Applied Linguistics." The former consists of numerous jokes and comics culled by Hohlfeld from newspapers and the popular media for their linguistic implications.