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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

Oklahoma Travelogue

July 27, 2017

In the first week of June, PHS Records Archivist David Staniunas went on a three-city tour of Oklahoma, attending the tri-presbytery gathering in Enid; speaking at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Oklahoma City; and spending a day at First Presbyterian Church, Tulsa.

I had come packing video from PHS's collections. First, of the 1928 General Assembly in Tulsa, which featured footage of First Tulsa's since-destroyed Greek Revival building, and of the Art Deco Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, then under construction. Second, footage from the...

Author:

David S

Tags:

Oklahoma, Archives, Congregations

James Baldwin at Uppsala

July 5, 2017

On July 7, 1968, James Baldwin took the dais at the World Council of Churches meeting in Uppsala, Sweden, the headline speaker of a panel address called "White Racism or World Community?"

In 2003, a set of two open-reel audio tape recordings of the event came to the Presbyterian Historical Society via the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. In celebration of the 49th anniversary of the event, we'd like to share an excerpt from his speech about the passage from petitioner to revolutionary undertaken by Stokely Carmichael.

...

Author:

David S

Tags:

African American History, Civil Rights, Big Tent

Tulsa 1928 General Assembly

April 21, 2017

In 1928, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. held its General Assembly at First Presbyterian Church of Tulsa, Oklahoma: The Magic City.

The Northern church began operating a mission day school in Tulsa in 1884; First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1885, holding services in a storefront. The city was incorporated in 1899, with a population of 1,100. Six years later, oil was discovered at Glenn Pool and the city grew prodigiously. By the time Oklahoma was admitted to the Union in 1907,...

Author:

David S

Tags:

Tulsa, General Assembly

Jibrail 1943-1958: An Answer to Communism

March 16, 2017

This is the first installment of a series on rural agricultural work in Lebanon. Read the second installment, Jibrail 1958-1967: Revolution, CROP, and Small Animal Husbandry. ...

Author:

David S

Tags:

Lebanon, Agriculture, Cold War, Mission History

Kenneth and Margaretta Wells, and Bimbo

March 9, 2017

We've recently transferred to digital video a silent home movie from the 1930s, shot by the Presbyterian missionaries to Thailand Kenneth and Margaretta Wells, part of Record Group 268. Their family's tame gibbon, Bimbo, is the star of the show.

Bimbo lived with the Wells family for four years while Kenneth and Margaretta taught at...

Author:

David S

Tags:

Mission History, Thailand

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Oklahoma Travelogue

James Baldwin at Uppsala

Tulsa 1928 General Assembly

Jibrail 1943-1958: An Answer to Communism

Kenneth and Margaretta Wells, and Bimbo