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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.

PHS Staff Profile: Jenny Barr

July 19, 2023

What is your role at PHS? What do you do from day-to-day?

I am a Reference and Outreach Archivist at PHS. A big part of my role in outreach is working with classes from the Community College of Philadelphia. We began working with CCP back in 2017, when students taking 19th Century US History came here to research primary sources in the collection. Since then, through our Building Knowledge, Breaking Barriers project, we’ve worked with students in religious studies, global history, African...

Author: 
Jenny
Tags: 
Get to Know PHS, Staff
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Fair Play and the 1936 Berlin Olympics

August 17, 2016

Despite controversy in the lead-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics, international participation in the Games is robust. A few athletes have stayed home to avoid contracting Zika, and a large segment of the Russian team has been banned for doping violations, but no country has withdrawn its entire team.

Eighty years ago, participation in the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin, was much less certain. The International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to Berlin in 1931, two years before the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. Hosting the games provided the Nazi government the...

Author: 
Jenny
Tags: 
World History, Sports
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Detroit GA 1891: Serpent on the Seal

May 21, 2014

At the 1891 General Assembly in Detroit, the Reverend Henry C. McCook and other members of the Committee on the Seal of the Church presented their recommendation for a new church emblem. In their official report, the committee members described the proposed seal and laid out arguments for its elements that alluded to biblical history and texts; Greek, Egyptian, and Hindu mythology; and earlier Presbyterian seals.

In conducting its research, the committee had discovered a seal it believed to have been adopted by the Trustees of the General Assembly as early as 1799. Featuring a...

Author: 
Jenny
Tags: 
PCUSA, General Assembly, Henry McCook
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