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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.

July 10, 2024
One of the early mission schools, Smithfield, Utah; image from Home Mission Monthly, October 1907 edition [Pearl ID:5512].

The history of denominational mission schools is lengthy and has legs in each U.S. state and in countries across the world — so perhaps it comes as no surprise that before there were Presbyterian churches in Utah, there were Presbyterian...

June 29, 2024
202nd General Assembly, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 1990. [Pearl ID: 6135]

This year, the PC(USA) General Assembly gathering is making its way west — the destination? Salt Lake City. This isn’t the first time the denominational meeting has crowded the streets of Salt Lake, though. Back in 1990, swaths of denim-clad congregants swarmed the beautiful, mountain-rimmed city, and,...

April 25, 2024

On Tuesday, March 29, in the late afternoon, a very exciting shipment arrived at the PHS building on Lombard Street: 64 boxes of records from More Light Presbyterians (MLP).

Several of our staff assisted Records Archivist David Staniunas in getting the five-dozen boxes of archival materials into the building. At the request of More Light Presbyterians leadership and with the enthusiastic support of the records’ original donor, Jim Anderson, the records made their way to the Presbyterian Historical Society from Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives....

April 22, 2024

1970: the year that saw the birth of the modern environmental movement. And now here we are, in 2024, celebrating that birth for the 54th year in a row. On April 22nd, we'll be singing—not happy birthday, but happy Earth Day!

The modern environmental movement was a long time coming. In the decades leading up to the first Earth Day protest, the possible negative effects of the ever-turning wheel of progress and industry on the surrounding environment were not given much thought. Rather, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns, not...

April 10, 2024

On April 4, Executive Director Nancy J. Taylor was joined by Dr. Hooman Estelami and descendants of John Haskell Shedd for a discussion on the history of Presbyterian missions in Persia.

John Haskell Shedd served as a missionary in the city of Urmia in Northwestern Persia beginning in 1859. During his time in Urmia, Shedd methodically recorded his observations and experiences as he conducted missionary work among Christian populations in the Turco-Persian border region during the late nineteenth century.

Following a presentation on the first community of Presbyterian...

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