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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.

Rollins and Wilmore

February 16, 2012

Celebrating Black History Month, we take the opportunity to highlight J. Metz Rollins, Jr. and Gayraud S. Wilmore, two Presbyterians whose contributions helped shape both the church and the nation during the tumultuous years of the 1950s and 1960s.

J. Metz Rollins (left) and John Marion (right) travel throughout...

Tags:

American History, Gayraud S. Wilmore, J. Metz Rollins, African American History, Civil Rights

What Feels New is Really Old

January 13, 2012

One hundred and seventy-five years ago, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. split into Old School and New School factions. Significant differences about theology, polity, and slavery exacerbated tensions to the point that the Old School branch expelled the New School adherents from the General Assembly in 1837. Indeed, the differences between the two groups were so evident that a Philadelphia-based newspaper announced in 1836 that:

The necessity for separation of the parties is urgent. They do not agree; they cannot agree. We can
...

Author:

Fred H

Tags:

American History, New School, Old School, Ask the Archives, Collections

The Forgotten Prophets

December 13, 2011

The Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia

One of the joys of my job is getting to play historical detective. I got a clue one day of a possible new discovery when a gentleman came to the reference desk asking if we had any pictures of the old prophet statues on the original Witherspoon Building.

Erected in 1896 near...

Tags:

American History, Philadelphia

Summer in the City

November 16, 2011

Forty-five years ago this month, six youngsters from West Philadelphia held a public screening of a short autobiographical film. This may not seem remarkable in the age of YouTube, but their 16mm home movie, Not Much To Do remains a fascinating document, and a testament to the power of community partnerships to amplify the voice of the city.

In 1966, Robert D. Stoddard, a recent graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and assistant pastor at Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in West Philadelphia developed a film club for the local children who attended Tabernacle's...

Author:

David S

Tags:

Philadelphia, Summer, American History

Records from the Burned-Over District

November 10, 2011

PHS recently received on deposit a large body of materials from the Presbytery of Northern New York, spanning recently-closed and long-dissolved congregations, and the records of the Presbytery's predecessors, the Presbytery of Champlain, and the Presbytery of St. Lawrence.

For me, it's always a pleasure--admittedly, a shallow one--to handle church records from the 19th century. There's a great deal to please the Luddite in us: minutes are kept in longhand, signed in duplicate to guarantee authenticity, and the earlier you go, the more rustically bound the volumes. There...

Author:

David S

Tags:

Congregational Records, New York, American History