Guide to the Philadelphia Home Missionary Society Records

Descriptive Summary

Title

Philadelphia Home Missionary Society Records

Inclusive Dates

1848-1863

Call Number

RG 242

Creator(s)

Philadelphia Home Missionary Society.

Quantity

0.50 cubic feet (1 box)

Restrictions on Access

Collection open for research

Repository

Presbyterian Historical Society, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147-1516 USA

Biographical Note / Administrative History

Administrative History

The Philadelphia Home Missionary Society, after 1840, commissioned and supported home missionaries of the New School Presbyterian Church.

The roots of the Philadelphia Home Missionary Society reach back to the Missionary Society of Philadelphia, Auxiliary to the Board of Missions, organized in 1818. When this society was abolished in 1832, The American Home Missionary Society, New York City, assumed its work, forming in 1834 the Philadelphia Agency of the AMHMS to carry on work in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware. After the schism of l837, the New School Presbyterians in 1840 formed (or reconstituted) the Philadelphia Home Missionary Society as an Auxiliary to the American Home Missionary Society to commission and support New School missionaries. After 1862 the Society no longer sent out missionaries, but channeled funds raised through the Permanent Committee of Home Missions of the New School General Assembly.

Collection Overview

The Rev. Robert Adair (1802-1890) served as corresponding secretary of the PHMS from 1848-1862. These records come from the period of his service and consist of reports of missionaries, largely in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, requests of churches for aid and financial records.

Organization and Arrangement

SERIES I: Incoming Correspondence, 1855-1856

SERIES II: Financial Records and Incoming Correspondence, 1848-1863

Administrative Information

Processing Information

Some of these records were found with the records of the Second Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, and the remainder came from the library, which has annual reports and a minute book, l853-1882.

This organization should not be confused with the Philadelphia Missionary Society founded in 1812, nor with The Home Missionary Society of the City of Philadelphia, a social service agency established in 1835.

Collection processed and finding aid prepared: 1989
Glenn Colliver, Assistant Archivist

Catalog Headings

The following headings have been used to index the description of this collection in the society’s electronic catalog.

Corporate Subject

Philadelphia Home Missionary Society.

Topical Subject

Home missions--Pennsylvania.

Home missions--New Jersey.

Home missions--Maryland.

Home missions--Delaware.

Home missions--Societies, etc.

Missionaries--Middle Atlantic States.

Geographic Subject

Middle Atlantic States--Missions.

Genre-form

Correspondence. aat

Financial records. aat

Personal Added Name

Adair, Robert, 1802-1890.

Corporate Added Name

American Home Missionary Society.

Collection Inventory

Box	Folder	Description

1	1	Finding Aid to Record Group 242

		SERIES I: INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE, 1855-1856

1	2	Incoming Correspondence, 1855 January-March
1	3	Incoming Correspondence, 1855 April
1	4	Incoming Correspondence, 1855 May
1	5	Incoming Correspondence, 1855 June
1	6	Incoming Correspondence, 1855 July
1	7	Incoming Correspondence, 1855 August-September
1	8	Incoming Correspondence, 1855 October
1	9	Incoming Correspondence, 1855 November
1	10	Incoming Correspondence, 1855 December
1	11	Incoming Correspondence, 1856 January-February

		SERIES II: FINANCIAL RECORDS AND INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE, 1848-1863

1	12	Financial Records (Accounts, Vouchers, Reports) and Incoming Correspondence, 1848-1859
1	13	1860-1863

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Guide to the Philadelphia Home Missionary Society Records

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