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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.

November 20, 2017

Quick trivia question: what language was the first Bible in the Western Hemisphere printed in? The answer is Algonquin—to be precise, the Natick dialect of Algonquin.

Today you can find a “Made in the U.S.A.” Bible in nearly every hotel room in America; most Gideon Bibles, for example, are printed in the Nashville area. But Bible publishing in the

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October 17, 2017

In October 2017, Presbyterians will celebrate the 500th anniversary of a pre-digital tweet storm: Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. The theses, which criticized the sale of indulgences by church officials, are considered the opening salvo in the Protestant Reformation, a movement that emphasized individual relationships with God and salvation through faith alone.

Luther was an early adapter of the printing press—the social media of the sixteenth century—and the most widely shared writer of his...

June 5, 2017

The Presbyterian Historical Society has significant ecumenical appeal. Not only is PHS the official record holder for non-Presbyterian groups such as the Federal and National Council of Churches, the American Sunday School Union, and the Religious News Service, we work with hundreds of patrons each year from beyond the denomination.

But it is the national offices of the PC...

May 3, 2017

For our new exhibit, “Presbyterians and the American Revolution,” one of the weightier physical tasks the society undertook was moving the Witherspoon Clock. Relocating the timepiece and cabinet to our lobby took less than five minutes. G. David Fish, a professional clockmaker from John Fish & Sons, spent an hour disassembling and reassembling the lead counterweights, pendulum ball and rod, bonnet, front face, and movements.

What’s amazing about the clock is not just its size, age, and...

March 1, 2017

This year the Presbyterian Church of Korea celebrates the 110th anniversary of its first presbytery meeting. But Presbyterianism in Korea did not begin in 1907. It began 23 years earlier, in the tense aftermath of an assassination attempt.

Although there had been Christianity in the “Hermit Kingdom” since the 17th century, including Roman Catholic Jesuit missionaries, the first Protestant...

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