Blog | Page 2 | Presbyterian Historical Society

You are here

Home > About > Blog

Blog

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.

Rachel Carson: Care for Creation

October 27, 2023
"Ohio, Or 'Sunshine' Key One of the Lower Florida Keys, Where Rachel Carson Camped While Gathering Data for Her Book, the Edge of the Sea (1955). Since Then, Half the Key Has Been Dredged and Filled for the Travel Trailer Park Seen in This Picture. Spanning the Island Is the Overseas Highway, Which Links the Key to the Mainland." (NARA Still Pictures Division, identifier 412-DA-6145) / Rachel Carson, 1943, by...
Author: 
David S
Tags: 
Pittsburgh, Environment
Read more

Remembering Melva Costen

September 12, 2023

"Let's continue our worship. You're just going to have to follow the cantor," begins Dr. Melva Costen at the beginning of a seminar on African American worship, leading the group in the Zulu church song Thuma Mina. The group sings "Send me Jesus, send me Lord." Dr. Melva Wilson Costen, Presbyterian intellectual, and key source in the study of African American church music and worship, died September 8 in Atlanta. She was 90 years old.

Melva Ruby Wilson was...

Author: 
David S
Tags: 
African American History, News and Events
Read more

African American Leaders: Calvin Houston

September 11, 2023

Each month, the Presbyterian Historical Society is bearing witness to the lives of African American leaders throughout the history of the denomination. Click here to learn how PHS is collecting records of the Black Presbyterian experience through the African American Leaders and Congregations Initiative.

Additionally, a free bulletin insert about each figure is available for download at the end...

Author: 
David S
Tags: 
African American Leaders Series
Read more

Our Work in the Archives, Second Quarter 2023

July 24, 2023

Let's take a look back at what your archivists were doing in April, May, and June!

For the quarter, we brought in 201.32 cubic feet of new records in 97 groups. These included the records of 16 active and 50 dissolved PC(USA) congregations, for 88.74 cubic feet. Among these were major shipments from the Grace Presbytery, Hudson River Presbytery, and the Presbytery of Scioto Valley.

Archivist Nick Skaggs completed processing our new RG 540, records of the ...

Author: 
David S
Tags: 
Quarterly Reports
Read more

Upholding Segregation: Racist Seating Policies in Southern Presbyterian Churches

June 12, 2023

Harmful Content Alert: This story contains outdated and offensive language. 

In the South in the early 1960s, churches debated whether and how to accommodate African Americans who came to worship. The US Supreme Court's Brown v. Board decision upended legal segregation, and intentionally intercultural congregations emerged to challenge both de facto and de jure segregation in the church. Berea in St. Louis, responding to combined white flight and...

Author: 
David S
Tags: 
Congregations, African American History
Read more
Featured Tags
New & Noteworthy