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.

CCP at PHS: Student Essays

March 10, 2018

In the fall of 2017, students from the Community College of Philadelphia visited 425 Lombard Street to conduct research.

In preparation for the Society's first collaboration with an entire CCP class--part of a long-term effort to use the archives' primary-source materials to bolster student research and problem-solving skills--Technical Services and Reference Archivist Jennifer Barr worked closely with CCP Professor Joel Tannenbaum. Their planning included familiarizing students with the archives (...

Author:

Fred T

Tags:

American History, Building Knowledge and Breaking Barriers, News and Events

The Two Samuels

February 24, 2018

The Presbyterian Historical Society contains over 32,000 cubic feet of archival materials. Items from around the world have found a safe home here since the 19th century, when the foundations of today’s collections were laid by two Samuels, one in the North and one in the South: Samuel Agnew and Samuel Tenney. The collectors led very different lives, and yet they had one important thing in common: both were lovers of Presbyterian history.

Samuel Agnew was born in central Pennsylvania in 1820. He moved to Philadelphia and is reported to have made a lot of money early in his life...

Author:

David K

Tags:

Presbyterian Historical Society, American History

Old Scots Church and Presbyterian Beginnings in New Jersey

January 5, 2018

Old Tennent Church in Manalapan, New Jersey, stands as a landmark not only of Colonial and Revolutionary America, but of early Presbyterianism in America. Referred to by a variety of popular names through the years, the congregation was initially known as Old Scots Church, then Freehold Church, and later, Old Tennent Church—in memory of Rev. John Tennent and his brother, Rev....

Author:

Lisa

Tags:

American History, Congregations, New Jersey, Immigration

Music and the Internment of Japanese Americans

November 6, 2017

--by William R. Laws III

At October's Sacramento Archives Crawl (a Northern California open house for history buffs), Heather Lanctot, who is the Archives Coordinator for rural Yolo County, expressed her profound sense of the importance of remembering the tragic...

Author:

Guest Blogger

Tags:

American History, Japanese Americans, World War II

Juneteenth

June 13, 2017

Juneteenth Day (June 19th of every year) marks Major General Gordon Granger's announcement of the abolition of slavery in Galveston, Texas on June 19th, 1865. His arrival came two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, but was big news to those still enslaved in the state. However, freedom has never been a straight forward process. For many, proclamations and amendments were simply words.

...

Author:

Jasmine

Tags:

American History, African American History