The Presbyterian Historical Society is excited to announce the digitization of manuscript sermons by Gilbert Tennent and Francis Alison, marking the completion of PHS’s contribution to the Digitizing Hidden Collections grant.

 

In 2018, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) awarded the grant to an interdenominational consortium of eleven institutions holding historic records of Philadelphia congregations. The $385,000 grant award enabled the consortium to digitize and share online more than 41,000 pages of records from the years 1708 to 1870, including baptismal, marriage, bar mitzvah, and burial information.

 

 

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia coordinated digitization of the records, which included early records of Philadelphia’s First, Second, and Third Presbyterian churches and some sermons by Gilbert Tennent. To provide a more complete resource, PHS staff digitized the rest of the collection of manuscript sermons by Tennent as well as sermons by Francis Alison, totaling over 1,400 images. Tennent and Alison were influential and outspoken pastors and educators during the late American Colonial Period. Their sermons often spoke against British rule in favor of independence. 

 

The digitized materials are accessible through the Philadelphia Congregations Early Records website.