Descriptive Summary
Creator(s)
Collection open for research
Biographical Note / Administrative History
Conceived by journalist Louis Minsky (1909-1957), Religious News Service (RNS) was established in 1934 as an affiliated but independently managed agency of the National Conference of Jews and Christians (later the National Conference of Christians and Jews). From the start, RNS was dedicated to providing authoritative and bias-free news about religion and ethics to both the secular and religious press. Its products included daily and domestic foreign news services, photographs, radio broadcast scripts, and features like "Week in Religion," "Religious Remarkables," and "Inspirational Editorials."
In 1983, RNS was acquired by the Dallas-based United Methodist Reporter and continued to operate as an independent news agency. RNS was purchased by Newhouse News Service in 1994, and its name was changed to Religion News Service. In 2011, RNS was sold to an affiliated nonprofit of the Religion Newswriters Association. Universal Press Syndicate, now known as Universal Uclick, distributes the service to daily and weekly newspapers in the United States.
Collection Overview
The Religious News Service records, circa 1930s-1983, includes news releases, photographic prints, photographic negatives, press clippings, articles, and other materials produced and/or disseminated by the Religious News Service (RNS). The records document the history of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Eastern Orthodox religion in the United States and around the world. The bulk of the materials pertain to Protestant and Catholic communities, although attention is also given to Jewish and Eastern Orthodox groups. The records chronicle the "purely religious" activities of religious groups and personalities—gatherings, conferences, public speaking engagements, mergers, programs, institutions, and the like—as well as the intersections of religion and politics, society, and culture, both in the United States and abroad. Additionally, the collection itself stands as a marker of the media's representation of twentieth century American religious beliefs, values, and practices. Thus, researchers interested in American religious history, the relationship between religion and politics/society/culture, and the media's representation of religion in the twentieth century will find this collection useful.
The Religious News Service records are divided into the following record groups:
RNS RG 1: Photographs, 1945-1982
RNS RG 2: News Releases, 1936-1981
RNS RG 3: Subject Files, circa 1930s-1983
RNS RG 4: Administrative Files, 1940s-1960s
RNS RG 4, Administrative Files, 1940s-1960s, includes materials related to the organizational operations of the Religious News Service (RNS). Materials include articles and advertisements about RNS in magazines (like Time, Christian Herald, Harper's, and others), newspapers, and church/denominational periodicals; instruction sheets for photographers and correspondents; newsletters to correspondents with instructions about desired coverage, updates about RNS services/output, and lists of RNS subscriber periodicals; and a report describing the various materials published by RNS (daily services, photographs, "Religion in Review," "Religious Remarkables," etc.). This record group is arranged alphabetically by file title, then chronologically into one series.
Organization and Arrangement
The collection is arranged as follows:
SERIES I: ADMINISTRATIVE FILES, 1940s-1960s
Administrative Information
Received from the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1984.
The processing of this collection was made possible by funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" Project. The collection was minimally processed and the finding aid was created in Archivists' Toolkit in April 2011 by Devin Manzullo-Thomas and Daniel Cavanaugh. This guide was revised in February 2012 by Bill Brock, Collection Management Archivist.
Preferred Citation
Religious News Service Administrative Files, RNS RG 4, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Catalog Headings
Collection Inventory
| Box | Folder | Description | |
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SERIES I: ADMINISTRATIVE FILES, 1940s-1960s |
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RT 1044-5 |
1 |
Advertisements [about RNS], 1940s-1950s |
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RT 1044-5 |
2 |
Advertisements [about RNS], 1950s-1960s |
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RT 1044-5 |
3-5 |
Articles and advertisements about RNS, 1940s-1960s |
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RT 1044-5 |
6-7 |
Articles and advertisements about RNS, 1950s-1960s |
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RT 1044-5 |
8 |
Articles and advertisements about RNS, 1960s |
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RT 1044-5 |
9 |
Instructions to correspondents, circa 1948-1954 and undated |
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RT 1044-5 |
10 |
"Newsletter to Correspondents," 1951-1957 |
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RT 1044-5 |
11 |
"Newsletter to Correspondents" (duplicates), 1956-1957 |
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RT 1044-5 |
12 |
"Newsletter to Photo Correspondents," 1945-1957 |
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RT 1044-5 |
13 |
Newsletters [to correspondents], 1941-1945 |
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RT 1044-5 |
14 |
Newsletters [to correspondents], 1946-1952 |
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RT 1044-5 |
15 |
Photo requirements (revised), domestic and foreign, circa 1947-1957 |
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RT 1044-5 |
16 |
Report, "Religious News Service Output," circa 1961 |
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RT 1044-5 |
17 |
To all clients, 1947-1953 |
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RT 1044-5 |
18 |
To foreign correspondents, 1947-1953 |