Editor’s Note: Some of the notables whose papers are involved in this project include:
McKendree Robbins Long (1888-1976), PCUS pastor in North Carolina and Georgia before becoming a full-time evangelist in 1925; the missionary work of Paul S. Crane and Sophie Montgomery Crane in Korea from 1947-1969; Philip Sheeder Landes, who served as a missionary in Brazil from 1915-1954; Donald Grey Barnhouse Papers documenting his career in religious radio broadcasting and as pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1927-1960.

Presbyterian history buffs and researchers now have access to a wealth of archival materials available for the first time at the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) here.

The newly available historical materials ― the result of a grant project designed to reveal “Hidden Collections” in a number of Philadelphia archives ― include personal accounts of Presbyterian mission work in the Congo, Latin America and Korea; religious media in the United States from the early 1800s to the 1990s; and the life and work of Maggie Kuhns, a Presbyterian who founded the “Gray Panthers.”

Funding for the massive project came from the Mellon Foundation and was administered by the Council of Library and Information Resources. Dan Cavanaugh, a library school student at Drexel University and Devin Manzullo-Thomas, a public history student at Temple University, worked with David Staniunas and Bill Brock of PHS and other members of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) to process the “hidden collections.”

In a talk to PACSCL, Manzullo-Thomas described how the Congo papers “underscore issues of race, gender and justice in the Congo. The collection documents the lives of Presbyterian missionaries Lachlan Vass I, Lachlan Vass II and Winnfred Kellersberger Vass. Various Vass family members served in the Congo from 1898-1910 and 1940-1970.

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