We added a few new posts to the PHS blog this month, including a profile on movie star Colleen Townsend, who gave up show biz for a theology degree, and an introduction to the Cora J. Pope Home, a haven for the aging folks of Ottawa, Illinois, that we discovered with the help of a stuffed lamb from the museum collection.
Previously unheard narratives are discovered, lost moments and movements are unearthed, and new possibilities are encountered every day in the archive. Please consider making a donation to the PHS Annual Fund to support us in our endeavors to collect, preserve, and share Presbyterian history.
On June 14, 1910, three delegates spoke at the opening session of the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh. In June 1951, the Old Tennent Church in Freehold, New Jersey, hosted a two-week-long celebration in honor of its 200th anniversary. In June 1964, millions flocked to the Big Apple to experience the New York World’s Fair.
PHS's LGBTQIA+ collections include more than 25 sets of personal papers, organizational records, oral histories, audio-visual materials, and websites, many of which offer insights into the life, ministry and witness of LGBTQIA+ Presbyterians in the church and in society.
Jess Floyd Cook was the first trans/non-binary person ordained a minister of word and sacrament in the PC(USA). In this oral history interview with PHS, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we talk about their hopes for the PC(USA), and their formation through light and water.
Researcher explores religious roots of North Korea's cult of personality
Jonathan Cheng's book "Korean Messiah," published on April 14, draws connections between the Presbyterian presence in Korea at the dawn of the 20th century and the development of North Korea’s cult of personality that idolizes its founder, Kim Il Sung.
2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Let's zip back in time to see how folks celebrated the Bicentennial of 1976 with the help of the Religious News Service Photograph Collection.
BELL EXPERT AT WORK—William Theobald, a 60-year-old Englishman, is one of the few persons in the world who can both hang English-style bells and teach people to ring them properly. This snapshot shows him hanging a peal of eight bells in the tower of the Melrose Chapel of the Community of the Holy Spirit in Brewster, N.Y., in 1973.
English bells, unlike carillons which are sounded from keyboards, are rung by ropes and do not play tunes. They ring scales based on an almost inexhaustible combination of numbers. Great skill is required to become an accomplished bellringer. Peals usually run from eight to 12 bells and require one person to ring each bell—sometimes two on the largest. A split-second miss in tugging the rope will foul up the sequence. Mr. Theobald is currently interested in persuading Old North Church in Boston to make some structural changes in its tower so that Paul Revere's bells can be hung during the U.S. bicentennial in 1976.
The firm he works for, London's Whitechapel Bell Foundry, cast the original Liberty Bell and is casting 2,400 miniature replicas in time for the celebration of the bicentennial. When asked if the crack will be reproduced in the replicas, Mr. Theobald responded, "No, we leave bell cracking to Americans."
On view in the courtyard is the completely outdoor exhibit, Belief in Change: Stories of Religious Activism in the United States. Make sure to stop in and browse the next time you're strolling down Lombard Street!
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Presbyterian Historical Society, 425 Lombard St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
