The shadow and impact of Charles Augustus Briggs still hangs over Union Theological Seminary and the collections at the Burke Library. Charles, as well as his family members Emilie Grace, Julia and Alanson Tuthill, all have collections at the Burke, and many other faculty and staff collections contain records showing how the Briggs’ heresy trial […]
Category: Archives
#LoveInAction
I started at the Burke Library a little over a year ago. Not coming from a theological background, I was a little intimidated. However I quickly saw how my background in public history and public services could help do effective outreach to promote usage of the amazing materials in our special collections by Union […]
Frederic Mayer Bird, Hymnologist
In my last post, I wrote about how I came to the Burke Library. For this post, I’d like to talk about how one of the collections I processed came here–and how coincidental it was that it was assigned to me. My first task on being given the Frederic Mayer Bird papers was to research […]
A Hallway of Boxes: First Day with the Shinn Papers
Earlier today I was introduced to this hallway of boxes, the contents of which will occupy me for the next several months. Everything inside of them once belonged to the Rev. Dr. Roger Shinn, alumnus and professor emeritus at Union Theological Seminary. It will be my task to process Shinn’s papers, sorting and cataloging and […]
What is Past is Prologue: Luce Project Update
“Just as personal identity is anchored in a strong historical sense, so is our professional identity – both come from the ability to experience…continuity. Surely if you have nothing to look backward to, and with pride, you have nothing to look forward to with hope.” Barbara L. Craig, 1992[i] I have hung up my hat […]
The Papers of Caroline Worth Pinkham
So far this semester, I have had the pleasure of processing four collections within “Series 1. Papers of UTS Faculty and Students” of the Union Theological Seminary Archives. The creators of the first three of these collections had some things in common: all were born in the early-to-mid-19th century, male, and had long careers as […]
Update from an Intern
As I write my second entry as an intern of the Burke Library, I am struck by the great contrast between this day and my first day in January. In time for a number of faiths’ holidays, New York has at long last emerged from a long winter and spring has arrived. And, thanks to […]
First Days Interning at the Burke
As a new intern at the Burke Library, I have been asked to write a brief blog entry about my first impressions and expectations for the semester. I began my first day two weeks ago with a great sense of anticipation – it’s pretty exciting to be getting up to go exactly where you want […]
Organizing the Divine: Julia Pettee and the Union Classification System
The creation of the Union Classification System reads much like a recipe: 1 cup of Dr. Hugo Munsterberg’s classification, ½ cup of Dr. Charles R. Gillett’s classed catalog, mixed together with Charles Ammi Cutter’s classification and folded into 3 cups Alfred Cave’s An Introduction to Theology. But as with any recipe, the most important element […]