For the past two years my colleagues and I at the Presbyterian Historical Society have worked closely with students from the Community College of Philadelphia. CCP classes spend a semester visiting the National Archives of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and learning how primary source documents and other rare archival materials shed light on their humanities coursework.
Sections on American, African American and religious history are especially well-illuminated by the denomination’s collections, which show Presbyterians engaging with the big questions of each generation dating back to the 18th century. Recently, church blueprints and missionary personnel files have inspired creative projects by architecture and creative writing students. (We believe the first villanelle about a 19th century missionary to Korea was composed this spring in Philly.)
CCP students are a terrifically diverse group, from age to ethnicity to educational background. But most have one thing in common: the need to do more in a day than there are hours to do it. Work, family and education commitments move students across Philadelphia like a backpacked tide, most on public transportation. As if to underscore the importance of time in their lives, Google Maps lists bus and subway options by minutes spent traveling instead of distance.
Of course, time is also important for an archive, where paper, film and digitally born information is preserved against the seasonal onslaughts of water and temperature change and the less frequent ravages of fire or forgetfulness. PHS databases track dates of item creation and shipping. Retention and access schedules stipulate files to destroy and records to open to the public. I’m not an archivist, but even my communications work finds me looking at history as a series of anniversaries to mark or pass over in our blogs and social media. Making the cut for 2019: the first union presbyteries between the UPCUSA and the PCUS 50 years ago and the printing of “Slaughterhouse Five,” a book with its own special concern for historical memory and time.
Through grant support from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage we are helping community college students have productive hours in the archives by changing some of the ways we spend our hours. As PHS staff members continue to focus on preserving and collecting Presbyterian history, our lead project archivist Jennifer Barr is working with CCP instructors to curate and contextualize items for each subject area, such as letters by abolitionists or sermons on temperance. We’re connecting student essayists with writing tutor assistance and mentoring aspiring archivists through paid internships.
From the 166 CCP students who have used PHS’ collections already in 2019, to the six to eight students who will create an in-house exhibit next summer highlighting their ideas for helping emerging scholars, to the project’s three paid interns, this collaboration is transforming the ways we serve researchers who are – and aren’t yet – frequenting our building. Some of the project’s most meaningful interactions take place in our reading room, where reference staff members help students feel comfortable asking questions about our collections. We want students to leave PHS empowered to write tomorrow’s histories themselves, knowing that primary sources await them at archives and special collection libraries around the world.
I had a long conversation recently with a CCP intern about my family’s summer trip to Charlottesville, Virginia — a journey that coincided with the second anniversary of the white nationalist marches and counter-protests there. We spoke about the student’s take on that recent historical event, and about the Slavery at Monticello Tour where I was reminded that 2019 is the 400th anniversary of African slavery in America. Our half-hour talk sped by in a second, as if we were a couple of Billy Pilgrims unstuck in time.
Fred Tangeman is director of communications and marketing at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, where he has worked since 2012. Learn more about the National Archives of the PC(USA) and its “Building Knowledge & Breaking Barriers” project at history.pcusa.org.
