By Weston Bland and Joe Leidy
Content Warning: The following archive review includes discussion of missionary activity and of colonialism.
The Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia (PHS) has substantial holdings of missionary records in the Middle East which will reward exploration by scholars interested in the region. Because the PHS holds on-site archival records of Presbyterian missionary institutions and some American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) materials, their collections have the potential to cast new light on missionary activities and interactions with Middle Eastern populations.
History
The PHS was first organized in 1852 as the documentary archive of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PCUSA). Today, the PHS falls under the administration of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (PC[USA]) and serves as an umbrella historical repository for its preceding denominations (for details on the historical genealogy of the PC(USA), see the PHS’s Presbyterian Family Tree).
For scholars of the Middle East, the richest archives are found in the history of Presbyterian missions. The first Presbyterian mission station in the region commenced in 1844 in Damascus. In 1853, missionaries were dispatched from Damascus to Egypt, establishing the Cairo mission which would serve as a hub for the expansion of Presbyterian missions throughout Egypt. Following the Anglo-Egyptian defeat of the Mahdist State in 1899, the Cairo station served as a jumping off point for missionary expansion into Sudan. In 1870, the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions took over several mission stations that had previously been operated by the ABCFM including the stations in Beirut, Tripoli, and Sidon in today’s Lebanon and the Urumiah station in Iran which served as footholds for further expansion. In addition to the ABCFM collection at Harvard University, other repositories of ABCFM records include those held digitally at SALT Research and the Digital Library for International Research.
In addition to their work on the ground in proselytization, Presbyterian missionaries in the Middle East developed and managed a broad infrastructure of services, including educational institutions, medical facilities, orphanages, and printing presses. Among the most prominent of these institutions, for example, is the American University in Cairo (AUC), founded through the efforts of Presbyterian missionaries in 1919, and today a private, non-sectarian, research university. These institutions experienced a variety of fates in the twentieth century. While some were transferred to the authority of independent local churches, many were nationalized by host states, privatized and secularized, or simply closed. The archives of the PHS document the histories of these institutions, foreign missionaries and local peoples who passed through their doors.
Collection
For historians of the Middle East, it may be useful to think of the PHS above all as a repository for information on the internal workings of the institutions of the American Presyberian missions in the region. Record groups, boxes, and folders generally correspond with individual missionaries or evangelical and charitable institutions affiliated with missions defined by geographic scope. Researchers focusing on the missionaries themselves will benefit substantially from a visit to the PHS as a result. So too will those interested in the histories of local converts and evangelists, although it is difficult to locate such figures in catalogues structured, as described above, by the record-keeping practices of American missionaries.
At the same time, missionary institutional archives also open a promising path towards histories which exceed the bounds of the missionary enterprise itself, as a number of scholars have observed. Documenting everything from the most mundane tasks of maintenance to the existential frustrations of evangelical work, the records of the Presbyterian missionaries pulsate with local encounters that merit close attention. Of course, such encounters took place within a historical context that is often occluded in the documents themselves. In particular, it is crucial to recognize the substantial affinities existing between Christian missions in the Middle East and the social, political, and cultural structures of colonialism in the region. In light of these relationships, the materials at the PHS, as with those found in other missionary or imperial archives, are best approached with a critical awareness of not only the essentialist terminology often used to describe local populations, but the broader historical terrain on which missionary encounters with Middle Eastern peoples transpired.
The PHS archives hold a wealth of materials from the Presbyterian missions in the Middle East, particularly today’s Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran. Annual yearbooks and Presbytery minutes in these places, for example, constitute a fundamental record of the missionary presence that is preserved at the PHS. Additionally, PHS collections of personal papers are an invaluable resource. The papers of Anna Thompson Young (1851-1932) and Andrew Watson (1834-1916), both Presbyterian missionaries in Egypt, are two notable examples. Additionally, the PHS’s holdings in rare missionary publications offer valuable insight into the public production of missionary endeavors. A particularly rich example of these publications is the Women’s Missionary Magazine (1887-1953), a monthly magazine consisting of journalistic reports from missionaries across the Presbyterians’ fields of mission. This resource provides not only a look into life on the missions, but also reveals the mechanics of knowledge production by missionaries in describing their fields of service for an English-language audience.
The PHS also features some unique and perhaps unexpected archival holdings. Take, for example, the recently digitized folders of documents from the ABCFM’s station at Abeih in Mount Lebanon, which contain correspondence relating to the conversion to Protestantism of a group of Greek Orthodox in the town of Hasbaya, in today’s southern Lebanon, in 1844. While the events surrounding the conversion and subsequent expulsion of the converts from Hasbaya were covered in letters back to the home offices of the ABCFM and eventually in the Missionary Herald, the folders at PHS feature local correspondence in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish with the converts, local Protestant preachers including Butrus al-Bustani (1819-1883), and local authorities such as Hasbaya’s emir Sa’d al-Din. These letters often provide not only an intimate, first-person portrait of the Hasbayan conversions, but also lend insights into the social and political life of the town in the mid-nineteenth century more broadly. Additionally, scholars of the nahda may be interested in these letters inasmuch as they capture glimpses of the intellectual networks that the missionaries facilitated between figures like al-Bustani and Mikhail Mishaqa (1799-1888), both of whom were involved in the efforts to establish a Protestant community in Hasbaya.
The same historiographical opportunity to witness the missionary-local encounter often presents itself in the two collections related to Syria, Lebanon, and the Levant more broadly: the Syria-Lebanon Mission Records and the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Syria Mission Records. In meeting minutes, personnel records, property titles, and more, the PHS records capture many of the on-site dimensions of missionary work that are not as well represented in memoirs, journals, reports, and more. This is particularly the case with the archival materials preserved from missionary educational institutions, which make up the bulk of the PHS’s holdings relative to Syria and Lebanon. These include institutions like the American Junior College, Aleppo College, American Community School in Beirut, Beirut College for Women, Beirut University College, the Near East School of Theology, Tripoli Boys’ School, Sidon Evangelical School for Girls, National Evangelical School in Nabatiyeh, and more. Scholars like Ellen Fleischmann in “‘Under an American Roof’: The Beginnings of the American Junior College for Women in Beirut” (The Arab Studies Journal, Spring 2009) have used the PHS holdings to write histories of missionary education.
The Research Experience
Overall, the PHS archives and its facilities offer a straightforward and comfortable research experience. After entering through the building’s front door, dropping off one’s belongings in a locker, and signing in at the front desk, the researcher can proceed down a short hallway to the reading room. After consulting with one of the archivists at the reference desk to the left and requesting materials, they will find a well-lit reading room in which they can wait the generally short period of time – no more than an hour – that it takes to bring out the archival materials. In the reading room, amidst shelves of reference materials and the portraits of Presbyterian clergy, researchers can find their own seats at one of three large four-person wooden tables. In the authors’ experience, one person will have a table to themselves or have to share it with one other person on a typical day at the archive. The space is typically quiet, only occasionally and mildly interrupted by calls and visits to the reference desk which fields a broad range of inquiries relating to Presbyterian educational and religious records. Internet access and outlets on the floor make the use of digital devices convenient. There is a water fountain in the stairwell next to the reading room and a bathroom at the bottom of the staircase and to the right.
Access
Researchers can typically visit the PHS without an appointment from 9 AM – 4 PM Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and from 12-7 on Wednesdays. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, access is limited to Fridays by appointment only (for up to date details on access, see the Plan your Visit page). Access to materials at the PHS requires a brief in-person registration with a government-issued or educational ID that is valid for multiple visits; a letter of introduction is not required. Once registered, researchers can make requests for multiple materials, and can access one box or three individual folders at a time. Information on materials, including details for access requests, can be found in the PHS online library catalog Calvin (published materials, congregation records, personal papers) and its search tool Sheppard (specific databases, e.g. archives, foreign missionary vertical files, etc.) which can be consulted ahead of a research visit. Additionally, the archive’s digital repository can be accessed offsite in the Pearl collection. Most materials are accessed with a simple paper request form, with the exception of unpublished documents less than fifty years old and those deemed too fragile by the reference staff (for more information, see the full access policies). Researchers may bring laptops and pencils (no pens) into the reading room for note taking. For copies of materials, the PHS offers photocopying and scanning services for $.75 a page and researchers are generally permitted to photograph documents with handheld cameras and phones.
Transportation, Accessibility, and Food
The PHS is conveniently located near several public transit lines, situated immediately on the 12, 40, and 57 bus routes, and is a twelve-minute walk from the 5th Street/Independence Hall MFL rail station. The Society offers parking for those traveling by car and additional parking is available in the surrounding residential neighborhoods. The main entrance of the PHS building is accessed by a short set of steps, with ramp access provided at the side entrance. Researchers can access different floors using both stairs and an elevator. While food and drink are prohibited in the PHS, its facilities are a short two blocks from the lively hub of South Street, featuring a variety of restaurants, cafes, and bars. In the opposite direction, the PHS is a short walk from the Washington Square neighborhood which likewise offers a variety of eating and drinking options. Researchers might reward themselves with a vegan donut and iced coffee from Dottie’s. There are also a number of grocery stores in the immediate vicinity of the archives. Several higher-end accommodations are available in nearby Center City hotels as well those clustered near Christopher Columbus Boulevard alongside the Delaware River. As the PHS is located in a highly residential neighborhood, there should be nearby rental options available as well.
Contact Information
425 Lombard St
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 627-1852
M, Tu, Th, F: 9 am to 4 pm
Wed: noon to 7 pm
refdesk@history.pcusa.org
Citation Information
The preferred citation for archival materials in the PHS varies depending on the collection. Ask at the reference desk for more information.
Resources and Links
ABCFM Links
Digital Library for International Research
Weston Bland is Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. He researches the history of Christianity in the modern Middle East with an emphasis on Coptic communal politics in the early 20th century.
Joe Leidy is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Brown University. His dissertation traces the history of youth as a category of political and social mobilization in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Eastern Mediterranean.