Got a Methodist question? Go to UMC Archives and History
While holding a 1922 photograph showing a
archivist L. Dale Patterson describes the storage system at the United Methodist
Commission on Archives and History in
By LINDA BLOOM
If you don’t know, you can find the answer at www.gcah.org
Just click on the “UMC History” link.
The United Methodist Commission on Archives and History is beefing up its website not only to help answer random queries, but also to provide quicker access of the denomination’s historical information to scholars, church bodies and the person in the pew.
“We claim that it’s probably the richest collection for research on global Methodism in the world,” said the Rev Robert Williams, who became the commission’s Chief Executive in 2006.
Located for 26 years on the bucolic campus of
Upstairs, a reading room with wireless Internet access offers materials for scholars and other interested readers to peruse. Downstairs, on two underground storeys, are roughly 3.2 km long of records, most of which can be accessed within 10 or 15 minutes through the database.
The collection is not all paper and celluloid. Numerous ceramic busts of Methodism founder John Wesley – the type of which used to adorn mantelpieces in British Methodist homes – can be found, along with Wesley’s death mask and reproductions of a teapot made for him by the Wedgewoods.
To the Rev Williams and the staff at Archives and History, it is all about reclaiming the denomination’s past to point it towards the future. “We just don’t do history for nostalgia’s sake,” he said, going on to quote Albert Outler, the 20th-century United Methodist theologian: “Nostalgia is mortgaging the future for the sake of the past.”
Research requests
During the past year, the commission received more than 1,000 research requests and hosted 64 registered users of the archives, including 34 “long-term” researchers who stayed for three or more days or travelled a long distance to be there.
Information seekers range from high school students to senior scholars, according to Mr L. Dale Patterson, the Archivist-records Administrator.
Want to know how to preserve old photos and documents? Archives has some tips. Church members can also learn how to preserve fragile items, record oral histories and build a homemade humidifier through the archival leaflet series.
Taking a vacation? Must-see places are listed in “A Traveller's Guide to the Heritage Landmarks of the
Interested in listening to history in the making? Archives now has digitised versions of 80 one-hour shows from a 1960s radio programme called “Night Call” – one of the first radio-talk programmes. More than 600 programmes can be found in the United Methodist audio archives at http://audio.umc.org
Looking for a photo? An extensive collection includes a quarter million images of mission work dating from 1890 to 1925.
Queries from local congregations often fall into two broad categories, said Mr Patterson. For the local church, one of the most frequently asked questions is what type of records does a local church need to keep.
The other category deals with what materials are available to help churches celebrate their history.
The commission recognises serious research through a series of grants and awards. To expand its focus beyond the
Linda Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in