Thursday, May 9, 2013

Religion Around the State


Although the NC Religion project strives to provide a substantive body of religious materials virtually through the Internet Archive, here are a few links to organizations around the state of North Carolina with religious materials that might be of interest to researchers. This is, of course, by no means a comprehensive and authoritative inventory. If there are other organizations like archives, historical societies, museums, libraries and so forth that hold items relevant to religion in North Carolina, let us know in the comments below. We would be happy to add them to the post, which can serve as a running list instead. In no particular order:

Moravian Church Archives located in Winston-Salem. According to their website, the archive hosts over a million pages of handwritten documents including industrial, commercial, civic, ecclesiastical, educational, medical and musical-related records in addition to diaries, correspondence, ethnographic materials, prints, broadsides, photographs and maps. The archive also has a library with 1,600 titles primarily from the 18th century.

Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church in Lake Junaluska features a museum along with records of the Southeastern Jurisdiction, journals and newspapers covering the SEJ Annual Conference, local church histories, biographical information on clergy and a variety of relevant books.

North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church in Garner provides records on the Annual Conference, information for local church historians and a digital archive.

The Levine-Sklut Judaic Library and Resource Center in Charlotte is connected to the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Charlotte. The library and resource center hold "photographs, letters, brochures, scrapbooks" and other print materials that represent Jewish life and community in and around Charlotte.

Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina in Durham unifies projects covering Jewish history throughout North Carolina. The site presents a network of statewide resources for those interested in Jewish heritage.

Friends Historical Collection in Greensboro is a collection from the Hege Library at Guilford College. Guilford was founded by Religious Society of Friends in 1837. This collection houses records on the North Carolina Yearly meetings, monthly meetings and other important meetings in the region. Additionally, the collection acts as the main archive for the Quaker House of Fayetteville and the North Carolina Friends Historical Society. The library possesses manuscripts from Quaker individuals and families.

Church History Collection in Elon at the Belk Special Collections Library at Elon University offers items connected to the Christian Church. Records range from church histories to meeting minutes to audio-visual materials to church periodicals.

Presbyterian Collection and Theological Seminary Collection in Charlotte at Johnson C. Smith University. The Presbyterian Collection includes records, such as church bulletins, correspondence, church histories and information concerning the Catawba Synod that demonstrate ties between the University and local Presbyterian churches. The Theological Seminary Collection is comprised of records on the University's Seminary from the early 1900s to 1969. In 1969 the seminary relocated to Atlanta. The records consist of newsletters, annual reports and administrative correspondence.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Top Five NC Religion Items


Since we have been adding digitized materials to the Internet Archive for several months now, let's take a look at our all-time most downloaded items...



1. Presbyterian Orphans' Home at Barium Springs, North Carolina: an album of memories with 386 downloads

2. Annual of the...annual session of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (Volume 127th 129th (1957-1959) c. 1) with 356 downloads

3. Annual of the...annual session of the Baptist State Convention of the North Carolina (Volume 138th (1968) c. 1)  with 324 downloads

4. Rock Spring Campground (Volume v. 2) with 249 downloads

5. Annual of the...annual session of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (Volume 88th 91st (1918-1921) c.1) with 209 downloads

These are only the top five items, and they may shift as more materials are added to the Internet Archive. If you're curious to see more of the most accessed titles, check out the home page and click on the more option for a full listing.

Last week, Presbyterian Orphan Home was still the most downloaded item with 25 downloads and Baptist State Convention (1968) was the 5th most downloaded item with 17 downloads. Other popular items included:

2. Journal of the Western N.C. Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South [serial] (Volume 44th 47th (1933-1936)) with 21 downloads

3. Methodist Protestant Herald, 1935 with 19 downloads

4. Journal of the Western N.C. Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (Volume 1953-1955) with 17 downloads

Currently, we have a total of 2,106 items ready and waiting to be downloaded. If you happen to stop by this blog, we would love to hear what materials you have (or hope to!) looked at and/or downloaded, what you are planning to use the materials for and what types of materials interest you the most.

Happy downloading!