American Religious History Resources in the Special Collections Research Center

There are a variety of tools available to guide you in finding materials in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC). Don't forget that you also may come into the SCRC in person and consult with the staff member on duty for guidance.

letters of this Quaker merchant from Henrico County include some on religious subjects, Mss MsV Cp9

Mecklenburg County woman writes of religion and refers to the schism in the Methodist Church between the followers of Francis Asbury and James O'Kelly, Mss MsV D3

this religious diary is in an account book of Robert Pleasants of Curles in Henrico County, Virginia. Pleasants was a Quaker. Mss MsV Ame102

from Harrisonburg, includes poetry and religioius writing

diary kept by an Indiana Quaker woman, Lydia Wasson. The diary focuses a great deal on her religious experiences.

includes many poems of a religious nature.

anonymous notebook has notes on arithmetic and religious writings, Mss MsV Nm13

notes on 70 sermons and who gave them, kept by someone in Connecticut. Among the entries are several relating to the possible end of the world in 1843 and to the Millerites.

--4-page memoir by Henry Cooke, who had escaped enslavement recalling the gospel meetings led on Robert Carter Nicholas's plantation in Louisiana by William Ellis. Ellis and Cooke were originally from Virginia.

diary of a Frederick County, Maryland, woman whose husband Richard Potts was a bank president. She was active in her church and helped run an orphanage and a farm.

Williamsburg woman, discusses daily life and religion, Mss MsV D15

--journal from Freedman's Bureau teacher in Norfolk and Fort Monroe area from October and November 1865, discusses his teaching experiences, attending church with freedmen and their religious activities, etc.

--teacher in Buckingham County discusses work and religion

letters of Maine sisters with their network of female friends reveal a great deal about their religious views and experiences, Mss Acc 2008.55

-kept by an unknown New Yorker who attended religious services led by such well-known religious figures as Ira Sankey and Dwight Moody

-writes about weather and religion

missionary in China with her husband, diary kept while trapped in the British Legation in Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion. Found in Box 1 of the Galt Papers.

This diary was formerly described as an unattributed diary and entitled: Diary (Portsmouth, Va.), 1901, but has now been attributed to Florence Barber of Norfolk, Virginia. In brief daily entries she talks about the weather, chores, and social life, trips to town, church, attending meetings, etc. In August she went to visit churches and schools in Georgia and Alabama, like Atlanta University and Spelman College, both historically black schools. She also mentions teaching music, attending educational meetings in Portsmouth and being elected president of the local YMCA. September 3 is the last entry in this diary.

-male Mennonite schoolteacher in Pennsylvania writes about work, social and community activities, courtshp and wedding

-young American girl's diaries while growing up in China as the daughter of missionaries. Her diary spans form 1911-1919. Found in Box 1 of Galt Papers.

Two diaries, 1919-1921 and 1921-1922. In daily entries, writer records weather, chores and daily activities, church and social visits, health of friends and family, etc. At the end of each volume there are lists of deaths and weddings, and some accounts, one of which has the heading 'Ladies Aid.' Based on this particular account and on some of the activities described (like making jam for a neighbor) the writer was most likely a woman.

Diaries of Violet Laughead Barnett (d. 1972) of West Chester, Pennsylvania for the years 1931-1972 (with the exceptions of 1967 and 1968). Violet Barnett was a homemaker and had two children, Ethel and Earl. Daily entries cover chores, weather, family and social life. There is also the occasional comment on national and international events. Violet Barnett was very engaged in church activities and a member of several chapters of the National Grange

Daily life of a married Amish woman, Fannie Stoltzfus, in Pennsylvania from 1937 and 1939. Descriptions of household routines and farm chores such as butchering stock, planting a garden, harvesting crops, cooking, sewing, canning, quilting and barn raising. Dentist trips, the birth of a child, a weddings and a funeral are also mentioned.

-Amish couple from Pennsylvania, visiting dozens of families in Amish communities around the United States, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas

Three diaries, 1949-1951, 1957-1958, and 1964-1967, of Martha E. Russell. Russell was a high school teacher in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. She lived with and cared for her elderly mother. Containing brief summaries of each day, her diary entries record her thoughts on the weather, books, radio sermons, and Pittsburgh sporting events.

-older woman, social worker and wife of minister. Found in Box 1, Folder 24.

"The scrapbooks that I have given to the College represent my life as a professional, middle-class, middle-aged, completely actualized gay man with HIV who has stridently enunciated those causes that I believe in: gay rights, human rights, HIV education and prevention, left of center politics, sexual dynamics, spirituality, and global and timely issues such as global warning and energy policy." intro from Griffith