One afternoon in late September, Ruth Cameron, archivist with the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, dusted off a few of the 50-plus boxes of the historical ACP papers stored at the library.

 

“It’s all here, but it will take some sorting,” she said.

 

An ACP board decades ago decided to donate the papers to UTS, but donation is only half the process of protecting, evaluating and categorizing documents before making them available to future researchers. Donated archives such as the ACP’s are repackaged in acid-free boxes and folders while they await the funding for processing. The process includes having archivists and graduate students examine each document and folder, and make a complete list of the contents.

 

Until ACP raises the estimated $2,000 to $4,000 to do a thorough processing, the papers aren’t easily accessed – the library doesn’t allow the public to examine unprocessed archives – but they are in good hands.

 

The Burke Library archives include more than 300 separate collections of personal papers and institutional records covering a broad range of themes of interest researchers. The  archives  reflect the Seminary's longstanding role in some of the great social issues, religious morals and theological thought in American history. Important new collections, such those in the  Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship, are continually added by institutions and individuals.

 

Ms. Cameron said the collections are organized into six main record groups:

 

* Union Theological Seminary  Archives  -- contain institutional and administrative records of the Seminary, combined with the papers of many organizations, scholars, pastors, laypersons and others connected with the school.

 

* Auburn Theological Seminary  Archives -- include early institutional records and papers of Auburn faculty and alumni.

 

* Missionary Research Library Collection -- constitutes a unique record of Protestant missionary activity throughout the world and provides a fascinating array of materials related to the geographic, sociopolitical, religious, and cultural settings in which this activity occurred.

 

* William Adams Brown Ecumenical Library  Archives  -- founded in 1945 and  containing individual papers and organizational records, relating to the modern ecumenical movement.

 

*  Archives  of Women in Theological Scholarship -- document the history of the women who have made significant contributions to movements for progressive religious and social change since 1900. The archives collects the personal papers, scholarly work, oral histories, and audiovisual records of feminist, womanist, and mujerista scholars, clergy, and laywomen, beginning with former and present Union faculty members, alumnae, and their colleagues.

 

* Miscellaneous Collections, including ACP archives, consist of a growing number of varied and interesting archival collections unrelated to the previous collection themes.