Archives

A rich archival source turns out to be the handwritten confirmation journals of Bishops Theodore B. Lyman (1873-93), Joseph B. Cheshire (1893-1932) and Edwin A. Penick (1922-1959). Detailed lists of dates, full names, and locations, along with racial designations such as “colored” or “col.” or “c” or “all colored” appear for all Black individual and group entries. I photocopied all pages listing Black confirmands, then highlighted individual entries to use for creating an Excel document, searchable by columns for date, last name, church name and town. This document exceeds 6,600 entries that can be consulted in the absence of local records.

Archival document and photo research for our 2015 weekly series, “Short Sketches of Historically Black Churches,” was a challenge. My self-imposed 100-word limit for each sketch necessitated much editing, but in one case all the available information totaled in at only 99 words! In addition to documentation from our annual diocesan journals, information came from inquiries and site visits in all three North Carolina dioceses. For East Carolina, archivist Mamre Wilson proved invaluable. For Western North Carolina, inquires and a site-visit eventually brought access to the diocesan records, stored, but not yet catalogued, in Special Collections at Appalachian State University.

In 2017 I assisted Janelle Legg, a doctoral candidate from George Mason University, with extensive dissertation research in our “Deaf Ministry” files. She later received the 2022 Robert W. Prichard Prize from the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. Founded in 1905 by St. Philip’s, Durham, our diocesan ministry with the deaf received a Woman’s Auxiliary seed grant of $3,000 in 1930 toward the $30,000 needed to build Ephphatha Church on Geer Street. Closed after several active decades, the building now houses North Star Church of the Arts, an open community hub founded by the Nnenna and Phil Freelon family.

In May 2021 I received an e-mail from Dr. Chad Swanson, a physician in Utah. He had already done some research in Raleigh on two physicians, Hubert Royster (White) and Lawson Scruggs (Black), who had worked together at St. Agnes Hospital. He was requesting supplementary information about the hospital’s founder, Sarah Hunter, and the words for a hymn used at the hospital’s 1896 dedication. A surprise e-mail in July 2025 announced the publication of Dr. Swanson’s “book” in a “unique and innovative way”: online, by subscription, in daily installments. Please contact me if you might be interested in more details.

Parish registers are primary archival sources because they document full names, dates and church life events. Is your collection in good order? Several years ago, at St. Ambrose, Raleigh, I examined an old register just recently restored by Michael Greer at Leatherbound Book Works in Durham. Now, when asked about “register” repair services, I often recommend Greer and take individual volumes to him in person. He has been more than generous in sharing his career path to bookbinding: learning about leather; mastering the specialized tools needed; and evaluating the highly individual needs of each volume he receives for restoration.