Religion

Dates: 1940-1985. Size: 1 linear foot. Accession #1991/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Maceo Anderson was one of the original members of the legendary Four Step Brothers, an early African American tap dancing act. The papers consist of a scrapbook documenting their career. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1960-1969. Size: 7 linear feet. Accession #1992/03. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The collection consists of reel-to-reel audiotapes on African American history and literature created by the Archdiocese. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1896-1987, Bulk dates 1900-1940. Size: 7 Linear Feet in 12 boxes, plus 5 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Norman B. Barr was minister of the Olivet Presbyterian Church in Chicago which undertook local missionary work, eventually operating a settlement house, library, medical dispensary, camp, supervised playground facilities, language classes, and even music lessons. The collection documents the tandem career of Barr and the fortunes of Olivet Institute. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1961-1997. Size: 0.5 linear feet. Accession #2009/03. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Houston and Cora Bowman were founding members of Trinity United Church of Christ, a large and influential church on Chicago’s South Side. Their papers include the early history of Trinity, church newsletters, anniversary books and newspaper clippings. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1876-1959. Size: .25 linear feet; 17 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Personal papers related to Louis Bowman’s ministry including radio addresses, speeches, articles, pamphlets and his book The Life of Isaac E. Brown (1927). [Finding aid]

Dates: circa 1890-2001. Size: 3 linear feet. Accession #1999/07. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Ann Brown was a member of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and longtime member of the Missionary Society of Arnett Chapel A.M.E. Church. Collection contains photographs, memorabilia, funeral programs, church programs and genealogical records relating to the Brown family. [Finding Aid, opens a new window]

Dates: 1952-2002. Size: 3 linear feet. Accession #1996/03. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Carter Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1921. Carrie McMorris, a longtime member of the congregation, donated this collection, which contains church histories, programs, souvenir booklets and special events records of Carter Temple C.M.E. Church. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1927-1990. Size: 1.5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Conrad and Martha Wendtland founded the Christian Fellowship Church in their home in 1926. The activities of the church are documented in minutes from committee meetings, financial and membership ledgers, and photographs. Selected photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Northside Clubs and Organizations Digital Collection. [Finding Aid]

Dates: 1898-2007. Size: 19 linear feet. Accession #2007/10. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Founded in 1920 by William Decatur Cook as The Peoples Church and Metropolitan Community Center, it took the name Metropolitan Community Church in 1927. The church became a center for African American political activism and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union organization drive. The Coalition to Save the ‘Met’ was begun by church members determined to save the historic church building from a wrecking ball. After they succeeded, they began collecting historic documents and photographs to save the church’s history. Papers include programs, clippings, correspondence, church newsletters, audiovisual materials and photographs. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1891-2002. Size: 9 linear feet. Accession #1996/07. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Granddaughter of Chicago’s legendary Pentecostal preacher Elder Lucy Smith, Lucy Smith Collier’s papers include church documents, programs, memorabilia and photographs of gospel at the Church of All Nations, gospel on the radio, the Lucy Smith Singers and the Roberta Martin Singers. The papers also include a sheet music collection. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1932-2019, bulk dates: 1966-2010. Size: 222 linear feet, includes 6 artifacts, 257 buttons, 737 photographs, 145 digital photographs, 4 16mm films, 41 cassette tapes, 3 DVDs, 6 LPs, 16 reel-to-reel tapes, 3 VHS tapes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Rev. Martin L. Deppe created and collected the materials in this collection during his time working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) Operation Breadbasket program, Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC), the Alliance to End Repression (AER) and the United Farm Workers (UFW). The collection is comprised of meeting materials, memos, flyers, photographs, posters, publications, reports, speeches, buttons and artifacts that reflect the activities of Chicago’s Civil Rights, anti-war and social justice movements. Projects and actions include confronting the economic discrimination in Chicago’s African American communities, the nuclear freeze movements, anti-apartheid campaigns and Vietnam War opposition. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1871-2005. Size: 11 linear feet. Accession #2002/05. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Ebenezer, founded in 1902, was one of the Chicago churches at the center of the gospel music revolution of the early 1930s. Under the Rev. J.H.L. Smith, Ebenezer grew to more than 3,000 members and included Thomas A. Dorsey, Theodore Frye, Roberta Martin, Eugene Smith and Robert Anderson among those who made music there. The Ebenezer archives include church newsletters, anniversary and souvenir programs, correspondence, photographs, sheet music, audiovisual material, organizational records and memorabilia. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1946-2017. Size: 90 linear feet, includes 66 art/artifacts, 5 oversize folders, 786 photographs, 267 digital photographs, 32 oral histories and 885 audiovisual recordings. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The Rev. Clay Evans Archives span his 50 years of pastoral leadership at Chicago’s Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church that he founded in 1950, and beyond his retirement in 2000. His ministry reached into the larger community with the What a Fellowship Hour broadcasts, Gospel choir performances and an engagement with the Civil Rights Movement along with numerous religious and community organizations such as the African American Religious Connection (AARC), the Broadcast Ministers’ Alliance and Operation PUSH. The collections include church documents, photographs, artifacts and audio-visual broadcasts and interviews. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1950-2016. Size: 4.5 linear feet, 147 photographs, includes 44 audio recordings, 7 artifacts. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The Collections on Rev. Clay Evans brings together materials related to Rev. Clay Evans and Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church during the 50-year span of his leadership from 1950-2000. These materials reflect member involvement in choirs, clubs, committees and community service opportunities fostered by Rev. Evans and their participation in annual banquets, revivals and travel. The collection includes church documents, photographs, artifacts and musical recordings. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1953-1971. Size: 2 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Calumet Region Community Collections. Scrapbooks compiled by Mr. and Mrs. William Fenstemacher. These scrapbooks contain photographs of members of the congregation at  religious and social events.  Also included are news clippings and programs relating to the activities of the church. [Finding aid]

Dates: circa 1890s-2014. Size: 13 linear feet in 7 boxes including 7 folio ledgers. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. First Lutheran Church of the Trinity was founded in 1865 as the first Lutheran church in Chicago’s Bridgeport community. The church started out as a German immigrant parish named “Ev. Luth. Dreieinigkeits” (Evangelical Lutheran Trinity) and supported an elementary school. The collection includes bulletins, marriage/baptism/birth ledgers, meeting minutes, photographs and programs. [Partially Processed]

Dates: 1980-1996. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #2000/02. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Founder of Third Baptist Church, civil rights activist and avid photographer, Rev. Elmer Fowler’s collection contains photographs, monographs, newspaper clippings, funeral programs and a tribute written by Fowler to Benjamin Mays. [Partially processed]

Dates: 1991-2006. Size: 23 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Music Information Center. Contains more than 200 unique interviews and performances on CDR, cassette and minidisk featuring klezmer musicians from North America and Europe. Established by the YIVO Institute For Jewish Research, Chicago Chapter. [Processed]

Dates: 1940-1997. Size: 39 linear feet. Accession #1989/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Rev. F.D. Johnson and his wife, Sweetie C. Johnson, were leaders in the National Baptist Convention from the 1940s through the 1980s. Rev. Johnson was the pastor of Zion Temple M.B. Church in Chicago and served for more than 20 years as the president of the National Baptist Convention’s Foreign Missionary Board. Their personal papers and the church’s archives include correspondence, organizational documents, programs, clippings, serials and memorabilia. [Partially processed]

Dates: 1930-1984. Size: 4 linear feet. Accession #1982/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Willa S. Jones was, for 52 years, the founder, writer and producer of the acclaimed Chicago Passion Play. First presented in 1926 in a storefront church, the Passion Play later moved to St. John-Baptist Church. Jones was also a gospel pianist and director of a choir sponsored by the National Baptist Convention. Her papers include clippings, programs, serials and memorabilia. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1963-1984. Size: 20 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Fifty hours of the 100 extant programs of this Emmy Award-winning Chicago gospel music television program. Performers include the Staple Singers, Dixie Hummingbirds and hundreds of others. [Description]

Dates: 1873-1958. Size: 2 linear feet in 4 boxes (including 57 photographs), plus 7 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Johannes Kircher was the founding pastor of Bethlehem Evangelical Church. Collection includes materials relating to Kircher family history and the history of the church. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1966-1991. Size: 1.5 linear feet in 2 boxes and 89 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection.The Lake View Council on Religious Action was organized in 1940 by representatives from local churches and synagogues and members of the Kiwanis Club of Lake View. The collection contains documents and photographs from their annual award luncheon as well as a small number of general historical files. [Finding Aid]

Dates: 1960-1961. Size: 1 linear foot. Accession #1961/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The papers consist of his typed dissertation submitted to the University of Chicago for a Master of Arts in social sciences. The dissertation traces the Rev. Archibald J. Carey and his impact on politics in Chicago. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1905-1980. Size: 1 linear foot. Accession #2003/14. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. When the Martin & Morris store was closing in the 1990s, gospel music devotees bought up the store’s remaining sheet music stock. The papers include more than 300 gospel music titles, some of them rare. [Finding Aid, opens a new window]

Dates: 1901-1972. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #2000/06. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The papers of the Rev. George Martin, D.D., an A.M.E. minister originally from Kansas City, Missouri, were donated by his daughter, Chestine Warfield Allen. Martin was sent in 1916 to serve A.M.E. congregations in the Pacific Northwest, where he was a pastor in Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Spokane, Washington. He later returned to Kansas City as a pastor and was influential in the A.M.E. church nationally. His papers include correspondence, photographs and memorabilia. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1905-1999. Size: 5.5 linear feet. Accession #2001/06. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The oldest African American congregation in Chicago, Quinn Chapel A.M.E. was founded in 1844. The archive includes anniversary books, programs, newsletters, membership registers, financial records and photographs. [Finding Aid, opens a new window]

Dates: 1869-1969, undated. Size: 1.5 linear feet in 3 boxes, 43 photographs, and 22 slides. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Ravenswood Congregational Church was founded in the fall of 1869 by the Reverend William A. Lloyd when Ravenswood was a small village. The church closed its doors due to declining membership in 1969. This collection contains news clippings, historical sketches, parish directories, and publications that document the church’s activities such as bulletins, programs, newsletters, correspondence. There are also 4 cookbooks published by the Women’s Society.  The collection also contains 43 photographs which document the church building and some church activities. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1958-2005. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #2006/07. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Legendary gospel singer and choirmaster Loudella Evans Reid led the choir at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church for more than 50 years. Her papers include church programs, newsletters, audiovisual materials, photographs and memorabilia. [Partially processed]

Dates: 1960-1970. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #1993/06, Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The Rev. Albert Sampson, ordained by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was active in the 1960s civil rights movement. He is the pastor of Fernwood United Methodist Church. His papers include clippings, photographs and memorabilia from his early civil rights activities. [Unprocessed]

Dates: 1979-1997. Size: 0.25 linear foot. Accession #1997/10. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The Rev. Ronald Schupp was active in Chicago’s anti-apartheid movement and in efforts to aid the homeless. His papers include programs and clippings. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1930-2002. Size: 8 linear feet. Accession #2002/02. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The Church of St. Edmund, King and Martyr was founded in 1909 and is one of the oldest predominantly African American Episcopalian churches in Chicago. The collection contains funeral programs, newspaper clippings, anniversary programs and brochures, sermons, serials and photographs. [Finding Aid]

Dates: 1903-1952. Size: 3.5 linear feet in 5 boxes (including 39 photographs), plus 2 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Garfield Park Community Collections. Collection primarily consists of promotional materials for the class. See also the Frank L. Wood Scrapbooks. The Wesleyan Bible Class was organized in 1880, but is best known for the years (1896-1945) it was led by Frank L. Wood. Under his leadership, the class numbered some 900, with an average attendance of 626 per meeting in 1940. The focus of the class was on Bible study. It was interdenominational and designed to serve all churches on the West Side. The collection contains newsletters, programs, invitations and anniversary brochures. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1940-1990. Size: 45 linear feet. Accession #1995/02. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Melva Williams toured with the Sallie Martin Singers, led church choirs in Chicago, and served as a high school principal and as a music educator. Her papers include a large sheet music collection of classical and sacred music, clippings, serials and memorabilia. [Partially processed]

Dates: 1885-1941. Size: 6.66 linear feet in 4 boxes, includes 10 scrapbooks. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Frank L. Wood (1864-1945) was a lawyer and judge who was active in the West Side Historical Society and was one of the original members of the Wesleyan Bible Class. He spoke frequently at organizations and churches, predominantly on Chicago’s West Side, but also further afield, and the scrapbooks in this collection document many of his speaking engagements. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1947-2005. Size: 220 linear feet. Accession #2007/04 Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The Rev. Addie Wyatt and her husband, the Rev. Claude Wyatt, were co-pastors at Vernon Park Church of God for more than four decades. Addie Wyatt was a meatpacking worker and union activist in the 1940s. Her determination to fight for social justice led her to union leadership roles, culminating in her election as vice president of the Amalgamated Meatcutters Union (later merged into the United Food and Commercial Workers Union). She was a founder of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. This collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, programs, proceedings, serials, clipping files, audiovisual materials and photographs from her work in labor, black and women’s organizations. Also included is extensive documentation on the history of Vernon Park Church of God, including sermon texts by Claude Wyatt. [Finding aid]