Congregational Records of Presbyterian Churches at Columbia Theological Seminary:
The congregational records collection at Columbia Theological Seminary includes both records that were transferred from the Presbyterian Historical Society - Montreat in 2007 and records that have been deposited at the seminary since then. The denominations represented are current PC(USA), former PCUS, and ARPC congregations.
How to deposit congregational records at CTS:
The CTS Special Collections and Archives department continues to accept materials on deposit, including records of active and dissolved congregations. For information about depositing records at Columbia Seminary, please contact the archivist at archives@ctsnet.edu.
How to preserve congregational records: Preservation of congregational records requires taking care in how they are created (such as using acid-free paper) as well as how they are maintained over time. The archives at CTS follows the guidelines for records creation, retention, and preservation that are posted on the Presbyterian Historical Society website. Information about creating long-lived records is available here. Records retention and management information is available here. Microfilming is still the preferred method of creating preservation copies of records; information about microfilming is available here.
How to locate descriptions of records already deposited at CTS: Cataloging of the records transferred from Montreat is underway, and catalog records for all of the congregational records moved from Montreat and some of the collections received since then can be searched and viewed in the archives online catalog. Museum objects will be added to the catalog in 2011. If you have any questions, please contact us at archives@ctsnet.edu for assistance.
Click here for the archives online catalog