Digitization Project Brings African Methodist Episcopal Seminary Archives to the World



The history of Payne Theological Seminary, one of the nation’s oldest African American seminaries, is now at your fingertips, thanks to a collaboration between Payne and Princeton Theological Seminary.

With funding from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Payne Theological Seminary is actively digitizing materials from its historical archives and contributing the digitized versions to the Theological Commons. The collection will contain curated, contextualized subcollections of images and textual materials for the study of the history of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E) denomination and Black Church tradition while chronicling the leadership and legacy of Payne Theological Seminary.

The records available for research include blueprints, handwritten manuscripts, rare books, bulletins and photos that date back to the 1800s which document the establishment of the Black Church in America to the physical changes and developments of a number of AME Educational Institutions.

This unique digital archive is publicly accessible at http://commons.ptsem.edu/payne

For information about the project, contact Seminary Archivist Shanee’ Murrain at smurrain@payne.edu .