The Presbyterian Heritage Center Blog
Native Americans A newspaper clipping describing some of thefirst missionary efforts. At the Presbyterian Heritage Center in Montreat, the staff is very busy during this stay-at-home phase. We are preparing for Fall 2020 exhibits – researching, designing, writing, calling, emailing and more from home to line up rare illustrations, period photographs, colonial and early American… Continue reading Behind The Scenes – Part 1
Soaring above the modern skyline of Washington, DC, a stone-carved band of angels playing Scottish bagpipes adorn the tops of the two west towers at the Washington National Cathedral. A plaster sculpture showing the model used in the carving of the angel piper is in the Presbyterian Heritage Center (PHC) lobby in Montreat. This is… Continue reading The Montreat-Washington Connection
Led by the Rev. Dr. Alexander J. McKelway, 7 reformers and two children were ushered into the White House office of President William H. Taft on Monday, April 9, 1912. Taft picked up the gold pen on his desk and dipped it into the inkwell. With a few strokes, he approved the first federal legislation… Continue reading Mightier Than the Sword
As I was looking at post cards in the Presbyterian Heritage Center years ago, I came upon several real photo postcards of Montreat scenes with initials – AMD – presumably the photographer. A photo historian, I searched the published records and found this entry in the North Carolina Archives: “Alice Margaret Dickinson. active 1908, in… Continue reading Montreat’s “Kodak Girl”
Montreat and its forest primeval is the description often used; except it isn’t true. In the 1890s, a sheep farm occupied the cove where Montreat was eventually created. The valley trees had been previously logged, since trees and sheep don’t work well together. Logging in the Swannanoa Valley had been occurring since the 1870s on… Continue reading Trains, Timbers & Tourists
In the declining years of Presbyterian founder John Knox, he took up his pen to write the history of the Scottish Reformation from 1493 to 1567. But the book was almost lost to eternity. Knox’s invaluable first-person experience in implementing the Reformation was critical and he carefully wrote this primary source in various manuscript sections… Continue reading Knox, Knox. Who’s there? Presbyterianism.
Seventy-five years ago, famed Scottish religious missionary and Olympic sports hero Eric Liddell died in a Japanese internment camp in Weixian, China, in February 1945. With the 2020 Olympics in Japan fast approaching, perhaps it is time to remember Liddell’s story. The son of Presbyterian/Congregational missionary parents in China, Eric grew up deeply religious. He… Continue reading An Olympic Mission
On February 21st, baseball starts its spring training games this year. As fans prepare for another season of America’s Pastime, we remember a rough-and-tumble baseball outfielder from 140 years ago – Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday made a transition from a popular player in baseball's National League during the 1880s to becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister.… Continue reading Batter Up! Baseball and Evangelism
Today is Valentine's Day, so here to celebrate our love of historical finds is Katelyn Powell, Archaeology & Historical Studies Consultant at PHC. An alternate title for this post is "Can You Dig It?" However, this is a bad pun and we strive to provide high quality prose on this blog (but we did consider… Continue reading For the Love of Archaeology
On this day 155 years ago (February 12, 1865), Rev. Henry Highland Garnet delivered a sermon in the U.S. House of Representatives. This marked the first time a Black speaker had preached in the U.S. Capitol. Garnet was an abolitionist and a Presbyterian minister. Born a slave in Kent County, Maryland in 1815, Garnet escaped… Continue reading On this Day: Rev. Henry Highland Garnet
