Skip to Main Content

ULS Digital Archive and Periodical Collections: Legacy Digital Collections

Legacy Digital Collections

MANUSCRIPTS

PHOTOGRAPHS

LETTERS

ARTICLES

Introduction to the Collection by the Rev. Dr. Maria E. Erling

Student writing on mission began in the mid-1820s at the Reverend Samuel Simon Schmucker’s parsonage in New Market, Virginia.

The Gettysburg Seminary Archives includes handwritten reports given by students beginning in 1824 and continuing through the 1890s. Some are written in German, while the large majority are in English.

The Society of Inquiry on Missions solicited funds and corresponded with other mission societies--Hartwick Seminary in Oneonta, New York; Andover Seminary in Massachusetts; Princeton Seminary in New Jersey; and Pittsburg Seminary in Pennsylvania--with the goal of expanding missionary interest among students of theology. Correspondence between Gettysburg’s society and other societies at Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Congregational Seminaries, indicates the Evangelical rather than sectarian ethos of missionary interest in the antebellum era.

The papers in this collection were written by students and presented by them to the society during a recitation day once every month over the course of several years and provide a record of the type of work done by students.

Throughout the 19th century the society remained central to the seminary experience. The focus of the student interest in mission changed during this time; the early reports on foreign mission work, for instance, gave way after 1865 to a more frequent focus on the needs of home mission. During the 1890s recitations at meetings no longer focused on foreign missionaries but instead were largely tributes to deceased graduates of the seminary, irrespective of whether they had undertaken mission work. By the end of the century mission enthusiasm seemed to have waned. Instead of lists of individual contributors, the treasurer had begun to assess individuals to pay off the society’s debts. The records continue until the 1919 audit.

Student Papers: Unknown Authors, 1820s-1840s
To view, click on the title of the paper.
 

TITLE/SUBJECT DATE PRESENTED SOCIETY NUMBER
The Reason Why Every Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Should Pocess [sic] a Missionary Spirit 1822  
[The Memory of Swartz, Gernicke, Schultz, and ?] 1825  
The Pleasures of the Missionary 1828  
[On missionary work in Lahaina, Maui, Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii] 1828  
Missionary Address On the Life and Exertions of Mr. David Brainerd Missionary to the Indians 1829  
Memoir of the Life of Reverend Samuel Bacon 1830 41
An Essay Upon the Conversion, of Henry Martin... 1830  
[By what means can the amilioration [sic] of the heathen by effected?] 1830  
Life of Mrs. Ann H. Judson 1831  
[Is it desireable [sic] that a man who intends to devote himself to Missionary labors should have acquired some trade of business by which he might maintain himself... Undated  
Missionary Labours in the Sandwich Islands Undated  
Professing to go to heathens and really doing it? Undated  
The Majority of This... (Subject: Dr. Payson and other American missionary society efforts; illness) Undated  
[Polycarp] Undated  
[In German] Undated  
[The Heathen and Popery] Undated  
[The Forming of Mission Societies] Undated  
[Reasons why the world should assist in spreading the Gospel Undated  
What Has Presented a More Beneficial Effect of the Gospel Among the Indians? Undated  
What is the best plan to be adapted for the conversion of the Jews Undated  
Biography of Joseph Alleine Undated  
The Life of John Arndt Undated  
Biography of Catharine Brown, A Christian Indian of the Cherokee Nation Undated 37
Claudius Buchanan Undated 43
A Sketch of the Life and Martrydom of Ignatius Undated  
Memoirs of Joshua Marsden Undated  
Memoirs of Rev Samuel J Mills. Undated  
A Speech on the Principal Traits of the Character and Incidents of the Life of Mrs. Harriet Newell Undated [sic] 8
Clemeno Romanus Undated  
Life of the  Rev William Tennent Undated  
The Life and Missionary Labours of that Holy Man Francis Xavier 1829  
[Augustus Hermann Franke Biography] (In German) Undated  
[In German] Undated  

Constitution, Minutes, Financial Reports, Student Memoirs (ongoing project)

  • Constitution, By-Laws, and Proceedings, 1827-1856
  • Minutes, Constitution, By-Laws, and Rules of Election, 1867-1886
  • Proceedings, 1868-1873
  • Treasurer's Record, 1886-1919
  • Treasurer's Report, 1873
  • Missionary Benevolence (from Seminary students), 1915-1922
  • Reports: Wittenberg, 1833
  • Reports: Executive Committee of Missionary Society, 1835
  • Reports: English Report of Executive Committee (English and German), 1836
  • Reports: Committee Report, 188?
  • Reports: Report of the Committee of the Theological Missioary Society, undated

Henry Clay Shindle (LTSG Seminarian, 1862-1864)
 

  • Notebook recording the lectures in several courses he attended as a seminarian.

              01 - Apologetics, Nov-Dec 1862
              02 - Encyclopaedia & Methodology, Jan-Feb 1863 
              03 - Modern Atheism, March-April 1863
              04 - Homiletics, May-June 1863
              05 - Dogmatic History, Oct-Dec 1863
              06 - Homiletics, Feb-March 1864
              07 - Unidentified Class, Romish Errors, April-May 1864

Sermons

Links will open to external site where they may be streamed

  • Martin Luther King Sr.'s Visit to LTSG, April 24, 1969

              01 - Address to Seniors at Lutheran Brotherhood Banquet
              02 - Informal Discussion with Seniors
              03 - Informal Discussion with Seminary Community

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg Constitutions
Click the years below to view the constitutions.