The Bishop William Burt Collection is an excellent documentary on the life and work of a pioneer minister within the Methodist Episcopal Church. In this collection we see the pathos and commitment Burt and his family brought to the work of the church, especially in Europe. These records illuminate his varying roles as clergyperson, presiding elder, bishop, and family member. Well liked by most, Burt was an influential person within the denomination throughout his career.

Records from his wife, Helen, and daughter Edith are located here, as well. The collection shows the historical and sociological involvement Burt had with the life, events, and politics of Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world. This involvement covered society from its lowest common denominator all the way through and including the very top of the social ladder. Burt was a world traveler and the collection sheds light on Methodist Episcopal work around the globe. This is especially true in the correspondence, diaries, and photograph series. Besides reflecting Burt's ministry in Europe, there are significant records concerning his work in the United States. Other notable personalities are also included

Early missionaries to Europe, especially to Russia, have primary documents located here as well. Many of Italy's leading Methodists such as the Taglialatela family have both published and handwritten materials within the collection. Records by other bishops such as Vincent and Bast are interspersed throughout the first section. Another area which is documented is Burt's commitment to the ongoing work of the Jerusalem Home which was started by Bishop J. P. Newman. There is a sizeable amount of records pertaining to the Crandon Institute in Rome, as well.

The Daniel Asbury Family collection spans the years 1799-1943 and is a diverse body of material. Much of it does not pertain to Asbury directly, but represents several generations' accumulation of clippings, receipts, and general miscellany. The early material, however, is very important for it illuminates Asbury's ministry. Especially do the numerous notes and bills for books he sold as agent for the Methodist Book Concern reflect his place as an agent and also offers a view of the literature the Methodists were printing as well as reading. Autobiographical notes are also of significance.

This collection contains John Kiracofe's notes about various ministers and church histories. A great deal of this material deals with genealogy. There are photographs and negatives depicting the Deardroff home, Anson Brazee, and Bertha E. Deardroff . There is a booklet by Bertha E. Deardorff about her own family genealogy. Pamphlets, bulletins and newspaper clippings about the EUB church are also included. The collection contains a short play written by Thelma Moyer Starner, event programs from the Pennsylvania Conference, a publication titled The Chatterbox and two certificates.

This collection contains many of Drury's publications: his biography of Otterbein, as well as a number of pamphlets; photographs; Drury's letters that he authored, and letters he received; letters or collections of old works that Drury kept for himself.

Among his letters, most of them are demonstrative of the kind of inquiry he was making into Otterbein and the history of the United Brethren Church in Christ. For the kind of histories that Drury was writing, he was meticulous about dates and the need to keep them straight in order to construct a coherent history. Much of his personal notes contain lists of dates, where it is clear he was hovering over the page attempting to connect disperate material or events. The largest collection of letters comes between 1883-1884, where Drury was ostensibly doing the bulk of his historical writing and attempting to contact any living witnesses available.

The photographs of this collection are largely unmarked, though there is at least one picture of A.W. Drury that is identified.

Drury's interest in Christian apologetics eventually led to an interest in things secular, as he later developed an interest in behavioral patters and their relation to religion; this led to his interest in William James, and the pamphlet he wrote on Psychology of Religion.

This collection is comprised of correspondence, sermons, clippings, articles, postcards, poems, and manuscripts. The manuscripts cover topics such as biographies, camp-meetings, history of the denomination, sermons and sermon notes, devotionals, and published texts.

This collection consists of three scrapbooks filled primarily with clippings from The Religious Telescope, a church newspaper of the United Brethren Church, and from assorted newspapers. These were compiled by C. I. B. Brane while he was active as the Washington correspondent for the magazine and the popular pastor of the Washington, D.C. United Brethren Church. The clippings are a rich resource for both religious and secular history in the latter years of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. In addition there are several letters and an address on the pioneers' history of the United Brethren Church written by Brane.

The largest element of the collection consists of Methodist newspapers from Estonia, Latvia and Russia. The time span for these periodicals range from 1909 to 1940. Here the researcher will find a written record of the church's main activities in these specific geographic areas. Many of the periodicals are not in English but their native tongues. There are, however, some English language documents with the most important being the index for the Russian Christian Advocate. General administration records are the next section within the collection. Various minutes make up the bulk of these records. Other documents include histories of the areas, one local church set of records, an Estonian Book of Discipline (1927), and other ephemera. One of the unique aspects of this collection is Bishop Nuelsen's records while serving as bishop for the Baltic-Russia area. These records were separated out from the general administrative records in order to highlight Nuelsen's work for these annual conferences during the turbulent times they both found themselves in. Most of the documents found here are photocopies. The orginal records can be found at various institutions in the Russian-Baltic region.