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The Rose Thomason papers document her work as a church leader, educator and writer. Here the researcher will find evidence of her efforts on women’s issues as well as her personal struggles with career, illness, and relationships which can be found in her writings.

In the COSROW series there are a number of areas covered in a variety of genres which include: Equal Rights Movement, women’s liberation, inclusive language, women being fairly represented in the church, minutes, correspondence, legislation for General Conference, regional training events, etc. One item of provenance note is an oversized working notebook of COSROW related documents which are broken up into multiple file folders while the original order is maintained. The contents reveal and encapsulate the breath and scope of Rose’s work which include topics such as national issues, correspondence, supporting documents for publications, petitions to General Conference, dialogue with the Council of Bishops, regional work in the form of events notes, caucuses, as well as annual conference activism in the Florida Annual Conference on the themes of advocacy, language, monitoring agencies, etc.

The UMWC series one will find similar issues as those in the COSROW series in the forms of minutes, correspondence, the Caucus’ newsletter entitled “The Flyer” which deals with the issues such as ordination of homosexuals, Equal Rights Amendment, sex roles in the denomination to name just a few items. The documents reveal how the Caucus partnered with Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministry, General Commission on the Status and Role of Women and Pew Women brought great change in the way women were treated and perceived as persons and leaders. The caucus and Pew Women were the grass roots, boots on the ground part of the above-mentioned quadrilateral. Officers of the caucus, like Rose, also became leaders in the two general agencies.

The Study Commissions series have a number of standard record types that include news releases, minutes, reports and manuscript papers. If one area stands above all others in this series, it would be documents related to the Itineracy Study. These files are loaded with resources that range from articles to resource papers by various authors. This section is worth researching if you are looking for historical materials related to the questions of handling clergy couples, spouses with careers outside the church, hardships caused by the itineracy on families, etc.

In the Writing Series you will find a large collection of Thomason’s poems, speeches, manuscripts in both published formats or personal unpublished manuscripts. It should be noted that there are unfinished works as well. The fan letters’ folder contains a number of correspondences between Rose and her close friends, people inspired by her writings - especially "Shoring Up My Soul, A Year with Cancer", as she only has days and hours left to live. Robert, her husband, sent emails to a number of her friends and fans on a daily basis giving updates to Rose’s condition during her last moments. He also sent emails out announcing her death. The letters are testimonials to those who were personally touched by her life and work. The manuscripts of poems and stories illustrate her struggles with health, social issues and relationships. These documents show who Rose is and why she did the work deemed important to her on all levels of her life. A number of the poems and stories reflect filial relationships.

The Education series contains elements of Thomason’s life as a student along with her teaching career as a Reading Comprehension and English teacher on both a secondary and college. There is an oral history done by Mary Elizabeth Moore for the Program for Women in Theology and Ministry at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, which features both Rose Thomason and Nancy Grissom Self in dialogue about their shared experience and continued friendship on women’s fight against institutional sexism and racism during the last half of the twentieth century. Many of the essays in the Student and Professional Papers date from Thomason’s higher education.

The Family series primarily contains documents created by Thomason, her husband Robert and their children, Mark and Bryan.

This collection documents the ministry of Roger Stillman Guptill both on the mission field and his subsequent teaching and administrative positions at Gammon Theological Seminary. Though not extensive, the collection gives a clear window into Guptill's life. The Methodist Episcopal Church had a strong connection between African missions and Gammon Theological Seminary. It was at this institution that a number of African-American and African Nationals were trained for full-time ministry in both the United States and Africa.

The first seriesilluminates the early stage of Guptill's adult life when he was sent as a missionary by the Methodist Episcopal Church to Africa's Belgian Congo. Topics include observations on general Congo mission work as well as a detailed account of Guptill's own mission work in the area. He also wrote and published a biography on Melville B. Cox.

Within this series documents a point of transition which takes place regarding Guptill's shift in career appointments after service with the local and general church. He was the editor and manager of a serial called " The Foundation." This was published under the auspices of Gammon Theological Seminary, which Guptill was a faculty member. "The Foundation" was a quarterly publication printed in the interest of Gammon Theological Seminary, alumni, The Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa, and the School of Missions. The serial published news on African missions, alumni, campus events such as lecture series, as well as articles on philosophical and practical theology. Guptill was an important participant in many of the above mentioned organizations.

Given this transitional point, the second seriesbegins to expand the scope of, and enter into, a new phase of Guptill's work at Gammon. Here we have a number of items directly related to both the Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa and Gammon Theological Seminary. Topics include institutional histories, a biography on William Fletcher Stewart who founded and endowed the Stewart Missionary Foundation, various opinions about the feasibility and value of starting the Foundation, Stewart Foundation School of Missions, charters and by-laws, courses of study, and a constitution and by-laws of the Friends for Africa.

The third series, Africa, gives the largest picture of that which profoundly influenced Guptill's life. The series contains information on the development of the Congo mission, a history of Methodist missions in Africa, general information about the continent, biographical material which includes Henry M. Stanley, World Service, African studies, medical missions, the beginnings of Protestant mission work in hte Congo, native education, native economics, native literature, and a missionary conference report.

The Robert Thomas Parsons Collection contains both a complete copy and a partial copy of Parsons' Ph.D. dissertation from the Kennedy School of Missions of the Hartford Seminary Foundation. The first folder contains biographical data and a photograph of Parsons from a collection of his papers at Hartford Theological Seminary. A complete manuscript of the thesis, titled "The Function of Religion in an African Society", is collected in two volumes. A partial collection of the thesis containing sections III, IV, V, VI, and VII is collected in two volumes and marked with a logo from the Department of World Missions of the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

There are two items in this collection. The first is a Seth Thomas Clock that was built in 1876. The clock was removed from what is known as the William Butler bungalow in Bareilly, UP, India around 1970 by Dr. Robert Petersen at the suggestion of Dr. Stanley Thoburn, deceased. Due to the patent date, it is highly probable that some other early Methodist missionary actually owned it.

The second item in this collection is a book written by William Butler entitled THE LAND OF THE VEDA. The book is autographed in the front by Clemetina Butler who was William's third wife.

The Cowden collection is a significant representation of family records and genealogy together with records of his work in developing the Sunday School work of the United Brethren Church. The materials regarding the Sunday School offer a window on the progress in developing the administrative and educational practices of the church. Cowden gave creative leadership in applying the Chautauqua format to the work of the Sunday School. The collection also includes Cowden's manuscript of his autobiography. It was published by the United Brethren Publishing House in 1915. Two items included are over-size and are packaged separately: a marked map of the Battle of Shiloh, and an architectural drawing of a tablet commemorating the life and work of Rev. John George Pfrimmerer, M.D., who established the first United Brethren Churches in Indiana and the first United Brethren Sunday School in 1820 on the site of this tablet.

The majority of the papers are in two bound volumes of handwritten sermons from 1859 to1867 preaches at the Fayetteville MECS church. Next is a bound book containing his 1896 published drama, In the Wilderness or A Romance of Christianity. In the same folder, the researcher will discover a fragment of the same script possibly published in 1870. A single letter dated January 30, 18(7?) requesting a new appointment for the Ozark church. Finally, Hammett appears in a copy of an 1896 State of Washington civil libel suit decision.

This collection contains ten scrapbooks compiled by R. H. Bennett during his career. These scrapbooks contain many of the writings he contributed to magazines and church related publications. He wrote "Twitterings of Timothy Twig", a weekly syndicated column for newspapers, and many of these columns are included in the scrapbooks. At the back of the 1906-1911 scrapbook, there are several black and white photographs of the building Bennett's Lynchburg congregation built at Soochow University in China.

In addition, these scrapbooks contain commentaries on missions and temperance, and are an excellent source of social history during the first half of the twentieth century. Materials found in these scrapbooks include news clippings, articles, photographs, correspondence, and pamphlets.

The diaries of Rev. Frederick Krecker cover a span of almost fifty years (1838-1888). There are twenty-five (25) individual volumes. The reveal in a very personal manner the lifetime experiences of an itinerant evangelical preacher in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. Among the topics discussed are the conversion numbers of prospective new members to his congregations; a highly detailed record of the seasonal weather paterns; a recounting of the challenges in traveling from one samll town to another on very basic roads in the worst of weather conditions, as well as a heartfelt description of the uttler loneliness he must cope with in his service to God.

The earliest volumes in these journals were written in German, but Krecker switched to English when his wife, Isabella, complained to him that she could not read German, their native language, well enough to comprehend his writings. The English use started in the sixth volume in 1848.

The diaries of Krecker record the ordinary work of an itinerant preacher who pastors to his congregations and the experiences of life in mid 19th century Pennsylvania in a way not too dissimilar to many of his contemporaries.

Consists of manuscripts and clippings. Includes Commentary on the Discipline, from the Bishop S.C. Breyfogle Library. Bishop Breyfogel used this in the preparation of his Digest of Evangelical Church Law. There is also a journal/autobiography written by Yeakel between the years of 1853 to 1865. Another item of note is an oversized scrapbook full of clippings which reflect articles written by Yeakel, points of interest, and a history of "old-time Evangelical preaching."

The material in this collection represents Mueller's work from his first years as a pastor in the Evangelical Association to his retirement from the Episcopacy of the United Methodist Church (1921-1975). The earliest manuscripts include sermons and addresses (1921-1975). The rest of the collection consists of correspondence (1941-1973), photographs (1962-1976), addresses (1921-1975), articles, and clippings (1921-1975). The most sustained record of Mueller's work begins in the 1940's with Mueller's election as Executive Secretary of Christian Education. The collection continues with records from his episcopal leadership, his presidency of the N.C.C., and his involvement in the negotiations for the Uniting Conference in 1968.