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The Bishop W. Ralph Ward Jr. Papers document Ward's ministry from his earliest appointment through his episcopal leadership and his years of retirement.

A major part of this collection consists of Ward's sermons, addresses, and writings. These materials reflect Ward's personal faith and his commitment to social concerns and the institutional life of the Methodist Church.

Ward's correspondence is fairly typical and not as revealing of larger issues as might be hoped. There are occasional letters to ecclesiastical and political leaders of note. There is one note to him from Harry Emerson Fosdick.

Ward's episcopal leadership is well documented in this collection. He was a dynamic and insightful leader. There is significant information about his skill in developing goals and programs in the Council and in his Areas.

Ward gave particular attention to the training of his District Superintendents.

While bishop of the New York Area Ward was involved in the racial crisis which engulfed the nation. There is not as much material on this period as might be desired, but it should not be overlooked in research. There is also significant material on the well publicized program by 60 Minutes on the role of the World and National Councils of Churches which inferred Communist sympathies on the part of those groups.

Ward was a prolific writer. Several of his published sermons are included in the collection as well as a number of unpublished manuscripts on Christian belief and practice. As an active and loyal member of the Masonic Order he spoke frequently at their assemblies. He was also an early advocate of the importance of visual aids in promoting Christian education.. The materials include early scripts he wrote as well as film strips dealing with educational themes. This interest in communication continued throughout his ministry.

There is considerable material documenting of TV and radio in the ministry of the larger Methodist Church.

Methodist history was one of Ward's special interests. The collection includes addresses he gave on this theme. The collection also documents Ward's continued ministry after retirement in 1980. There is a small but significant body of material on the Ward family. There are photos and genealogical materials. The latter material pertains to both the Bishop's roots but also those of his spouse, Arleen Burdick Ward. There are a few items from Arleen's childhood which are particularly attractive. She was a Christian educator in her own right, and some of the articles she authored are included in the collection. Family letters from the Ward children depicting their activities and marriages are also in the collection. For the interest of the researcher who may be working on Bishop Ward's life and ministry this family section has extensive materials written by the bishop in preparation of his autobiography. This autobiography was never published, but offers a sound base for understanding the man.

These papers are primarily a collection of Horn's sermons, most of which are in German. There are two notebooks which are notes and illustrations compiled by Horn. A third notebook contains an Ordination Sermon.

The Roy Stinson Smyres Collection documents the life of a person and his family whose multifaceted ministerial career exemplifies a dedication to United Methodist Church work in the twentieth century. This dedication is well documented through a variety of record types within the collection. Smyres kept an ongoing journal (1914-1990) and date books (1913-1990) that reveal his intimate experiences as a missionary, minister, and family member. The journals from his missionary days discuss the ongoing work of the mission as well as documenting Smyres' trek across West Africa in 1919, as well as other related trips. Additional entries record interviews with missionaries and indigenous people alike. Also included are discourses and reflections on sociology, anthropology, theology, politics, and life in general.

The date books list mundane things such as financial expenditures, appointments, etc. Some of the entries are in shorthand. The correspondence between Roy Smyres and his family, friends, and colleagues are just as illuminating as the journals, date books, and images. Most of these letters were collected by Nell Smyres and were given to Roy after her death.

While in Africa, Smyres made it a point to write home at least once a week whenever possible. Roy saved copies of letters that he wrote home while serving as a missionary to Africa, which is the reason for some duplication from Nell's files. A few letters were written on the back of older ones for economy. His early pen name to his family was Bud. Record types include correspondence, Christmas letters, and postcards. There are a few letters between Roy and Esther's children with each other which due to the lack of volume were incorporated into Roy's sub-series. Roy's earlier letters (1914-1929) contain personal observations on student life at Northwestern, mission work, missionaries, cannibalism, and "frontier justice" in Africa. These letters also document formal and casual reports from the mission field, photography, and hand-drawn diagrams of architectural features of mission buildings in the Congo.

The African travel accounts tell of the dangers of living in the jungle. Family matters are sprinkled throughout the correspondence. Most of the letters are addressed to Smyres' immediate family. Correspondence from 1930 to 1949 focuses on teaching, church work in Ithaca, and the beginning of a cooperative store in Ithaca - the first of its kind in that city. Roy was greatly interested in politics and peace issues.

Smyres' early work for the mission board is discussed here as well. The letters dating from the 1950's and early 1960's revolve around his continued work for the mission board, trips, publishers, and family. Included in the mission board correspondence was his involvement with the Advance Program.

After Smyres' retirement, the correspondence documents voluntary mission work in India, the Vietnam War, and other peace issues. Subjects found in correspondence from 1970 to 1992 document articles that Smyres published, speaking engagements, ministerial activities, work for the Religious News Service, and global trips. Also during this time period family issues are recorded which include the death of his first wife, Esther, and his second marriage to Mary Fraley, and extended family events. There are social and political remarks about Vietnam, peace, The Human Needs and Security Bill of 1984, El Salvador, the Lebanon conflict, opposition to the United States government appointing an ambassador to the Vatican, and the Persian Gulf War. Most of these letters were written to government officials who had a direct influence in these issues. Another aspect of this correspondence involves his photographic commissions and subsequent loans of images to publishers and missionaries.

Esther Smyres' correspondence ranges from 1920 to 1968 with the bulk of the letters dated from 1920 to 1937. Though not as voluminous as Roy's, they do illustrate in some detail the domestic work in a missionary home as well as documenting a spouse's missionary work in the Belgian Congo. There are casual references to African geography and society. Later correspondence documents Esther's work as a school teacher, her various travels, local church work, and family. Another value of Esther's correspondence is that they often fill in points of information that Roy leaves out of his correspondence of the same time. This is especially true during their years on the mission field and ministry in the local church. Most of the correspondence is directed to Mary Hannah Brown Smyres and Nell Smyres. Mary Fraley Smyres correspondence dates from 1972 to 1980 with bulk dates of 1973 to 1975. Most of these letters relate to family events and friends. Nell Smyres incoming and outgoing correspondence documents her early childhood, college life, family news, trips, and theology.

Some of the letters are from Roy and Esther's children and grandchildren, who express their embracing of Pentecostalism and faith healing. The last group of letters is from Roy's parents. Recipients of these letters include their children as well as extended family. Topics include family news, missionary work, spirituality in the church, and theology in general.

Mary's correspondence ranges from 1911 to 1947, with the bulk of the correspondence from 1919. Luther's correspondence dates from 1916 to 1920, with the bulk of the letters from 1919-1920. Family records are general in nature and revolve around four people: Roy, Esther, Nell, and Joan Smyres. Joan was Roy and Esther's daughter-in-law who died of cancer at an early age. Joan's sub-series documents her funeral.

The rest of the material reflects the childhood, marriage, and careers of Esther and Roy. Nell's records contain her Master's Thesis written at Ohio Wesleyan on the expansion of Christianity in Russia. Nell also collected reports written by her nephew, Eugene Stockwell, a missionary in Africa.

The Writings Series contains manuscripts (1917-1990), sermons (1929-1966), prayers (1937-1988), and publications (1939-1987) authored by Roy Smyres. Included in this section are two books that Roy wrote: Thoughts of Chairman Smyres, and his autobiography. Both these volumes were published in the late 1980s. Other publications include articles and photographs. The sermons (1929-1966) illuminate a variety of topics including missions, politics, theology, liturgy, world communion, cooperatives, and stewardship. Formats include radio and children sermons as well as pulpit sermons. Some of the sermons are in shorthand. The prayers relate to the various aspects of Smyres' ministry within the church. Smyres' professional life in the ministry of the church revolved around three sub-series: local church, annual conference, and the General Board of Global Ministries. Local church records contain worship bulletins and miscellaneous church papers. Annual conference records contain reports and ephemera.

The General Board of Global Ministries sub-series documents Smyres' work in DOM Committee material, reports, gift programs, IDOC International records, Advance Program Support Funds, Central America, financial records and journals, treasurer codes, notebooks, and newsletters. Roy created and collected maps that attest to geographic areas that he served or visited. The African maps are of special interest to those researchers whose historical focus is either missions or the Belgian Congo political boundaries during his years as a missionary. The hand-drawn maps are especially enlightening. The largest series in the collection contains Smyres' photographic images. These images are the spotlight of the collection. His photographic abilities and style were sought out by a number of religious organizations. Record types include glass lantern slides, 35 mm slides, negatives, photographs, and contact sheets. Geographic areas include countries from each of the populated continents as well as Oceania.

The images cover a vast array of topics too numerous to list. In some instance's Roy kept log books that identify certain images with corresponding narrative via his unique cataloging system. It should come as no surprise that family images are in abundance as well.

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 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.

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."

Administration holds a variety of committee meeting minutes. Campus ministry documents the National Division's campus ministry program. Conference contacts holds regular correspondence between the Division and their counterparts at the conference or jurisdictional level; the material is organized by conference, jurisdiction or by state. Crusade scholars holds records of applications and correspondence with successful scholars. Department of Architecture documents several building programs and building plans used by the Division. The Division's participation in the denomination-wide ethnic minority local church emphasis is documented in this series. Issues remaining after the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodists are held in the EUB series. Various special programs of the Division which focus on several urban issues are documented in the Institutional Ministries, Metropolitan Urban Service Training, Office of Urban Ministries and Parish Ministries series. Legal files deal with financial issues, bequests and gifts to the Division. Reports holds various statements and reports issued by the Division, while Research and Surveys most hold research conducted for local churches or annual conferences and relate to church growth issues. Town and country ministries are documented in this series. The Division's work with schools and children's homes are documented in the Youth Serving Ministries. The Subject files contain regular correspondence and reports about the various programs of the Division.

The records of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW) encompass its beginnings as a general agency and continues up to the early twenty-first century. Its primary role is advocacy for women both within and beyond United Methodism. Over time advocacy would be expanded beyond just women roles and acceptance as leaders. Responsibilities in their defined mission include workplace and sexual harassment, equitable leadership roles and benefits in relation to gender and race, legislation to General Conference such as changing language usage in the Book of Discipline to codify improvements for women and social issues relating thereof. These are but a few examples of its advocacy work for the denomination.

In order to support, empower and educate the denomination on all levels within COSROW’s defined responsibilities can be found in the Advocacy, Audio-Visuals, Connectional Ministries and Printed Matter series. Here the researcher will find a plethora of avenues by which COSROW fulfills its mission through multimedia, mailings, newsletters such as the Yellow Ribbon and The Flyer, correspondence, creation and submission of petitions to General Conference along with organizing and informing delegates, worship resources reflecting various women’s concerns and expressions, pamphlets, workshops and monitoring seminaries and all the boards and agencies throughout the connectional structures within the larger church.

COSROW is highly organized in the sense of resourcing and utilizing its membership both on the general church and annual conference levels. The creation of a talent bank in which to draw upon not only for its own qualitative work but also to network skilled individuals is but one of the creative ways COSROW optimizes its impact on the church despite its small staff. The records illustrate how the role of monitoring became a defining part of its work. Social justice issues related to women and children are amply documented in the files. The genesis of using non-gender specific language issue to promote inclusiveness within United Methodism can be traced here as well.

The Financial and Administration series reflects how COSROW ran its organization and implemented its mission on a daily basis. Minutes of the various committees, reports on the work and funding of the commission, along with membership records and the General Secretary’s office files make up the primary documents in this series. A researcher will notice multiple files on the same topics. The reason for this duplication rests upon the original organizational structure the commission utilized for an egalitarian General Secretariat rather than a typical top-down corporate management structure found in other United Methodist agencies. Later COSROW adapted the latter structure out of necessity. On another note it should be noted that COSROW often recorded their meetings in various media platforms which became the official record.

Material in this collection that relates to women include records from the World Federation of Methodist Women, notes from Wade's second wife, and an address by Emily Smith. Those records that relate to the World Federation of Methodist Women include articles, correspondence, a constitution, treasurer's reports, and signatures from representatives. The inclusive dates are 1936-1961, with the bulk of the material from the 1940s. Also included in Bishop Wade's papers are travel notes and observations from 1949 by his second wife. There are also several copies of an address given by Emily Smith in 1934 regarding Africa.

This collection consists of sermons, notes, photographs, legal documents, reports, clippings, correponsdence, and an artifact, reflecting mainly Bishop Wade's professional life. Also includes materials relating to the trial and prosecution of Bishop Anton Bast.

There is a microfilm (1892-1946) of his papers and manuscripts located in the library.