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 collection contains materials related to Warner's personal activities as a missionary. Most of the documents are personal letters. These letters are directed to family and friends and dated from 1929 to 1987. Unfortunately, the years 1968-1985 are missing. Content in these letters are usually only a few lines and discuss events, school activities, and weather conditions.The other part of this collection contains various clippings, programs, brochure, post cards, Christmas cards, play scripts, drawing, and photographs related to Warner's work and family.

The collection provides a detailed account of Gillilan's life, and of Methodism in Ohio and Utah. The most significant items in the collection are Gillilan's thoroughly kept diaries. In addition, he was a meticulous keeper of scrapbooks, collecting many articles about Methodism and religion in his time. He was also a published author, and copies of many of his published poems and essays are present in the collection. It seems that he sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Strickland Gillilan. It is possible that this is a family member. In his collection are also present two threatening letters. One dates from 1886, and is from Gillilan's time in Tooele, Utah. It relates to issues of polygamy and Mormonism. The other is less specific, but threatens Gillilan' s "precious throat." Gillilan's papers contain approximately 2000 sets of sermon notes, numbered from 5 to 2394. The system by which these numbers were assigned is unknown. One of Gillilan's diaries, the largest, contains several pages of what seem to be land ownership claims and mining records. He may have obtained this book, already used, and subsequently used it for his journal. Another of his diaries contains several pages written in a substitution code, and several more in shorthand. The key to Gillilan's code is in the Diaries: General File. Many of the books and documents are fragile, and should be handled with extreme care.

The Walter Russell Lambuth collection reflects the Bishop's activities outside the United States in a series of manuscripts, articles and letters. There is one typed manuscript of his book, Medical Missions: The Twofold Task. There is a good chance that most, if not all, of the other typed manuscript articles of Lambuth's trips around the world were published by the Southern Methodist Church in their various periodicals. The correspondence is addressed to family, friends, colleagues and associated groups. Clippings are either death notices and/or tributes for both Lambuth and his wife.

These papers document Reverend Ward's life while he was in seminary, serving as a pastor, and his subsequent death after the Second Battle of Bull Run during the American Civil War. Ward was a copious writer on a variety of subjects. The papers show his development as an individual which eventually laid the foundation for his personal conviction to serve actively in the war. There are some documents assigned to Mrs. Jane E. Ward, Pelatiah's wife, after his death.

This collection contains correspondence and news letters from Kelly written between 1936 and 1969. A 1969 farewell address is included. In addition, an autobiographical manuscript entitled "I Saw It Happen" is part of this collection. This typed manuscript is 172 pages and includes several corrections and notations. It was published in 1977 by Bitmore Press.

The bulk of the collection consists of manuscripts including: 90 Years of Meaningful Living; Korea Missions; Reconstruction of Education in Korea; Christ and His Beacon; and Christ and His Torches in Korea. A diary and a journal on healthy living are also included. University Plans and materials on Chosen Christian College and a Conspiracy Trial are provided as well. There is a set of materials written in Hangul.

Reports in the collection include: Chosen Christian College Reports; Korean Reports; and Miscellaneous Reports.

Minutes consist of: Official Minutes of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Korea Mission in May, 1903; Looking Backward Minutes of a Wonsun Beach Association Executive Committee Meeting in 1916; two Annual Meetings pertaining to Chosen Christian College in March, 1922 and May, 1922; and a meeting held by the Association of Methodist Missionaries.

Assorted Korean Publications, Korean Publication Fragments and clippings are available. Named publications include: The Korean Pacific Express: Periscope on Asia; Korean Student Quarterly; The Korea Mission Field; and The Korea Klipper. A Chinese/English Dictionary and a published manuscript, Michigan and Korea, are also included.

The bulk of correspondence consists of Official Letters. Other letters are addressed to dear friends and family members. Correspondence pertaining to the Pre-Cleveland Commission on the Far East in 1949 is included.

General Documents include: Miscellaneous records; photographs; and an Identification Pin.

This collection includes dossiers, correspondence, letters, records of annual conferences and agencies, subject files, manuscripts, articles, personal and family papers, photographs, negatives, clippings, and other printed matter. Bishop Springer's papers primarily document the interaction of American social and ecclesiastical structures forged at the edge of the American frontier with a region of the African continent which was undergoing the process of civilization. Reflected also among these materials is the impact which such interaction had upon Americans who went to spend their lives in the African mission fields, as well as the impact upon Africans themselves. See the published guide, "Preliminary Inventory of the Papers of Bishop John McKendree Springer" (issued by the General Commission on Archives and History, 1982) for individual series descriptions.

This collection consists of a lecture on United Brethren Church in Christ hymnology, a scrapbook and an autobiographical manuscript from Edmund S. Lorenz. The scrapbook consists of a collection of his verses to hymns; manuscripts of his published articles in The Religious Telescope and The Bible Teacher, and two addresses to the American Congress of Churches.

This collection consists of manuscripts, a diary, and some biographical information. The manuscripts are all handwritten, and most appear to have been written by Lyman Miller. They address various topics and issues, ranging from "Socialism" to "An Oyster Supper." The longest manuscript is that of a novella written by "Augustus Smith" relating the trials of his marriage to a highly educated wife. One of the manuscripts is a student paper by Bertie Miller.

The diary was written by Lyman Miller and consists of handwritten pages bound together with string. It related the events of his daily life from April through November, 1883.

The biographical material consists of several typewritten pages giving genealogical and other information about members of the Miller family.