The Historical Society of Frankford, 1507 Orthodox St., is hosting Carol W. Smith, the archivist for both Christ Church and its Preservation Trust, at its meeting and lecture on Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. She will demonstrate the Digitizing Philadelphia’s Historic Congregations website, and discuss individual records found during the project.
The Digitizing the Records of Philadelphia’s Historic Congregations project demonstrates that dissension, political unrest and social reform initiatives are not without past precedent. Vestry minutes, sacramental registers, account books, sermons and more from Philadelphia’s earliest congregations help interpret the social and political world that Philadelphia’s 18th and 19th century worshippers at 17 congregations inhabited. A grant from CLIR, the Council for Library and Information Resources, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, supported this multi-year project. Supplemental funds from other sources and harvesting of previously scanned materials brought in other records and today there are more than 141,000 records online.
Smith is an independent curator and certified archivist who has worked with the Christ Church Archives since 2005. She has a B.A. in American Civilization and an M.A. in Material Culture from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2022 she received the Sister M. Claude Lane award from the Society of American Archivists for the Congregations project.
The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Parking will be available across the street at Frankford Friends School. ••
