Through a Lens: Presbyterian higher education
Archival photos of Presbyterian-affiliated seminaries highlighted for Special Emphasis Day, Aug. 31
Presbyterian-founded colleges, universities, seminaries and other such institutions for higher learning abound across the nation, and across the past. These photos from the Presbyterian Historical Society's Higher education digital collection (which consists of more than 500 items!) offer a peak into the hallowed halls of a handful of seminaries across the globe.
Union Theological Seminary (New York) & Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (Pennsylvania)
Union Theological Seminary in New York is the oldest independent seminary in the country. Founded in 1836 by nine members of the Presbyterian Church in the USA (PCUSA), the institution is open to students of all denominations and has seen several prominent thinkers graduate from amongst its numbers. It was in 1893 that the university became fully independent, as it rescinded the right of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to veto faculty appointments. It houses one of the largest theological libraries in the world — Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary.
On a mid-October afternoon in 1949, the Rev. Clifford E. Barbour paid a visit to the New York campus and spoke to a group of students and faculty gathered in the Social Hall. Months earlier, in May 1949, Barbour was elected as Moderator of the 161st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the US (PCUS). He was the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church of Knoxville, Tennessee, where he served for more than 20 years.
When his term as Moderator ended in 1951, Barbour became president of Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. In 1959, this school merged with the Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church of North America to become Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. A similar merger had occurred the year before, when the Presbyterian and United Presbyterian denominations came together to form the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA). Barbour saw his seminary through both monumental moments before resigning in 1961. Three years later, in 1964, the seminary named its new library building after him — the Barbour Library.
Fiske Seminary (Urmia, Iran)
Fiske Seminary in Urmia bears the name of its beloved first mistress: Fidelia Fiske (1816-1864), an American educator and one of the first single female missionaries to serve in Persia.
Fiske arrived in Urmia in 1843 and promptly took over the girls school there — it had been organized five years earlier by the Presbyterian mission, but had lost its director in the interim years. It went from a mission school to a boarding school and seminary, which Fiske modeled after her alma mater, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in Massachusetts. When school was not in session, Fiske would travel into the mountains and rural areas to offer her skills as a nurse and educator. In spite of disease, political unrest, and the disapproval of the Persian government, Fiske's seminary in Urmia continued to flourish. After 15 years as a devoted and successful missionary among the Nestorians in Urmia, Fiske's health began to fail. Preparations for her return to the United States began accordingly, in 1857 — before she left, however, she called a prayer meeting of her former students, and 70 women arrived on campus eager to bid their beloved teacher farewell. It was upon her departure from the school that it was named after her.
Fiske returned to Massachusetts in 1858 with the hope of recovering, but was unfortunately never able to return to Iran before she died on August 9, 1864. Her school, however, continued to enroll and graduate students through the mid-20th century, as is evidenced in the photograph here, dated 1920.
Scotia Seminary, now Barber-Scotia College (Concord, North Carolina)
Today's Barber-Scotia College began as two different entities: Scotia Seminary in North Carolina, and Barber Memorial Seminary in Alabama. Scotia Seminary was founded by the Rev. Luke Dorland, who had been commissioned by the PC(USA) to create an institution dedicated to the education of Black women in the South. Scotia Seminary opened its doors in 1867.
In Anniston, Alabama, on a spring day in 1896, the cornerstone was laid for Barber Memorial Seminary: a school for Black children established by the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The Rev. George A. Marr, who read Scripture at the cornerstone ceremony, had purchased the 60 acres of land on behalf of his sister, Margaret (Marjorie) Barber of Philadelphia. Phineas Barber, a lumber dealer, passed in 1891, leaving his widow a large estate and directions to spend some of it on Presbyterian Church causes. Barber's widow did just as he asked, attaching his name to the school that was funded in his memory.
The 1930 merger saw Scotia Seminary in North Carolina become Barber-Scotia Junior College for women, while Barber Memorial Seminary kept its classrooms in Anniston and began enrolling male students in 1933 before closing permanently in 1940.
Barber-Scotia College continues to have a relationship with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a collaboration that has made it possible to carry out the mission of the school for more than 155 years: to produce creative, innovative and lifelong learners.
Browse the Higher education digital collection in Pearl for glimpses into other Presbyterian-affiliated seminaries, universities, and colleges across history.
Click here to learn more about Presbyterian Higher Education Sunday, Aug. 31.
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