Thank you for your interest in the collections and research services of the American Baptist Historical Society (ABHS).
We invite you to explore our online catalog. This will save you time (and money, if you are making a research request). The catalog contains entries for our holdings of personal papers, missionary correspondence, congregational records, and more. Although most of our collections are not yet digitized, some catalog entries include digital images of items from the collections. This catalog is a work-in-progress, with new entries being added on a regular basis.
In-house research is BY APPOINTMENT ONLY; call us at 678-547-6680 or use the form on our Contact us page. Please schedule your research appointment before making travel plans.
Hours: M – Th, 10 – 4:30 (by appointment only). We are closed to researchers on Fridays. Please check our CALENDAR page for other dates we are closed.
See an interview with one of our researchers, Anthea Butler.
Our shelves hold unparalleled resources documenting the 19th-century missionary movement, African-American church associations, women’s work, and the social gospel movement. We publish Foundations, interpreting for modern readers the lives and issues of the past that shape who we are today.
Among our rarest materials are:
- An original printing of the London Confession of 1644, the first statement of Baptist principles
- Manuscript letters written by missionary pioneers Adoniram Judson, Ann Judson, Sarah Judson, and Emily Judson as well as their children
- African-American Baptist association minutes as early as 1829
- Official denominational minutes and publications for ethnic Baptists, including Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, German, Italian, and Slovakian immigrant congregations
- Official records of the Baptist World Alliance
- Letters of early missionaries Lott Carey and Luther Rice
For those who are looking for information in the Edward Starr Baptist Bibliography, it is on line through a collaboration with Baylor University. Here is a link to the Starr Baptist Bibliography.
