Posted July 25, 2024 in Digital Access
In our previous post we looked at the ongoing digitization of a series of 19th-century letter books recording correspondence from presidents of the Provincial Elders Conference (PEC), so this is a good opportunity to look at another project we have been working on concurrently: the digitization of a series of books containing handwritten minutes from meetings of the PEC’s predecessor, the Provincial Helpers’ Conference (PHC).
The roots of the Provincial Helpers’ Conference can be traced to 1763 and the reorganization of the Moravian Church after the death of Count Zinzendorf. Previously, the activities of the Moravian Church in North America were under the authority of the Bethlehem Elders’ Conference, which also managed the community itself. After the reorganization, this work was placed under a new board called the Oeconomatsconferenz or “economy conference,” which in 1769 was renamed to the Provinzialhelferconferenz, or “Provincial Helpers’ Conference,” and in 1851 was superseded by the Provincial Elders’ Conference.
Minutes of the Provincial Helpers’ Conference, 1782-1785 [here 11 April 1783], pp. 69-70, | PHC vol. 3, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem
The specific volumes we are currently digitizing contain the minutes of PHC meetings from 1768 through 1838 and are handwritten in German. Above you can see a two page spread from a meeting on April 11, 1783. The ♀ symbol to the left of the date indicates that it was a Friday¹, while the left margin features a list of the members of the PHC who were present, specifically Johannes Ettwein, Francis Hübner, David Zeisberger², Paul Münster, Jeremiah Dencke, and Hans Christian Alexander von Schweiniz. Topics discussed during the meeting included selecting personnel to visit Native American missions in western Pennsylvania, approving the request of a Br. Schaefer to move into a particular Nazareth building as part of his trade, and taking up collections for building projects and the support of several Moravians in financial need. This same day also saw important meetings on a national scale, as it was on that date that the Continental Congress issued a proclamation ending the armed conflict with Great Britain, marking the end of the Revolutionary War.
In contrast to the PEC letter books discussed in the previous post, where the fragility and translucency of the paper results in an unusually challenging digitization process, these PHC minute books are standard bound volumes, and the scanning process is more in line with many of our other digitization projects. However, most of the volumes have damaged bindings and fragile pages and this, together with the high research value of the contents, resulted in their selection for digitization at this time. We look forward to making these interesting materials available through our online finding aid once the digitization and processing is completed.
¹ More specifically it is the astronomical symbol for Venus, as the word Friday means “Day of Frig”, referencing a goddess in Norse and Germanic mythology who was often associated with the Roman goddess Venus.
² This is a different David Zeisberger than the well-known missionary, who was in Michigan at the time.
Top image: Minutes of the Provincial Helpers’ Conference, 1782-1785 | PHC vol. 3, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem