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Moravian Archives, Winston-Salem, NC

since 1753, documenting
our churches, our families, our communities

  • About
    • Our Mission, Our Witness
    • Our History, Governing Commission, and Staff
    • The Archie K. Davis Center
    • Brochures, Forms, Flyers
    • Work Study and Internships with Us
  • Our Churches
    • The Moravian Church, Then and Now
    • Southern Province and Salem Congregation
    • The Wachovia Moravian
    • Our Local Churches and Fellowships
    • For Churches and Church Agencies Adding Records
    • Moravian Archives Sunday
  • Family History
    • Our Memoir Collection
    • Reading Room Computer Resources
    • The Genealogy Bookshelves
    • Family History Docent Program
  • Research
    • Searching our Collections
    • Selected Moravian Bibliography
    • Research Studies Sampler
    • Research Policies and Application Form
    • Helpful Links
    • Moravian Studies Collaborative
  • Services
    • Free Services For All Guests
    • Image Reproduction Services
    • Permissions For Use
    • Remote Ordering of Memoirs
    • Staff Research on Your Topic
  • Products
    • Book Series: Records of the Moravians in North Carolina
    • Book Series: Records of the Moravians Among the Cherokees
    • Bookstore & More: Items For Sale
    • Exhibits
      • The Languages of Flowers in Moravian Wachovia
      • The Botanizers of Salem, 1785-1835
    • Lunchtime Lectures
    • Archives Monthly E-newsletter
  • Supporters
    • Ways to Donate and Support
    • Rev. Dr. C. Daniel Crews Friends Fund – Annual Budget
    • Technology Fund – Computers and Software
    • Book Fund – Collection Maintenance
    • Endowment Fund – Long-Term Reserves
    • Sustainers – Planned Giving
    • Collectors – Gifts in Kind
    • Volunteers – Working Alongside Us
    • Annotations, Our Supporters Newsletter
  • Find Us
    • Contact and Visit Information
    • Site Map

Our History, Governing Commission, and Staff

The Archives House, 1948

Ten individuals have served as official Archivist for the Southern Province, beginning with Adelaide L. Fries in 1911. The position was an unpaid post, funded for expenses only, until 1985. Archive materials were kept in a Liberty Street warehouse in the early twentieth century until being moved to the former Vorsteher’s House at Bank and Main Streets in 1942. In 2001 the Archives moved into its present home in the Archie K. Davis Center.

Our Archives stores items dating from 1753 and was first mentioned in Church records in 1762. It houses an estimated one million pages of documents. Those documents, including over 15,000 pages in manuscript German, catalog not just the Church and religious life, but reflect the total community in which the Church took root in Piedmont North Carolina. Our collections include the records of industrial, commercial, civic, ecclesiastical, educational, medical, and musical institutions. We also preserve personal diaries and correspondence, ethnographic materials, prints, broadsides, photographs, and maps. We maintain a research library of 1,600 titles, many from the eighteenth century.

The Archives serves, on site and remotely, more than 500 users a year. We assist in over one hundred genealogical inquires annually, and provide research guidance to various academic and graduate degree studies. We have fostered numerous doctoral dissertations and masters theses over the years. We also publish our own books and monographs on the history of the Church community.

Former Archivist C. Daniel Crews and Moravian Music Foundation Director Nola Reed Knouse inspecting the 2012 acquisition of a 1615 Unity of the Brethren Czech hymnal, one of only three known copies in the United States

Archivists
Adelaide L. Fries 1911-1949
Douglas L. Rights 1949-1956
Edwin A. Sawyer 1957-1957
Grace L. Siewers 1957-1966
Geraldine B. Eggleston 1966-1970
Mary Creech 1970-1984
Thomas J. Haupert 1985-1991
C. Daniel Crews 1991-2014
Richard W. Starbuck 2014-2017
J. Eric Elliott 2017-2020

Archives Commission
The Commission, with half of its members appointed by the Southern Province’s Provincial Elders Conference and half by the Salem Congregation churches, meets quarterly. Its members are from local Moravian Churches. Its responsibilities include developing and following bylaws such that the mission of the Archives, the acquisition, and preservation of church records, is fulfilled; and ensuring sufficient resources to meet this constitutional mandate.

Toni Bigham, New Philadelphia
Peggy Carter, Fries Memorial
Heather Fearnbach, Home
Rev. John Jackman, Trinity
Paul Knouse, Home
Karl Kapp, Home
Kirk Sanders, Home (chair)
Madi White, Trinity

Staff

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Support our Annual Giving – Rev. Dr. C. Daniel Crews Friends Fund

Give to our Technology Fund

Monies will purchase new computers and software allowing the Archives to better access and share its holdings. We have reached our initial goal, but will still accept donations. More info here.




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Visiting Us

Parking is in the northwest corner of the lot at the western end of SR 4326 (Rams Drive) off Salem Avenue. The same street serves as entry to the Elbertson Fine Arts Center at Salem College.  We are currently open by appointment only. Our hours are Mondays-Friday (excepting holidays), 9:30am – noon, 1;30-4:30pm. We invite you to contact us to plan your visit.

Contact Us

Moravian Archives
457 S. Church Street
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101

Phone: (336) 722-1742
Email: sparchives@mcsp.org

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