The Monuments Men was a shortened title for the men and women of the Monuments, Fine Art, and Archives Section of the Allied forces in World War II. Their mission was to preserve or recover important works that were being stolen or destroyed by the Nazis.

Reformed Presbyterians have a legacy that reaches across continents and over centuries, and many tangible reminders of history have been lost to time and tempest. For decades, Rev. Ralph Joseph and Elder John Mitchell have sought to preserve yesterday’s history for the generations of tomorrow.

—Editor

RP Witness: What materials qualify to go in the RP archives?

Ralph Joseph: We have ministers’ files from the past. We have missionaries’ things, and we have historical documents from way back, including the predecessors of the RP Witness. Basically, anything that is part of RP history qualifies.

RP Witness: That would be a lot of material. What are some things that you wouldn’t keep?

Ralph: We don’t throw out much. Things that belong to non-RP churches we don’t keep, generally speaking.

John Mitchell: As a general policy, we don’t throw things away, because someday someone will be looking for it. Probably. The agenda is to try to organize and to list the inventory of what we have.

Ralph: John has done most of the inventory. My job has been primarily to run the computer. My computer has files for Synod and presbyteries and a variety of other things.

RP Witness: What are some of the most interesting or unusual things in the archives, in your opinion?

Ralph: It’s hard to tell what’s unusual. We have a lot of pictures, not necessarily identified. We would like to think that people identify their pictures that they send us, but that’s not always the case. We have some framed pictures that are probably more or less unusual.

John: We have things that are written in other languages—Arabic, for example.

Ralph: We have a couple of non-English typewriters. One of them is Hebrew.

RP Witness: What would you like to have in the archives but don’t have?

John: Space! [laughs]

Ralph: Space is a big thing. We’ve talked about the question of space and whether to add shelving, but there’s not a whole lot of room to add more shelving. We’ve done some talking about moving the archives to another building. That’s going to be a big job.

RP Witness: Are there things that you would like to come into the archives that you don’t have?

Ralph: Some of the minutes of presbyteries we do not have. The ones that are more or less recent. I say “more or less” because that might be 20 years ago.

John: We have the old stuff.

Ralph: We pretty much have the minutes of congregations that no longer exist.

RP Witness: How did you get started working with the archives?

John: I happened to be at the seminary, standing in the lobby, while an event was going on. Dr. David Carson came out and we began talking. At that time, he was chairman of the Church History Committee. He said, “John, would you like to see the church history room?” I said, “Of course, I would.” He took me upstairs, and it was one big mess. Anything that came in was just shoved into the room. After that, we made arrangements to meet. David would drive from Beaver Falls, Pa., leave his car in Cranberry, and the two of us would come here and work in the archive room.

Ralph: I retired from the pastorate in 2005. John knew I had an interest in history, so he asked me if I’d like to work in the archives. I started in fall 2005 and have been working there ever since, till the end of this last year.

John: It’s addictive.

RP Witness: Why is it addictive?

John: Because it’s so interesting.

Ralph: Our problem sometimes has been that we get started looking at something and we just sit there talking about it. Or somebody comes in and we drop everything that we might be doing and meet their needs and talk. We’re pretty good at talking.

RP Witness: Speaking of that, John, what’s good about working with Ralph?

John: He’s really knowledgeable. He does a lot of work on his computer, and he works with a very special, expensive machine that copies minute books.

RP Witness: Ralph, what’s good about working with John?

Ralph: John is the organizer. He puts things together. The numbering system is his numbering system. John has the system down pat as far as filing things. I do a fair amount of scanning, and we can scan books. It’s a little hard to scan those minute books that are long instead of 8.5” x 11”, but we do. They’re there for posterity, and they’re there for research. David Whitla, professor of church history, is wanting to use the archives more and more.

RP Witness: That brings up another point. The archives aren’t just available at the seminary, but some of them are available on the internet to everybody.

Ralph: On the internet, we have almost all, if not all, the older predecessors to the RP Witness.

John: We have all the periodicals on. The archives, both online and in person, were available to authors of recent books. For example, Faith Martin wrote a book about the Cache Creek mission: The White Chief of Cache Creek. Bob Copeland was another author who used the archives, in A Candle Against the Dark. Bill Edgar was another one, when he wrote his two volumes of History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. We worked with all those authors.

RP Witness: You two have a thorough perspective of RP history. How does that help you think about the present-day RP Church? What do you have to offer because you know such a bigger swath of history than someone who’s newer to the denomination?

Ralph: Most commonly, we receive requests for information from people that have been in the church for a while or are seminary students taking church history course that want to know something of what’s going on. But sometimes, for example, not too long ago, we had a fellow who is serving the Lord in, I think, a mission church in Asia, and he was interested in knowing about J. G. Vos. That’s the unusual type of request. We do sometimes have people who want to know something about the church. Usually, it’s about one particular person or issue.

RP Witness: Is there something you’d like to say about the archives that you haven’t yet had a chance to say?

John: Both Ralph and I are getting older. There needs to be somebody to take over the reins. It’s gratifying when somebody asks for some information and we’re able to supply it, whether it’s family history, church history, or congregational history.

The Next Era for the Archives

The Church History Committee of Synod (CHC) is tasked with raising awareness of the church’s past and maintaining her material records in the RP Archive. The CHC, along with the current archivist, desires for a greater familiarity within the RPCNA of our history, to the glory of God. May we say, like David, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds” (Psalm 9:1, ESV).

Currently, the RP Archive is served by one archivist, Josh Meneely, who worked alongside veteran volunteer archivists John and Ralph before their retirement, learning their organizational system and the locations of materials within the archive. Josh, who also volunteered with John and Ralph for a summer during his undergraduate studies, was impressed with their dedication in working in the archive, and their “fantastic job organizing” within the limited space available to them.

The archive is regularly used by different researchers, including RPTS students working on research papers for their class on RP Church History, where original research in the archives is strongly encouraged by church history professor David Whitla.

Josh is nearing an end goal of having the archive fully inventoried, so that RP archive materials can be cataloged alongside the other books and materials in the RPTS Library. New and unique materials are regularly donated to the archive—one notable recent donation was received from a retired RPCNA chaplain which even included his chaplains’ uniform.

Due to the size limitations of the current RP Archive room, along with the considerable expansion of the seminary’s ministry in recent years, plans are in process for the relocation of the entire archive to a more commodious location on the RPTS campus. Prayers would be appreciated for this upcoming transition.

— Allen Blackwood