This collection documents the history of Plymouth Church, located on Milwaukee's East Side,
from its founding in 1841 to the present. The collection is arranged into two series:
Manuscript Material and Audio/Visual Material.
This series contains records documenting church administration; members and the
membership process; and Plymouth Church pastors and deacons. Also included in this series
are sermons, publications, photographs, and information about the church's radio programs
and lecture series.
Administrative records include correspondence; constitutions and by-laws; annual reports;
meeting minutes of various boards, councils and committees, including the Board of
Deacons, Board of Christian Education, Board of Trustees, the Church Council, the Joint
Board, and the Renovation Committee; financial records, including fund drives; and
remodeling and expansion plans.
Membership materials include applications, letters of transfer and dismission,
directories, as well as Membership Task Force and Membership Committee materials. Pew
books from the 1880s are also found in the collection.
The collection also contains biographical information about, correspondence from, and
sermons given by the church's pastors. Pastor Paul Flucke's research materials for his
history of Plymouth Church, Plymouth: A Church and Its
World, and a manuscript copy of his work, are also included in the
collection.
The collection contains a variety of publications relating to the church, including
newsletters, theses, and pamphlets about the history of Plymouth Church and some of its
members. Church publications include Plymouth Rock
(1885-1896), Plymouth Church News (1961-1981), Plymouth News (1981-1997, 2005-2008), and Plymouth Bulletin (1914-2001).
Photographs in the collection include images of members, pastors, church school classes,
church celebrations, anniversaries, and various church buildings. Other materials in the
collection document activities and events, such as anniversary celebrations, conferences,
retreats, Habitat for Humanity work, and political activism. Also included are records
relating to church clubs and associations, such as the Women's Guild (1927-1992), Men's
Club (1957-1972), Business Women's Club (1941-1962), Colony Club (1950-1969), Young
People's Society (1902-1909), the Eastside Inter-Church Association (1970-1979), and the
Sunday Evening Club (1894-1897).
The Audio/Visual Material series contains material recorded on audio cassettes and reels,
as well as videocassettes recordings and film.
Included in this series are sermons (1981-1984), and oral histories of congregation
members (1986-1988), as well as recordings from the Plymouth
Agora lecture series (1989-1996), which include lectures on current social
issues, like welfare reform, education, and racial inequality, by Milwaukee civic leaders
such as Dr. Howard Fuller, State Representative Tom Barrett, and Milwaukee Mayor John
Norquist.
