Baptist Collection

In addition to published annual reports, the Baptist Collection includes a group of early letters and documents relating to the Baptist Church in Michigan and the early years of the college. The guide to this part of the collection, A Calendar of the Baptist Collection of Kalamazoo College, was published in 1940 by the Michigan Historical Records Survey Project. It gives an annotated description of all the documents then included in the collection. Unfortunately, some of these documents are now lost, while others have been added.

The papers of two important nineteenth century Michigan Baptist leaders are an important intellectual part of the Baptist Collection. the collection includes sermons of E.J. Fish, a Baptist minister, and three-time president of the Michigan Baptist Convention, and for many years a trustee of Kalamazoo College. The Archives also holds the papers of T.Z.R. Jones, Baptist missionary in Michigan from 1835 to 1876 and financial agent for both the Michigan Baptist State Convention and Kalamazoo College. There are sermons, college and Convention correspondence, personal correspondence, ledgers and record books in this record group.

For more information about the Kalamazoo College Archives, visit the Archives website.