The Nazarene Archives in Kansas City, Missouri

One of the joys of archival research is uncovering the occasional gem of information. That letter, or maybe just a few lines within a note, that confirms the validity of your project and lets you utter a brief exclamation (in hushed tones of course) of victory before carrying on. The Nazarene Archives in Kansas City, Missouri elicited such a reaction from me: the thrill of discovery writ large. Here I found an extraordinary amount of information well preserved and organized, with an exceptional staff eager to assist, which has lain largely untapped by African historians. While at first blush it may seem unlikely that this material could hold interest for any outside of those researching into some aspect of Nazarene history, the material cuts across enough geographical/cultural/political trends in African history to make it potentially useful to many more researches then have accessed it to date

Archaeology · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Victory · Writ · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · Race, History, and American Society