William H. Armstrong papers

Reverend William H. Armstrong served as minister for the Calvary United Church of Christ, a racially-integrated inner city church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later for the Burton Congregational Church in Burton, Ohio. In addition to his church service, he pursues historical research and writing as a hobby. Armstrong also served as the Director of the U.S. Peace Corps in Swaziland, Africa, from 1966-1968.

Armstrong's papers document his activities as minister to Calvary United Church of Christ and contains handwritten and typescript sermons, correspondence, and reports. Additional documentation concerns the Philadelphia Cooperative Ministry, a group of four inner city churches supported by the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries (UCBHM), including Calvary United Church of Christ; this series consists of correspondence, reports, speeches, lectures, and minutes of the Adminsitrative Committee of the Cooperative Ministry. Lasltly, Armstrong's research and writing activites are represented within the collection with the bulk of this section consisting of photocopies of documents collected from various archives, libraries, and historical societies.

Of note are typescript manuscript drafts of his books, Gerty's Papa's Civil War and A Friend to God's Poor: Edward Parmelee Smith. Armstrong was an Edward Parmelee Smith Fellow under a fund established by Ruth Crawford Mitchell, granddaughter of Smith, who was an American Missionary Association official and U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The book manuscripts were completed by Armstrong under the program. In addition to Armstrongs manuscripts drafts the papers contain newspaper clippings of reviews of his books and an interview with Armstrong from a Burton, Ohio, newspaper entitled "The Geauga County Maple Leaf" is also included.