Mary Allen College records

Founded as a seminary in 1885, Mary Allen College in Crockett, Texas, was reorganized as a college for women by the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church, USA in 1886.  The college was named for one of its main supporters Mrs. Mary Allen of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1924, the Board of Missions for Freedmen changed teaching personnel from Caucasian to African American. In 1933, the institution became co-educational and in 1943 the Presbyterian Church stopped its sponsorship.  The property was sold to the General Missionary Baptist Convention of Texas in 1944. The college mission was the development of Christian leadership within the curriculum, which included degrees in education, business administration, secretarial science, and theology. The records consist of administrative correspondence, minutes, reports, financial records, student records, college publication and ephemera, and photographs.