Use Restrictions

Materials created prior to 1925 are in the Public Domain. These materials have no known restrictions.

The copyright and related rights status of materials created after 1925 have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Phil Teigen North American churches postcard collection, C0317, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Phil Teigen in September 2018.

Additional materials donated by Phil Teigen in July 2019.

Processing Information

Processing completed by Elizabeth Beckman in October 2018. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in October 2018. Additional processing completed and finding aid updated by Meghan Glasbrenner from April-May 2025.

Biographical and Historical Information

Philip M. Teigen (b. 1941) is a trained historian of science and medicine, having received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1976, and spent his professional life working as a historian at McGill University in Montréal, Canada and the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. Additionally, he completed many projects surrounding the history of religious congregations, primarily Lutheran, in both Washington, D.C. and throughout North America, including identifying and researching the history of thirty-three Lutheran congregations in the District and photographing forty-fifty buildings that represent current or past Lutheran congregations.

Immigrants from Europe and Asia brought a wide variety of Christian beliefs to North America. As Peter Williams notes, "The pluralism of America's religious experience is a given from the beginnings, first for the colonial settlements in aggregate, then later in virtually every town, city, and state" ("Houses of God", xii). He goes on to describe how these many religious groups impacted the built environment as they came "in succeeding waves of immigration, each bringing with them and/or adapting for their own purposes a wide variety of types of houses of worship and other sacred sites and structures" ("Houses of God," xii). This diversity of religious architecture is reflected in material commemorative culture, including through postcards.

Scope and Content

This collection contains postcards from churches of many denominations across the United States and Canada. The postcards date from 1904-2010, although many are undated. The processor included undated in the date range for a series or box if it seemed likely that some of the postcards in the group date from outside the given range. More than half of the postcards depict Lutheran churches; there are also many postcards of Roman Catholic churches and Episcopal churches, as well as other Christian denominations. Many of the postcards contained mailed correspondence on the back from a mix of senders and recipients, but the number and location of these has not been noted in the finding aid. The postcards are organized by denomination and alphabetically by state (sometimes city), as well as whether they depict church interiors or exteriors. The collections contains five series.

Series 1: Lutheran churches, 1904-2010 (Boxes 1-7) includes postcards of Lutheran churches from the United States and Canada. It is divided into two subseries. Sub-series 1: Lutheran church exteriors and Sub-series 2: Lutheran church interiors.

Series 2: Roman Catholic churches, 1907-1995 (Boxes 8-10) includes postcards of Roman Catholic churches across the United States and Canada.

Series 3: Episcopal churches, 1908-1983, undated (Boxes 10-11) includes postcards of Episcopal churches across the United States and Canada.

Series 4: Other denominations, 1908-2000 (Boxes 11-12) is the smallest series, and includes postcards of a variety of churches, including Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Orthodox, and other denominations, as well as non-denominational.

Series 5: Additional postcards, circa 1910s-2000s (Box 13) includes additional postcards donated in 2019. Dates for postcards in this series were determined based on stamps where possible and were otherwise estimated based on style and design. It is divided into four subseries. Sub-series 1: Additional Lutheran churches (circa 1910s-2000s) includes postcards depicting both exterior and interior images of Lutheran churches. Postcards are arranged by size and then alphabetically by state, with oversized items at the end. One postcard depicts a church in Ontario, Canada which has been placed at the end of the state arrangement before the oversized. Sub-series 2: Additional Roman Catholic churches (circa 1950s-2000s) includes postcards depicting both exterior and interior images of Roman Catholic churches. Postcards are arranged by size and then alphabetically by state, with oversized items at the end. Sub-series 3: Additional Episcopal churches (circa 1950s-1980s) includes postcards depicting both exterior and interior images of Episcopal churches. Postcards are arranged alphabetically by state. Sub-series 4: Additional other denominations (circa 1950s-1990s) includes postcards depicting both exterior and interior images of churches for a variety of other denominations and uses. Postcards are arranged alphabetically by use or denomination and then alphabetically by state.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into five series by denomination and then chronologially.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center holds other postcard collections, including the Gustav Klemp World War I collection , Randolph Lytton historic Washington, D.C. postcards and photographs collection , and Lavinia Scott papers .

The DC History Center holds the Philip Teigen papers , which includes Teigen's decade-long research on the Lutheran churches of Washington, D.C., along with original photographs of local Lutheran churches.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Anglican church buildings
• Catholic church buildings
• Church buildings
• Correspondence
• Lutheran church buildings
• Postcards