#  Thanksgiving Day Sermons Available Online 

 





November 15, 2006

 

 

A collection of 490 nineteenth-century American Thanksgiving Day sermons has been digitized and is available online.

These sermons reveal the interesting intersection of Christian reflection on what is a secular or civic holiday. Thanksgiving was made a national holiday by proclamation of Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Before 1863, however, many local politicians proclaimed similar holidays. These commentaries by church leaders provide a unique perspective on church-state relations during a formative time in American history.

This collection is the result of a collaboration among the three libraries that contributed sermons to this project: Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Pitts Theology Library of Emory University, and the Speer Library at Princeton Theological Seminary. The project was funded by a grant from the Cooperative Digital Resource Initiative (CDRI) of the American Theological Library Association.

These sermons can be found in the [CDRI database](http://www.atla.com/digitalresources/results.asp?pagenumber=1&cl1=THNKSSMN&keyword=&title=&description=&subject=) (along with many other types of digitized materials).