On July 25, 2016, REA President Harold “Bud” Horell brought three doctoral students and one recent graduate of Fordham University Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education to spend an entire day preparing historical materials to be added to the REA and APRRE archives at Yale Divinity School. The Divinity School library is home to all the historical materials for the Religious Education Association since its inception in 1903, as curated by long-time secretary and archivist Barney Kathan. In addition, Barney has curated and archived with the Divinity librarians all of the records of the Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education and the National Council on Religion and Public Education.
Last Monday, Chuck Chesnavage, Fred Abi-Hasoon, Michelle Smith, Bud Horell, and Caroline Cunningham worked on the few remaining boxes of pre-2004 materials that emerged after Barney completed his work and began to organize the next decade to be archived (2004-2013). Barney prepared comprehensive Guides to all of these archives, and you can find links to each on the REA History page. Watch for more information about the amazing things housed in our archives as we lead up to the 2018 Annual Meeting to be held at Yale–when you will be able to examine them for yourselves!