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Museum object · Slavery and Freedom Objects

A Semi-Centenary Discourse delivered in The First African Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, on the Fourth Sabbath of May, 1857: With a History of the Church from its First Organization, including a Brief Notice of Rev. John Gloucester, its First Pastor

1857

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America

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Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

This book contains the text of Reverend William T. Catto's sermon "A Semi-Centenary Discourse," and a history of the First African Presbyterian, the nation's first black Presbyterian church, founded in Philadelphia in 1807. The volume has 111 pages bound in black cloth and gilt lettering on the front cover. Inscriptions are handwritten in black ink and black crayon on the final interior page regarding former owners and givers of the book. The book also contains a biography of its founder, the formerly enslaved Reverend John Gloucester and an Appendix with information about other historically black churches in Philadelphia.

Sources & collection details

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — original record ↗

Source collection ↗

Catalog metadata · CC0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

Catalog reference: 2012.46.71

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