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[This article is an edited version of a presentation that was originally given at the annual meeting of the American Theological Library Association in Kansas City, June 18, 2004. The full version, prepared by Stephen D. Crocco and Robert Benedetto, is published in the ATLA Proceedings (2004). This edited presentation, including the images used in this exhibition, is copyrighted by the author and by Princeton Theological Seminary and may not be used without permission.]
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Introduction
 When Carl McIntire died in March of 2002, an obituary was carried by the Associated Press and a few notices appeared in major newspapers, but his demise largely went unnoticed by the nation. Once a controversial figure in national politics and in Protestant and Presbyterian circles, the fiery minister was now largely forgotten. In his earlier years he was “a rabble-rouser of the first order...who kept a schedule and pace that would alarm any cardiologist.”
In addition to being a broadcaster, publisher, globetrotting conservative activist, and relentless fundraiser, he also was the president and chief recruiter of a seminary and college, he headed up national and international councils of churches, and he had his hands in missionary and relief work around the globe.1
And so his list of accomplishments is impressively long: Presbyterian minister and pastor to a 1,200-member congregation in Collingswood, New Jersey; founder of the Bible Presbyterian Church denomination and Faith Theological Seminary; founder and editor of the Christian Beacon newspaper and the Christian Beacon Press; founder and sometime president of the American Council of Christian Churches and the International Council of Christian Churches; and founder of the Twentieth Century Reformation Hour radio program, and affiliated organizations; author, Bible teacher, and pastor. At the height of McIntire's popularity during the mid-1960s, he was regularly heard on radio stations across the country.
While now forgotten by the American public, in smaller Protestant circles McIntire is still controversial, even in death. At his demise, Martin Marty of the University of Chicago called him “the most consistent fundamentalist of the 20 th century...Whatever he decided was the truth he followed to the very end, no matter how few friends or colleagues were left.”2 The conservative Christian Observer magazine noted that “only eternity will tell of the countless souls rescued from cults and the modernist churches due to the influence of this man.”3 Long after his empire was in ruins, his family and closest allies maintained that “He was willing to lose temporal things because of his beliefs.”4 Those beliefs, and the various organizations and institutions which grew from them, are documented in his massive collection of papers, one of the subjects of our McIntire presentation today. But before we look at the papers, let's peer a little further into the controversial life and career of Carl McIntire.
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1. Joel Belz, “This Fight's Over: Lessons From A Fiery Fundamentalist,” World-- Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 2002, p. 5. In Belz's opinion, McIntire's life “was the sad story of squandered talents and a wasted career.”
2. Kristin E. Holmes, “Carl McIntire, 95, Firebrand Pastor,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 21, 2002. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/obituaries/2904540.htm.
3. Morris McDonald quoted in “Presbyterian Landscape Changes Permanently Carl McIntire 1906-2002,” The Christian Observer, May 2002, p. 8.
4. Holmes, “Carl McIntire,” 2.
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