Taiwan Presbyterian Church History Archive

Tainan Attractions

Exhibition venue (Tainan Theological College and Seminary, Kan Wei-Lin Hall)

Address：No. 360-25, Qingnian Road

Taiwan Presbyterian Church History Archive Introduction

Since the Dutch period, the footprints of foreign missionaries have been seen in Taiwan, not only spreading the Christian faith but also introducing languages and writing systems for documentation, becoming important historical materials for the subsequent study of indigenous languages and Dutch history. After a hiatus, missionaries returned to Taiwan in the late Qing Dynasty, promoting modern healthcare and education, and establishing a foundation for faith across various regions in Taiwan. Over the course of 400 years of Christian faith in Taiwan, the efforts of ancestors led to the gathering and collection of materials. In the 1950s, the "Historical Archive of the Southern Conference" was established at the site of the old Xinlou Hospital, marking the beginning of the collection of artifacts used by early missionaries, teaching tools, baptism documents, and more. After multiple relocations and the degradation of church historical materials over time, the "Historical Archives of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan" was established in 2019 at the original site of the Taiwan Church Press, aiming to be a foundation for written works, allowing more artifacts to be seen again through preservation and research, and to remain forever. The archive features two floors; the first floor mainly has a small exhibition area and a reading area, providing the public who wish to understand church history with access to the collection, while the second floor has a professional storage room with controlled temperature and humidity for preserving artifacts in poorer condition. In addition to providing historical document examinations, record compilation, artifact preservation, and census research, it also offers retrieval services to encourage more churches to recognize the beauty of history and literature, promoting preservation and research. Among the historical documents in the archive are collections of baptism records, meeting minutes, commemorative publications, letter manuscripts, ancient texts in Han, Romanization, and English and Japanese, rare Bibles and hymnals, contracts, maps, photographs, and personal profiles that document the evolution of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the development of various local churches. It is also hoped to provide comprehensive and sufficient historical data for researchers to conduct in-depth academic studies. These all reflect the footprints of missionary activities throughout Taiwan, the development of faith, and the concern for Taiwanese society.