Collections : [Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary]

This series contains sheet music from congregations Porter performed in with handwritten score notes, and materials related to professional activities including lectures, workshops, and Pilgrim Hymn correspondence.

This series contains writings by and about Bird and writings by and about others. The former includes unbound galley proof copies of Hymns for the Use of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and Songs of the Spirit, as well as some of his newspaper publications. The latter includes samples of publications and research into the work of other scholars and practitioners of hymns. There are also many clippings from newspapers and hymnals, some of which have been annotated.

This series contains correspondence sent to Bird over the course of his career. Many of his correspondents are other clergymen involved in the study and publication of hymns. Topics common to the correspondence include establishing a hymn's authentic text or identifying its author, as well as the buying, selling, and trading of hymnbooks.

This series contains surrogate photocopies that were created in 1999. The series includes duplicates of some diaries and correspondence. Also available are copies of materials whose originals have been noted missing since before January 2004. The surrogates are organized so that the copies of the missing materials are available in box five, with the diaries and correspondence in the remaining boxes and organized in the same order as the originals. The Greek manuscript in box 5 folder 6 is a hymn composed for the baptism of Lorenzo's daughter, Harriet Maria, incorporating scripture from Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is written in the nineteenth-century Katharevousa Greek which was first used circa 1796.

This series contains handwritten sermons, which are mostly numbered and include emendations and related notes. Most of the sermons have notations written on the verso of the first page that appear to indicate locations and dates of their preaching. Box 3, folder 8 contains a volume with "Skeletons" printed on the cover and chiefly contains numbered expository lectures on Christ's acts. Box 3, folders 9-11 contain typed lecture notes and hymns that were originally held in a single, three-ring binder.

This series contains, in Folder 1, two copies (one clothbound) of the program for the inaugural services of Hastings as professor of sacred rhetoric on September 22, 1881. Folder 2 contains a program for the memorial service held in Hastings' honor on April 28, 1911. Folder 3 contains a travel diary describing a European tour in 1903. Folder 4 contains two photographs: one in which Hastings appears with eleven other men and which may have been taken at Hamilton College and a second that depicts the Eills family and may have been sent to Hastings in celebration of the New Year. Folder 5 contains an additional travel diary describing a European tour in 1883; however, given certain qualities of the diary, such as certain terms employed, the youthful tone of the writing, and devotion to describing works of art and architecture encountered in detail, it appears that it is likely to have been written by Hastings' son, the architect Thomas Hastings (1860-1929). Folder 6 contains a diary of Hastings' father, Thomas Hastings (1784-1872). The volume includes handwritten verse and what appear to be notes regarding hymns, as well as journal entries beginning in 1845.