Help Us Find the Missing Pieces

The Woolfolk Digital Preservation Lab and Bethlehem United Methodist Church are now carrying this work into a new generation.

But no laboratory can preserve what it never receives.

If you are a PVAMU alumnus, former employee, Waller County resident, Bethlehem member or descendant,

local church member,

or keeper of a family collection,

PLEASE look again at the boxes in your closet…

the photographs in your albums…

the programs inside old Bibles…

the VHS tapes, letters…

funeral programs, scrapbooks…

ANY documents that someone once decided were worth saving!

They may contain the missing name.

The missing photograph.

The missing chapter!

In 1978, Bethlehem’s own Homecoming Committee asked people with records and documents to share them so the church could “fill in all the missing periods.”

Nearly fifty years later, the invitation remains open.

Help the Woolfolk Digital Preservation Lab prevent the erasure of African American history. Help us preserve the evidence that says: we were here, we built this, we served, we remembered—and we left something for those who came next.

Opening the Archives

Opening the Archives: Bethlehem United Methodist Church Preserves More Than a Century of Community Memory

By Zha’Mauri Howard and T. DeWayne Moore

This old file cabinet contained the oldest church records in the collection dating from the 1910s [Photograph © T. DeWayne Moore 2026]

This week marked another important milestone in the preservation of African American history in Waller County.

Alongside my graduate student, Zha’Mauri Howard, and longtime church member Geneva Moore, we spent the day working inside Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Hempstead, Texas, organizing and assessing the church’s remarkable archival collection. We were also joined by Geneva’s daughter, Loretta Sanchez, making this a truly multigenerational day of historical discovery.

What we encountered exceeded our expectations.

For generations, Bethlehem United Methodist Church has carefully safeguarded its own history. Hidden inside cabinets, filing drawers, closets, and storage spaces were decades of church records waiting to tell their stories.

Among the materials we examined were:

historic photographs
anniversary and Homecoming programs
administrative records
membership materials
correspondence
church publications
handwritten notes
bound record books
and numerous unidentified historical documents dating across much of the twentieth century.

Every folder opened revealed another piece of the congregation’s remarkable history.

Geneva Moore and Loretta Sanchez digging through old file cabinets that contained church records from the 1960s and 1970s [Photograph © T. DeWayne Moore 2026]

Loretta Sanchez digging through an old file cabinet that contained church records from the 1910s and 1920s [Photograph © T. DeWayne Moore 2026]

One of the most rewarding moments came as Geneva Moore and longtime church members carefully examined photographs and documents together. Their conversations transformed unidentified faces into named individuals, anonymous events into remembered occasions, and ordinary papers into living history. Archival work is never simply about preserving documents—it is about preserving memory.

The collection also contains records that will help document Bethlehem’s evolution from the nineteenth century through the Civil Rights era and into the present. These materials will significantly strengthen the church’s ongoing historic preservation efforts and provide future researchers with an extraordinary resource for understanding African American religious life in Waller County.

Loretta Sanchez and Albert Garfield

(L to R) Zha’Mauri Howard, Geneva Moore, Albert Garfield, Loretta Sanchez, and Dr. DeWayne Moore [Photograph © T. DeWayne Moore 2026]

Our graduate student Zha’mauri Howard joined us throughout the visit, helping document the collection and learning firsthand how community archives are preserved through collaboration with descendant communities. Experiences like these demonstrate why hands-on public history training is so valuable. Students are not simply learning archival theory—they are participating in the preservation of history that matters deeply to living communities.

As Director of the Woolfolk Digital Preservation Lab at Prairie View A&M University, I am continually reminded that the most important archives are often still in the hands of the communities that created them. Rather than waiting for these records to arrive in a university repository, we can partner with churches, families, and local organizations to help preserve them where they remain most meaningful.

1976 Homecoming Program Cover

1986 Homecoming Program Cover

The photographs from this visit capture more than archival work. They document trust, collaboration, and shared stewardship. They show community members identifying photographs, examining decades-old records, exploring hidden storage cabinets filled with historical materials, and celebrating discoveries together.

This work represents the beginning—not the end—of Bethlehem’s archival preservation project. Over the coming months, the Woolfolk Digital Preservation Lab will continue working with the congregation to organize, preserve, digitize, and describe these materials while ensuring that the history of one of Hempstead’s most important African American institutions remains accessible for future generations.

History survives because people choose to preserve it.

At Bethlehem United Methodist Church, that work is well underway.

This handwritten financial ledger captures a meticulous snapshot of community contributions gathered on a single day in July 1920.

This meeting log dated January 10, 1932 records the names of individuals who came to BUMC

This project reflects the mission of the Woolfolk Digital Preservation Lab: partnering with communities to preserve African American history through archival stewardship, student training, and public history collaboration.

Hempstead (TX)