This portal contains ten sermons from England and America from the eighteenth century, ranging from 1727 to 1795. Each sermon contains a title page with the preacher and location, along with the occasion of the sermon. Some of the sermons come from known names, such as Isaac Watts and Philip Doddridge, while others are only known by their works.

Research Questions
How were sermons used outside of the Sunday worship (e.g., after a natural disaster, at ordination, after victory in conflict)?

How does the congregation or place in time impact the message of the text?

How does the sermon presented here compliment, supplement, or contradict other sermons by the same author?

Explore the purpose of the text: was it edification, celebration, warning, prophesy, etc.

How does the location where the sermon was preached (wooden, stone, cold or hot) impact the sermon and its reception?

Activity: Biographical Resumé
Have students use some resources below to create a resume for the author of a related preacher. Highlights may include other found sermons, employment at churches, education, or other skills. The resume could be in a tradition format using a word processor or use images and visualization like that available at visme.co. Inspiration for fonts and layout should come from the primary source sermon in the portal.

Activity: Publication History
With a primary source, such as a printed sermon, just as much history can be learned from the printing of the object as the words on the page. Have students read Financing the Publication of Early New England Sermons by Rollo Silver. The article explores the history of the printed sermon, along with complications of knowing who paid for the printing and where it was printed. After reading the sermon, have students explore one sermon’s printing history. In a short report, explore questions such as: who wanted it printed (preacher, listeners, publisher), who paid for the printing, and how was it then distributed to the public.

Activity: Hymns Supporting the Sermon
Begin by assigning each student one sermon, centered around the text shown on the first page. While reading, student should focus on finding two or three primary themes from the text. After reading the text and finding themes, students should visit Hymnary.org to find three hymns that could accompany the sermon. Hymnary can be searched by the biblical text, themes, or any other phrases from the sermon. After searching in multiple ways, students should select three hymns to compliment the sermon. The hymns can then be written about with some description of how the hymns relate to the sermon.

Gale Primary Sources: Eighteenth Century Collections Online
 A vast eighteenth-century library of a fully text-searchable corpus of books, pamphlets and broadsides in all subjects printed between 1701 and 1800. It currently contains over 180,000 titles amounting to over 32 million fully-searchable pages.

Readex AllSearch: American Imprints & American Sermons
Centuries of searchable American primary sources: books, pamphlets, newspapers, government documents, and more.

American National Biography
Coverage of historical persons with national stature in the United States. Especially helpful for researching preachers of national historical standing like Jonathan Edwards, Dwight L. Moody, Martin Luther King Jr.

America: History and Life
The definitive index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Indexing hundreds of journals with full-text linking.

ATLA Religion Database with ATLA Serials
Indexes comprehensively scholarly and non-scholarly journals in religion and theology. One of the oldest continuing indexes of religious journal literature, its retrospective journal coverage goes back as far as 1949 and in some cases to the 19th century.

Text Data Mining & Sermons Guide
Library guide with text data mining resources, examples, directions for expanding digital humanities projects centered around the preached word.