 The history of the collection begins in 1830 when the South Carolina Baptist Convention asked Furman University, at the time known as the Furman Academy and Theological Institution, to create an archives for Furman records and denominational resources.The academy's fledgling library, just four years old, contained only a few donations and professors' personal collections.Over the next sixty years, the library grew and its collection of Baptist materials was formally organized into the Baptist Historical Collection.