The Christoph Keller, Jr. Library
The Keller Library building and collections are currently closed.
Students, faculty, and staff of GTS will receive continuing library support through the GTS affiliation with Virginia Theological Seminary. GTS students and faculty can access digital resources through the Bishop Payne Library catalog page: https://library.vts.edu/ . When prompted for a login, please use the library barcode that was sent to you via email from the VTS library. Questions? Contact librarians at library@gts.edu or https://library.vts.edu/ask-librarian.
GTS alumni and other researchers may also use https://library.vts.edu/ask-librarian for library inquiries.
Christoph Keller, Jr. Library at General Seminary
In 1820, John Pintard, an early New York civic leader, found “the only set of the Fathers now for sale in America” and raised $330 from his friends to donate the set to the fledgling General Theological Seminary, “to form the proud commencement of a Library.”
The Christoph Keller, Jr. Library
is pleased to Announce access to ATLAS for All GTS alumni/ae
AtlaSerials, Religion Collection is compiled by the American Theological Library Association.
Journals are selected for inclusion according to their scholarly merit and scope.
The EBSCO subscription provides online access to full-text articles starting from 1949, and retrospective indexing for several journal issues as far back as the nineteenth century.
This database requires a login name and password to use.
GTS alumni/ae who wish to utilize this resource, send a message to library@gts.edu, requesting access information. Please include your class year or years of attendance.
History and Design
The Library of the General Theological Seminary was known as the St. Mark's Library from the 1960s to 2011, when the library moved into a beautiful new facility on the former site of Sherrill Hall.
In October 2011, the building was dedicated as the Christoph Keller, Jr. Library, to honor the Rt. Rev. Christoph Keller, Jr., alumnus of the Class of 1956, who served as the tenth Bishop of Arkansas from 1970 to 1981.
The library was designed by Beyer Blinder Belle with floor-to-ceiling windows in the reading room, providing sweeping views of the Seminary's Chapel and gardens. The reading room features formal and informal study space. On the lower level, collections are efficiently housed yet readily accessible and carrels allow for focused study. Group study rooms are equipped for interactive learning, and the lounge and lobby provide break-out space for conversation and coffee.
Special Collections and Archives*
The library's special collections consist of over 30,000 volumes with an emphasis on Anglican and Episcopal documents, early Bibles, and editions of the Book of Common Prayer. Rare printed Bibles include the Coverdale Bible (1535, the first complete Bible printed in English) and a first edition of the Authorized King James Version (1611).
Other significant holdings include over 150 incunabula (pre-1501 printed books), works of 16th- through 18th-century English theology, important editions of patristic texts, devotional works and sermons from the 15th to the 21st centuries.
Included within Special Collections are the GTS Archives, which contain archival papers of many Episcopal bishops from the 18th to present, including the major collection of papers of Samuel Seabury, the first bishop of The Episcopal Church. The archives identifies and preserves significant and unique records generated or received by the General Theological Seminary community that have enduring value and are past the period of active use. Access to these materials is regulated to safeguard confidentiality and privacy in accordance with policies established by the library.
*The special collections and archives are currently closed.