WMU Training School

The Woman’s Missionary Union Training School was established in 1907 in exercises at Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. Originally located downtown at 334 E. Broadway, the Training School moved to the Lexington Road location in 1937. Under the leadership of Maud Reynolds McLure, Fannie E. S. Heck, Eliza Broadus, Mrs. George B. Eager, and Mrs. Samuel E. Woody, the Training School trained women in a three year course that included classes in Old and New Testament, Sunday school pedagogy, personal work, domestic science, music and public speaking, systematic theology, church history, comparative religion, missions, and ecclesiology. Women were also able to take electives at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1953, the Training School was renamed the Carver School of Missions and Social Work.

The Training School records, from 1949-1964, are contained in thirty-three boxes. Additionally, records from 1906 to 1962 are on eight microfilm rolls in the library’s microform collection. Miscellaneous records from the Carver School from 1964 to 1992 are in the Archives storage area. The Archives staff has prepared a finding aid for the photographic portion of the collection, and a full box listing is available upon request.

Location: Archives (Manuscript collection in Rare Book Room, 2nd floor; Baptist Minutes Room, 2nd floor)