About the Princeton Theological Seminary Web Archive


The Princeton Theological Seminary Web Archive preserves selected websites of organizations and individuals whose mission and activities parallel those of PTS and whose physical papers or records are archived in PTS Special Collections. Also archived are websites on subjects that mirror PTS collecting areas and sites of related organizations and individuals whose content is at risk. Because web sites change frequently, ephemeral but valuable online resources can disappear if not preserved.

  • Sites are selected for preservation based on anticipated long-term research, pastoral, documentary, or administrative value.
  • All archived web content is publicly accessible with full-text search.
  • Sites are harvested through Archive-It, a subscription web archiving service from the Internet Archive. Archived content is hosted at the Archive-It data center.
  • Content on the PTS Web Archive extends back to February 2013. For earlier versions of a web site, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is searchable from 1996.
  • Unlike live sites, archived pages display a top yellow banner that includes the date of capture.
  • Archived sites might contain outdated information, broken links, or inactive email addresses.

PTS and Archive-It successfully preserve many types of web content, from simple sites to videos and social media pages. Some content poses challenges, such as files retrieved via user request and some password-protected sites.