Just checking in with the latest news from ACU Special Collections…
–Just this week we completed final processing touches on two more collections. One is a congregational history collection, the other is a rich collection of personal research papers: both are now fully processed and available for research. We will roll out finding aids next week.
–We received a thirty years’ run of Chicago Christian. Published by Cornell Avenue Church of Christ (later Stony Island Church of Christ) in Chicago, Illinois, they reflect congregational life, news of Churches of Christ in the midwest and a rich window into postwar missions among Churches of Christ in Japan. J. H. McCaleb, Harry Fox, O. D. Bixler, the list goes on! Our holdings span the later 1940’s through the middle 1970’s. Look for reflections on the processing of this collection by one of our student workers.
–We are preparing the finding aids for our already-processed-and-available collections to post to this site for viewing and download. This will be a great boost in raising awareness of the treasures in Milliken Special Collections. Check back often throughout October.
–Work in the Digital Scholarship Center progresses steadily on thousands of 35mm slides donated by Dr. Everett Ferguson. Dr. Ferguson photographed locations and artifacts across the Mediterranean world and in museums across the globe. He utilized them in his classroom teaching at ACU and by donating them to Special Collections, has ensured they will be available world-wide to scholars, students and researchers. How rich is this collection? Well, we have scanned and logged metadata for only about 1,000 so far…with thousands more to come. We are excited about these slides!
–Our move to the lower level of Brown Library is complete. Like any move after dozens of years in one home, we experience some pains at getting used to change, coping with clutter, and finding new rhythms. After all is said and done, though, we feel more at home by the day. Our reading room is ready for your research. Our coffee pot is always available for you to visit and talk.
–Two displays are up and ready for viewing in our new space. Our 2013 Friends of the Year are Patty Sue and Frank Coldwater. Upon Patty’s death, Frank donated to Milliken Special Collections a fine collection representing Patty’s life of faith and vocation in the marketplace. Carisse Berryhill assembled an exhibit titled “Pieces, Poems and Prayers: The Patty Sue Coldwater Papers.” In the Coldwater collection we have a clear window into how a Christian woman pursued a successful career in advertising and direct-mail marketing. It will be a useful across several disciplines: from art and design to business and marketing and from English to theology. We honored Frank and remembered Patty at our March friends of ACU Library dinner. In September, at Summit, we unveiled a display, arranged by Mac Ice, titled “Yours and HIS: Letters from W. Carl Ketcherside.” The exhibit features books, tracts, photographs and letters by one of the more well-known editors and evangelists among Churches of Christ in the 20th century. Online versions of both exhibits are in the works.
–Finally, look for more content on this blog from our corps of student workers, more historic photos, items from current exhibits, collection spotlights, plus more descriptions of what we have and how we can serve you.
Summit 2014 is in the books. I taught three classes on the earliest hymnody of the Stone-Campbell movement. The first session focused on the Abner Jones-Elias Smith movement in New England; then a day on James O’Kelly and the ‘Christian Church in the South’; and then a class on Barton W. Stone.