#ACU1958: ACC becomes one of the first Texas colleges to use closed-circuit television systems in speech classes in Department of Education.
From Dr. John’s Perpetual Calendar: One Hundred Years of ACU History, One Day at a Time. The calendar was published in honor of ACU’s Centennial by Abilene Christian University by the Office of Creative Services, ACU.
You are invited to join the ACU community as it celebrates Restoration Day on Tuesday, September 6, at the Brown Library Packer Forum (6:00–8:00 pm).
This year’s Restoration Day will feature the opening of a new library exhibit that displays the first edition of Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address of the Washington (PA) Christian Association. This short book, written and published in 1809, is integral to the history of the Stone-Campbell Movement because it articulates many of our core beliefs about Christian unity.
In 2021, Wesley Williams of Memphis, Tennessee, and Bradley Williams of Nashville, Tennessee, entrusted the ACU Brown Library with a copy of this book, one of only four known original copies to exist in the world today. Members of the Williams family will be our honored guests at Restoration Day. Once the exhibit is unveiled, the ACU Brown Library will be the only location in North America where an original copy of this work will be on public display.
Our other special guest will be Dr. Ed Robinson, associate professor of history and religion at Texas College in Tyler. He will speak on the relevance of the Declaration and Address for today’s world. A reception following this lecture will be held in the ACU Brown Library’s Special Collection & Archives department, and a new exhibit displaying this work will debut at that time.
Dr. Edward Robinson
Dr. Robinson will also speak in the Graduate School of Theology’s weekly chapel service at the Chapel on the Hill in the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building at 11:30 am on Wednesday, September 7.
Restoration Day is hosted by the Center for Restoration Studies (CRS) at ACU. The Center for Restoration Studies was established in 1986 and is jointly managed by the ACU Brown Library and the ACU College of Biblical Studies. The Center advances scholarship related to the Stone-Campbell Movement and is one of the most active research communities dedicated to collecting, preserving, and disseminating scholarship related to the history of the Stone-Campbell Movement, specifically Churches of Christ. The Center for Restoration Studies also provides a robust and vital link between Abilene Christian University and congregations within the Stone-Campbell Movement.
That could make a snappy headline, couldn’t it? Above the fold, even.
When Maddie Conatser, Caleb Horne, and Macee Valtr showed up after their biology class one afternoon back in March and pitched their idea, we immediately went back into the stacks and started working. They came prepared with dry swabs, petri dishes, and a clipboard. We had a great time browsing the stacks looking for interesting candidates to swab. I selected books, I think Caleb took pictures and documented titles while Macee and Maddie took turns preparing and executing the swabbing. We collected samples from the spine or front cover, title page, and page 27 from each book. The books I selected span the breadth of our collection: there is something here for everyone…American, African, and European…theology, hymnody, and history…from Coptic Christianity to the German Reformation to Abilene, Texas.
They went back to the lab, processed the samples, and wrote up their findings, which they presented in a poster session a few weeks hence. Their findings, titled ‘Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover: An Analysis of Bacterial Presence on the Surface of Historical Books,’ didn’t surprise us (we expected to find something, and would have been surprised if there were none) but the experiment put them through all the paces of a sound research project. The bonus is that it was just so much fun. It was the first time they saw, much less handled, books of this age, and the opportunity to take a student research team back into the stacks for something like this was a highlight of my semester. I am hopeful Dr. Jennifer Huddleston will assign another team to repeat this process on another batch of books next year. Below are some pictures I took at their poster presentation:
And they graciously shared their paper! Enjoy!