Center for Restoration studies Director Dr. Douglas Foster receives items all the time.  Just in from Dr. Foster is this photograph of the interior of the Goshen Church in Bradford Vermont.  Noted, in two hands, are brief details indicating that Elias Smith and Abner Jones preached in this circa-1812 pulpit.  It was common at the turn of the 20th century to have photographs developed on stiff paper in postcard size.  Suitable for mailing, these real photo postcards (RPPC) documented your journeys and allowed you to share them with friends and family, albeit in a slower manner than Facebook does today.

Through a donor’s generosity we see the space created for worship and proclamation by the early Christian movement in New England.  Notice the elevated pulpit, the simple drop-leaf communion table and the plain, mostly-unpainted pews.  Sunlight bursts through the windows.  A stovepipe prominently bisects the meetinghouse.  While the photograph is probably from the turn of the 20th century, it looks as if the congregation just adjourned from hearing Smith or Jones hold forth their plea for primitive Christianity.

Special Collections and Center for Restoration Studies regularly receives gifts and donations of many kinds.  Not long ago three fabulous books came in.  They bear the bookplate of Andrew Mizell Burton, wealthy Nashville, Tennessee insurance executive who financed educational and evangelistic endeavors for a half-century.

The first is Obadiah Jennings’ Debate on Campbellism; Held At Nashville, Tennessee. In Which the Principles of Alexander Campbell are Confuted, and His Conduct Examined. Printed in 1832, it carries evidence of the sharp feeling of its original owner: on the first page of the debate, in a strong hand with dark brown ink is written boldly “75. cents worth of Presbyterian slander.”  The book itself is a welcome addition to our collection, but marginalia like this is really priceless.  As archivists who strive to undertake our work with diligence and impartiality…it is helpful to see items like this that vividly capture the vital personal dimension of the past we preserve.

Two bound volumes of rare early 19th century periodicals, the Christian Investigator (1835) of Eastport, Maine and the Christian Panoplist (1837) of Versailles, Kentucky also bear Burton’s bookplate.  Both also bear, one in ink and another in pencil, signatures.  Are these signatures of Restoration preacher and editor John T. Johnson?  In any case, we are so glad to receive these…the Christian Investigator shows up only in three other institutions; the Christian Panoplist does not show up at all on Worldcat.