On the Shelf: New items added to Center for Restoration Studies collections, March 2022

In March our colleagues in Technical Services and Cataloging added 497 items to Special Collections holdings.  About 315 items fed into the main print collection (which we call REST), plus 120 or so hymnals for the Taylor Collection, only one book this month into ACU AUTHORS (thank you Dr. Hodges!) and another large batch of rare Bibles (about 50 in this batch) cam into our general rare books collection.  Most of the additions to REST are tracts and pamphlets, though we added several monographs, too.  Some of the additions are newly published, others are new-to-us, and still others represent a second copy or a new-to-us edition or printing.  The tract project continues with most of new entries for REST coming in the form of newly-processed tracts, booklets and pamphlets.  We will have a fine set of tracts, all cataloged, when this project is complete.  It might be complete, that is…backlog eliminated….by the end of the school year!

Callie Faye Milliken (Special Collections Librarian) and Dr. John Stevens (President) at the beginning of the transfer of books from the ‘old’ library in Chambers Hall to the ‘new’ Brown Library. Dr. Stevens, holding a rare copy of Biblia Sacra, led a procession of students and faculty carrying volumes into the new facility. From https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth597528/?q=books

Our goal is to build a comprehensive research-level collection of print materials by, for, and about the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.  But beyond assembly and preservation, a collection should be discoverable by those who need the information.  Collecting and preserving is only part of our task; those objects must be described and made available.  Thanks to the close and careful work of our colleagues upstairs, who describe our holdings, these materials are now discoverable. By discoverable I mean a patron can utilize our online catalog (such as by searching by author, or title, or subject) to find these materials.

497 new items…cataloged, shelved, and ready for research:  Continue reading

Today in ACU History: April 1, 1943

#ACU1943: The Optimist publishes its four-page April Fools’ Day edition full of tongue-in-cheek stories called The Pestimist.


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.

Finding Aid Round Up

We’ve been busy writing finding aids for recent acquisitions and revising finding aids for sets of papers already in our holdings. You can browse all of our collections on DigitalCommons. See something below that piques your interest or could be useful for your research? Get in touch and let us know what you’re thinking about; we’d love to help!


Sabinal Christian College (Sabinal, TX) Records, 1905-1922, MS#358 [Revised Finding Aid] 
Sabinal Christian College was founded in 1907 one mile east of Sabinal, Texas, in Uvalde County by members of the Churches of Christ. The purpose of the school was to provide Bible teaching and religious training in addition to the usual literary curriculum. Courses included Bible, business administration, music, and speech, which were taught at primary, intermediate, high school, and college levels. The school reached a peak enrollment of 200 students and nine faculty members under the administration of Isaac E. Tackett (1909-1913). Other presidents of the school included G. H. P. Showalter, W. A. Schultz, J. Paul Slayden, and J. O. Garrett. The college received inadequate financial resources due to World War I, depression in the cotton market, and a drought that caused crop failures. The school closed on May 15, 1917. This collection includes correspondence, legal, and financial information about the history of Sabinal Christian College (Sabinal, TX).

Phil Boone Collection, 2010-2012, MS#408 [Revised Finding Aid]
Phil Boone graduated from Abilene Christian University in 1983 and served in various capacities at the university including as vice president of advancement and currently as a senior advisor and executive fundraiser for the ACU Advancement team. This collection contains photos from events Phil Boone was associated with at Abilene Christian University.

John Wright Papers, 1844-1847, MS#420 [Revised Finding Aid]
John Wright was an elder and minister of the Restoration Movement, commonly accredited leadership of the movement in Indiana. He was born on December 12th, 1785 and died on May 2nd, 1851. He married his first wife, Peggy Wolfescale, in 1803. She died in 1805 following the birth of their daughter. He later married Nancy Peeler who died August 29, 1844. This collection includes the personal diary of Wright and a personal letter sent to Wright by Nathan Field, and a 4th Edition of The Orthodox Preacher.

Sermon Charts Collection, circa 1930-1940, MS#434 [Revised Finding Aid]
This collection consists of three notebooks and twelve cloth sermon charts which are housed in one box.

Family Encampment at Red River Records, 1974-2015, MS#523 [New Finding Aid]
The Red River Family Encampment began in Red River, New Mexico in the summer of 1987 as the vision of Harold and Sally Paden. The Elders of the Southwest Church of Christ in Amarillo, Texas, assisted with the first summer of programming and Jerry C. Lawlis became the first executive director along with Paul Methvin.


Stay tuned for more installments of Finding Aid Round Ups!