Finding Aid Round Up

Posted on by
Reply

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!

Wendel Lavern Moore Papers, 1951-1986, MS#444 [Revised Finding Aid]
These papers include cloth sermon charts, materials related to creating cloth sermon charts, magnetic audio reels, hymnals, film strip series, and photographs.

Gailyn Van Rheenen Papers, 1972-2016, MS#455 [Revised Finding Aid]
This collection includes newsletters, notes, correspondence, and photographs related to Van Rheenen’s mission efforts in East Africa. There are also African wood carvings, paintings, and spears.

Gailyn Van Rheenen

Robert D., Sr. and Lula Arrington Smith Papers, 1898-1993, MS#466 [Revised Finding Aid]
Robert D. Smith, Sr. preached in Churches of Christ in Texas for over fifty years. He was the brother of George Dallas Smith and uncle of Lawrence Leon Smith, Sr. This collection includes genealogical information, correspondence between Robert D. Smith, Sr., Lula Arrington Smith, and their family members. There are sermons, lessons, ledger books, and poetry authored by Smith. Additionally, there are many photographs, mainly of family members.

Carol Gafford Papers, 1974, MS#479 [Revised Finding Aid]
The Carol Gafford Papers include a paper by Bobbie Lee Holly called “God’s Design- Women’s Dignity” which was given at the Women in Christ Today Conference. Carol Gafford wrote the second response to “God’s Design- Women’s Dignity” which is also included in these papers.

Joe Allen Wilson Papers, 1960-1981, MS#510 [New Finding Aid]
Joe Allen Wilson (1923-2007) preached in various congregations for 65 years. These papers include seven folders of sermon notes, research materials, and print materials from Joe Wilson and various Churches of Christ.

Typed notes, Joe Allen Wilson Papers, 1960-1981. Center for Restoration Studies MS #510. Abilene Christian University Special Collections and Archives, Brown Library. Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX.

Stay tuned for more installments of Finding Aid Round Ups!

On the Shelf: New items added to Center for Restoration Studies collections, October 2021

Posted on by
1

In October our colleagues in Technical Services and Cataloging added 577 items to Special Collections holdings.  Over 500 items fed into the main print collection (which we call REST), plus two dozen into REST A/V and three dozen new items to the Taylor Hymnal Collection.  The few remaining items went into our local reference collection. 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 many dozen new entries this month.  We will have a fine set of tracts, all cataloged, when this project is complete.

Abilene Christian College. Prickly Pear, Yearbook of Abilene Christian College, 1952, yearbook, 1952; Abilene, Texas. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.

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.

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

Alber-Hanna Debate on the Tithe, 1936, now available online

Posted on by
Reply

In 1936 John G. Alber, General Secretary of the Nebraska Christian Missionary Society, and W. H. Hanna, Minister of the Knoxville Christian Church (Pittsburgh, PA) conducted a debate on the tithe.  Originally published serially in Christian Standard, the debate was issued later that year by Reporter Publishing Company, Lincoln, Nebraska.

The proposition under discussion is:

Resolved: That according to the New Testament norm of the church there is as good reason for the Disciples of Christ to accept, preach, and practice the principle of the tithe as the minimum of their obligation to the Kingdom of Christ as for them to accept, preach, and practice the weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper or immersion as the proper action in Christian baptism.–p. 7

The full text of the 176-page book is available here for viewing and download.

Debate on the Tithe, John G. Alber and W. H. Hanna, 1936

Debate on the Tithe, John G. Alber and W. H. Hanna, 1936, front cover

Debate on the Tithe, John G. Alber and W. H. Hanna, 1936, title page

Debate on the Tithe, John G. Alber and W. H. Hanna, 1936, title page

Debate on the Tithe, John G. Alber and W. H. Hanna, 1936, table of contents

Debate on the Tithe, John G. Alber and W. H. Hanna, 1936, table of contents

Debate on the Tithe, John G. Alber and W. H. Hanna, 1936, advertisement for "helpful literature for the churches", Reporter Publishing Company, Lincoln, Nebraska

Debate on the Tithe, John G. Alber and W. H. Hanna, 1936, advertisement for “helpful literature for the churches”, Reporter Publishing Company, Lincoln, Nebraska