ACU Special Collections houses thousands of rare books in several specialized and focused collections:<\/p>\n
The Center for Restoration Studies collection<\/strong> specializes on those items produced by or about the Stone-Campbell Movement. \u00a0These British and American initiatives to restore apostolic Christianity resulted from the independent efforts of nineteenth-century religious reformers Barton W. Stone and the father-son team of Thomas and Alexander Campbell. Earlier related movements include those led by James O’Kelly in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee and Elias Smith and Abner Jones in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. Walter Scott’s preaching, evangelism and writing greatly buoyed the Campbell movement throughout the Ohio Valley. The union of some from the O’Kelly, Smith and Jones groups with the Stoneites, and its subsequent union with the Campbell group in the 1830s thrust the new body into a place of significance in early nineteenth-century America. By the end of the nineteenth century the Restoration Movement spread to other parts of the English-speaking world and today the movement has a presence in nearly 200 countries worldwide. \u00a0The items held in this collection represent the three major worldwide communions — Churches of Christ, Christian Churches\/Churches of Christ, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) — as well as united churches in several other countries. \u00a0The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Christadelphians, and the International Churches of Christ are historically related to the Stone-Campbell Movement. CRS actively seeks selected works by or about these and other related groups. <\/p>\n These materials reveal the history and advocacy of this movement across its many voices, in many places, from its inception until recent living memory. CRS collections are open to all manner of published materials: books, periodicals, tracts, pamphlets, broadsides and ephemera.<\/p>\n The core of the Austin Taylor Hymnal Collection<\/strong> is the personal hymn book collection of Austin Taylor, 20th century song writer and singing school teacher among Churches of Christ.\u00a0 It has been augmented by other donations, such as many items from Dr. Jim Mankin’s personal collection, and continues to grow. \u00a0The Taylor collection represents the entire scope of Christian psalmody and hymnody including the history of hymns and hymn writers.<\/p>\n The LeMoine Gaunce Lewis Collection<\/strong> contains monographs from the personal library of Dr. LeMoine Gaunce Lewis who served ACU from 1949-1986 as a faculty member in the department of Bible.\u00a0 The Lewis collection is strongest in early church history. It contains many rare and fragile volumes\u00a0from as early as the sixteenth century.<\/p>\n The O. C. Lambert Collection<\/strong> is the personal library of author O. C. Lambert who conducted\u00a0extensive research and writing about the history, theology and practices of Catholicism.<\/p>\n The\u00a0C Collection<\/strong>\u00a0serves as the library’s main collection of antiquarian, rare, or unique books in all disciplines.\u00a0 Included is a collection of Bibles that spans over 700 different languages and\/or versions — including the\u00a0Waynai Bible<\/a> (the World’s Largest).\u00a0 A special focus of the C Collection is the history and culture of Texas with several histories from surrounding counties and the most complete set of early Abilene city directories.<\/p>\n The Early Day Textbooks<\/strong> (or Curriculum collection, abbreviated as\u00a0CURR<\/strong>) consists of school textbooks for the primary and secondary levels.\u00a0 This collection is augmented by occasional donations. Items in the collection span all disciplines and almost all imprints are pre-1945.<\/p>\n The International Library for Children’s Literature <\/strong>emphasizes\u00a0Newbery and Caldecott winners, as well as Osborne Collection facsimiles with some turn of the century editions and foreign language texts.<\/p>\n The Robert Donner Collection<\/strong> consists of books, serials, pamphlets and ephemera on American history, political science, economics, Americanism, minority groups, and Communist and Socialist activities within America.\u00a0 Robert Donner collected most of his library, which he housed in his Colorado Springs, Colorado office, after his retirement from the Donner Corporation in 1957. \u00a0The\u00a0collection consists of about 4,000 books and over 3,000 pamphlets and ephemeral items. \u00a0The research value of the Donner collection is that the\u00a0materials were printed from within various\u00a0political movements and therefore\u00a0often unavailable through traditional commercial publishing channels. \u00a0The books and pamphlets of his collection are cataloged. In addition to the catalog records, a complete index of the pamphlets, which are housed in a vertical file and on the closed stack shelves, can be browsed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The nucleus of the Burnya Mae Moore Cookbook Collection<\/strong>\u00a0is comprised of cook books and other materials assembled by Burnya Mae Moore, ACU Home Economics teacher from 1928-1975. Selected additional titles have been added emphasizing West Texas and Southwest cookery.<\/p>\n The Walter and Nella Robbins Railroad Collection<\/strong>\u00a0contains books, periodicals, timetables, passes, clippings, and memorabilia collected by Walter Robbins of Palestine, Texas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ACU Special Collections houses thousands of rare books in several specialized and focused collections: The Center for Restoration Studies collection specializes on those items produced by or about the Stone-Campbell Movement. \u00a0These British and American initiatives to restore apostolic Christianity … Continue reading