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News Articles:
I got the news from Lori Hefner, Liaison to the SAA Council, regarding the issue of our Section's name change. The SAA Council met on January 19-20, 1998, in Washington, DC, and the decision was made that our name will stay the same --"Archivists of Religious Collections Section." Also, the Religious Women's Section will remain as a separate section and its name won't be changed either. Since our groups seem to be communicating well, a special liaison will not be needed.
ANNUAL MEETING IN ORLANDO
This newsletter will find you getting ready for the next SAA Annual Meeting, to be held in Orlando, Florida, on August 31 to September 6, 1998. The Archivists of Religious Collections Section Business Meeting is tentatively scheduled on Fri., September 4, from 8:30 am to 10:30 am. From 11:00 am to 12:00 noon, we will hold the Steering Committee meeting. The registration packet from the SAA will confirm dates, and I hope to see many of you attending our gathering.
The ARCS Program Committee is planning a short discussion on the subject of Local Church Archives Maintenance, with leading presentations by Michelle Francis from the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Montreal, NC, and Paul Millette from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO. During the Business Meeting, we will concentrate on presenting the objectives for the newly formed Communication Committee and the Models and Resources Committee.
These two committees will be working on the Improvement of communication tools within our Section. They also will discuss possibilities for future development of models to set up standards of archives operation for our multi religious and diverse group and how to locate resources. These committees were created in response to requests from our membership to search for professional rather than pastoral issues in our Section's programs and projects. Any input regarding the programs of these committees will be very welcome.
ELECTIONS
At our Section's meeting in Orlando, we will hold the election for the new Secretary and one At-Large Member of the Steering Committee (nominations were listed in the last Archival Spirit). ARCS Bylaws stress that " ... the Nominating and Elections Committee shall be responsible for tabulating and announcing the results of the elections. This will be done during the annual meeting." It states further that, "Any member of the Section who will not be able to attend the annual meeting may request an absentee ballot from the chair of the nominating committee one week prior to the annual meeting." I would like to urge everybody who cannot attend to request such a ballot from Sr. Blaithin Sullivan, CSJ, (617) 746-2117; fax: (617) 783-8246.
INVOLVEMENT OF THE MEMBERSHIP
I'd like to encourage again our members to either contact me or Elisabeth Wittman, 1997-1998 member of the SAA Appointments Committee, to volunteer for different SAA committees for 1998/99. Elisabeth has a long list of slots that need to be filled for a variety of SAA committees. She may be contacted at the Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 380-2700; e-mail: archives@elca.org
CONTACT ME WITH ANY IDEAS OR PROPOSALS AT: cat@onr.com
or call: (512) 476-6296.
The American Jewish Archives was established in 1947 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to document the Jewish experience in the Americas. In the aftermath of the destruction of European Jewry in WWII and the Holocaust, the Jewish community in the Americas became the largest and best educated Jewish community in history. Faced with the responsibility of preserving the continuity of Jewish life and learning, Dr. Jacob Rader Marcus (1896-1995), founder and first director of the Amer. Jewish Archives, proposed "to collect the records of this great Jewish center [in the Americas], not after it has perished, but while [it's] young, virile and growing."
Dr. Marcus, a leader in the field of American Jewish history, proposed to collect, preserve and provide access to material documenting the religious, organizational, economic, cultural, personal, social and family life of the Jewish people in the Western Hemisphere, both as Jews and as Americans. The collecting scope of the Archives is further divided into four levels: as the archives for Judaism in the Western Hemisphere; as the archives for the Reform Jewish movement; as the archives for Cincinnati Jewish History; and as the institutional archives for its parent institution, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the oldest institute of higher Jewish learning in the United States.
Researchers visit Cincinnati or contact the Archives remotely from around the world to access information pertaining to their topics, including: immigration, Jewish/Christian relations and Jewish relations with other groups in American society, Jewish women, women in the rabbinate, the American reaction to the Holocaust and to events in Israel, genealogy, and the history of congregations and communities. The over ten million pages of documentation held by the Archives include: personal papers of rabbis, secular leaders, and families; congregational records; and organizational records for local, national, and international Jewish groups. Nonprint holdings include: microfilm, audio and video tape recordings, phonograph records, movies, and a large photograph collection.
In addition to collecting and preserving materials for use by researchers, the goal of the Archives is to promote education and understanding of the pluralistic society in the United States. The American Jewish Archives was recently renamed the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.
Ongoing projects include sponsoring seminars and scholars' conferences, offering research grants, publishing a semi-annual journal and occasional monographs, providing loan exhibits and educational posters for synagogues and Hebrew schools, mounting educational exhibits, conducting tours and lectures for visiting groups, maintaining an automated catalog of holdings, and sponsoring interns from a local university archival training program.
Contact: The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives;
3101 Clifton Avenue; Cincinnati, Ohio 45220-2488. Phone: (513) 221-1875;
fax: (513) 221 7812; e-mail: archives@cn.huc.edu.
Visit the Web site at: http://huc.edu/aja
by Kate McGinn, Fuller Theological Seminary
Interest in such diverse events as the coming millennium, the growth of the mega-church, the opening of the Vatican archives, and the film "The Apostle" suggests that the popularity and usage of materials in religious archives, which has increased, will continue to do so.
As this occurs, we'll be called upon not only to guide patrons through our own collections, but also to make them aware of other relevant material. We can best do this by becoming better acquainted with one another's collections. Archival Spirit seems an ideal place to broaden the network. Publishing brief descriptions of collections in our newsletter can facilitate this process.
The collections at Hiram College, for example, house a wide variety of material documenting the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ]. For more information contact Joanne Sawyer, Archivist, at: sawyedm@hiram.edu or explore the college Archives at: http://www.hiram.edu.
Another good resource is the Archivists of Pentecostal Collections (APC), which includes representatives from the International Holiness Pentecostal Church, the Church of God, Assemblies of God USA, Oneness Pentecostal Church, the William Parham Center, and the David du Plessis Archive. This group is working to preserve and increase awareness of Pentecostal and charismatic materials. One can contact David Roebuck at droebuck@leecollege.edu, or Kate McGinn at kmcginn@fuller.edu. Excellent collections on holiness movements can be found in several places, such as the archives of Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, KY) and the Nazarene Church (Kansas City, KS).
Valuable information on collections exist in secondary sources, too -- in occasional publications, such as Proceedings of the Evangelical Archives Conference (1988), and in newsletters published by the Billy Graham Center, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Episcopal Church USA, and the Catholic Archives of Texas, to name a few. Moreover, articles in general publications, like the December 1997 issue of Catholic Library World, underscore the need for librarians and archivists alike to document denominational movements for cultural significance, as well as doctrinal development.
Finally, the winter issue of the US Catholic Historian, devoted to the "The Local Church: Archivists and Historians," grew out of a conversation held between archivists, historians, and Marquette University in 1996. These articles address issues regarding the relationship between researchers and archivists.
To date, religious archives have failed to generate the excitement among
academic and secular communities they serve. Yet, the value of religious
archives can never be overstated. By learning about others' collections
and sharing this information, we serve the dual purpose of improving our
own understanding and furthering scholarship. For how shall archivists
share, lest we be told? How shall scholars know, except they be sent?
The CCAHA (established 1977) is a nonprofit conservation laboratory specializing In the treatment of works of art and historic artifacts on paper and related materials (parchment, papyrus, etc.). It also offers: on-site consultation services; educational programs & seminars; and internships, fellowships, and apprenticeships.
CCAHA announces two day-long Architectural Records Workshops: September 24, 1998 (at Univ. of Texas/Austin) and November 6 (at the Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA). Designed for architectural historians and other professionals who have architectural records, drawings, or other oversize paper-based materials in their care, the workshops will discuss proper identification, organization, management, storage, care, and remedial treatment. Limited to 30 participants. ($85 CCAHA members, $90 non-members)
Another CCAHA program: Overwhelmed by the needs of your collection environment, housekeeping, pest control, fire protection, security, disaster preparedness, storage, handling, exhibition, treatment, preservation planning? If your institution has a paper based humanities collection available to the public, you can be considered for a CCAHA On-site Subsidized Overview Survey (review of site, examination of collection, interviews with staff to identify needs, and extensive written report with observations and recommendations). ($350 plus travel expenses of surveyor)
For information, contact: Susan W. DuBois-Preservation Services Rep.;
CCAHA; 264 S. 23rd Street; Philadelphia, PA 19103. Telephone: (215) 545-0613;
fax: (215) 735-9313; e-mail: CCAHA@hsic.org.
Web site: http://www.ccaha.org
The Annual Meeting of the National Episcopal Historians and Archivists (NEHA) was held on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington, from June 24-27,1998. Hosted by the Diocese of Olympia Archives, NEHA members had the opportunity to see and learn about the fields "full of promise" envisioned by early Olympia/Puget Sound-area missionary John McCarty (c. 1853). The program, focusing on the Northwest experience as it pertained to the Church's mission and on those who labored in its behalf, attempted to help archivists do their best to chronicle and preserve the record of that mission both on the diocesan and the congregational level.
Joyce McConnell, Canon of Honor, the Diocese of Olympia gave the keynote address. Among the presenters were the Rev. Dr. John E. Booty, Historiographer of the Episcopal Church, who made a presentation based on his book American Apostle: The Life of Stephen Fielding Bayne, Jr. Other presenters included Patricia O'Connell Killen, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., who spoke on "Region & Religion: Christianities in the Northwest," and the Rev. Allan C. Parker, Historiographer of the Diocese of Olympia, who spoke on the history of the Diocese of Olympia.
Mark J. Duffy, Archivist of the Episcopal Church, Diane Wells, Archivist and Records Manager of the Diocese of Olympia, and Christine Taylor, Archivist and Records Manager of the Archdiocese of Seattle, participated in a day of workshops devoted to "Chronicling Our Mission" through attention to records management practices and the keeping of history in our individual parishes and missions.
Contact Diane Wells for more information about the National Episcopal
Historians and Archivists: (206) 325-4200 or at dwells@pop.halcyon.com.
The Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, a fraternal religious community in the Roman Catholic Church, make available for research the collections at their Archives and Records Center. Correlative with the Mission Statement of the Friars, which refers to the conviction that "hatred can be turned to love" and to their "efforts for Christian Unity and interfaith understanding and cooperation," they invite researchers to utilize the collections in their repository at Garrison, New York.
For arrangements, contact: Franciscan Friars of the Atonement Archives
& Records Center; P. 0. Box 300; Garrison, New York 10524-0300. Tel:
(914) 424-3671 x. 3405; fax: (914) 424-4275; e-mail: denisarc@aol.com
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Archives, in their newsletter Archives Network News, updates a major two-year grant project: the processing and cataloging of the Helen M. Knubel Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism. Now virtually finished, the challenging project has been on schedule for its completion target of July 1998, thanks to the cooperative efforts of Archives' staff and volunteers.
The project has involved the arrangement and description of more than 650 cu. ft. of inter-Lutheran agency records dating from 1917 through 1987. Also processed have been records of the Lutheran Council in the U. S. A., whose work has covered a wide range of services, including: mission planning consultation, clinical pastoral education, social ministry programs, Native American ministries, service to military personnel, and immigrant and refugee services, as well as cooperative work with related agencies regarding domestic disasters, housing, and ministry to veterans. A great degree of appraisal has been required to understand and utilize the complex records filing systems involved.
The Archival Network News also reports on the honoring of Jehu Jones, the first African-American Lutheran Pastor. On February 22, 1998, a dedication service was held in Center City Philadelphia marking the erection of an official Pennsylvania State Historical Marker commemorating the Reverend Jehu Jones Jr. (1786-1852). The service, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the Philadelphia Chapter of the African-American Lutheran Association, and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, was held at the building Jones and his congregation built, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, in 1834. Acknowledgments and greetings at the event included those of Pennsylvania State Senator Allyson Schwartz, and Karl Earl Johnson, whose research efforts at Philadelphia-area archives uncovered the detailed story of Jehu Jones's ministry.
Contact: Elisabeth Wittman-Editor; ELCA Archives; 8765 W. Higgins Rd.;
Chicago, IL 60631. Or fax: (773) 380-2977; e-mail: archives@
elca.org Website:http://www.elca.org/os/archives/intro.html
The winter 1997/Spring 1998 issue of Baptist Heritage Update Newsletter listed the names of individuals, institutions, and churches that have contributed funds to the Historical Society this past year. Each was characterized as a hero of the Society by the Update's editor, Kim Burke, who commented that they "have shown their faith in the Society...supplying needed funds to ensure the continued ministry of this organization." (Readers will recall that the last issue of Archival Spirit described the Society's necessity to adjust last June to a wholly volunteer operating basis.) SBHS Executive Director Slayden Yarbrough, appreciatively acknowledging that 1997 had, under the circumstances, ended quite well, said the good news was due to thoughtful SBHS stewardship, as well as to contributions, sale of products, and memberships that exceeded expectations.
The SBHS has completed a multi-year project to microfilm the African-American Baptist annuals from the American Baptist-Samuel Colgate Historical Library, along with other materials with import for African-American Baptist History.
The Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives (SBHLA) welcomed a new Librarian in January, Steve Gately. Mr. Gately had previously served as librarian at California Baptist College and Missouri Baptist College. The SBHLA has a new comprehensive Web site on the Internet, with general information, a listing of collections, holdings, study topic areas, and links to other Baptist historical collections.
Visit the site at: http://www.sbhla.org.
Write: SBHS c/o Oklahoma Baptist University; Box 61838; 500 W. University;
Shawnee, Oklahoma 748012590. Or call 1-800-966-2278.
In words, that is -- in a recounting of the building's history in the April 1998 issue of Archives and Special Collections Newsletter. To coincide with the spring 1998 re-opening (following renovation and expansion) of the Memorial Student Union, originally opened May 11, 1951, the newsletter of DePauw Univ. and Indiana Methodism shares a comprehensive account of the building's history, and in so doing, provides an example of the rich value of archival resources. Another story poorly or not-at-all told, were it not for the facts brought to light by careful records management.
Here we discover the historic fact that "the idea of a student union had its origins in England. In the early 19th century, the debating societies of Cambridge and then Oxford established 'university unions.'" And we learn the interesting fact that, "in negotiations with off officials of Indiana Asbury University [the name of DePauw U. at the time] in the early 1880s, Washington C. DePauw floated the idea of a 'memorial building' containing... study rooms, a library, museum and alumni hall. However, the University was not taken by the suggestion, and the gift that brought about the University's name change to DePauw did not include such a building." Ultimately, as a result of slowly evolving commitment, and in spite of a budget-busting carpenters' strike, a Memorial Student Union was finally constructed in 1951. The newsletter account comments that Mr. DePauw had been "decidedly ahead of his time."
The account is filled with many details. For instance, during World War 11, as the student union concept slowly gained support, "the Association of Women Students took action and acquired the former U-Shop, turning it into DePauw's first student center." Called "The Barn," it "opened in the fall of 1943 with great fanfare.... Ford Frick '15, National [Baseball] League president and later commissioner of baseball, dedicated the building [on) November 6.... An estimated 1,300 events took place there in its first year alone...."
The April 1998 Archives and Special Collections Newsletter article, after describing the latest renovations to the building, concludes with the comment that the Student Union will surely be the center of campus activity "for many years to come." [And, may we add, undoubtedly generating additional archival material along the way.--Ed.]
Contact: DePauw University Archives, Roy 0. West Library; 400 South College Ave.; R 0. Box 37; Green castle, IN 461350037; telephone: (765) 658-4406; fax: (765) 6584423; e-mail: wwwilson@depauw.edu
The Catholic Archives of Texas (CAT) announces the opening of the records of the Texas Catholic Conference (TCC), set for July 1998. State Catholic conferences proliferated after the Roman Catholic Church's Second Vatican Council, held in Rome between 1962 and 1965. The TCC, one of the thirty state conferences in the United States, is the only state conference thus far to archivally house its records and make them available for scholarly research.
CAT's archivist, Kinga Perzynska, decided to embark on this ground-breaking project because she saw the value of TCC's records to researchers seeking information about the post-Vatican 11 Church in Texas. Perzynska applied to the Scanlan Foundation of Houston for funds to process the TCC records. The Scanlan Foundation granted money for two years of work, enough for project archivist Margaret Schlankey to appraise, arrange and describe the records. In addition, Schlankey produced a retention schedule for the TCC offices to follow in future record transfers to the Archives. A published guide to the records will be available from the CAT in July 1998.
Correspondence, reports, and formal statements are just a few of the records that document Texas Catholic Conferences's work in the public policy arena. Acting from a strong belief in ecumenism, the Conference involved itself in cooperative works with other Christian denominations and members of the Jewish faith. Records of the TCC's Education Department provide evidence of the changes in curriculum and administration in Catholic schools over the past 35 years. Volunteers for Educational and Social Service, an organization that provides volunteers from around the country to schools, hospitals, and other social service organizations in Texas, exists under the auspices of the TCC and its records are also included in this record group.
As more attention is drawn to the interaction of church and state in social and educational issues, the record of the activities of the TCC will undoubtedly provide much needed information about the benefits and pitfalls of this relationship. Also, there is value in the records showing how the TCC facilitates the struggle of the Church in the United States to meet the needs of its members, and yet hold fast to its traditions.
Contact Kinga Perzynska. Telephone: (512) 4766296; e-mail: cat@onr.com.
The article featured in the May 1998 issue of the Archives of the Billy Graham Center newsletter Witness opened with: "As the year 2000 approaches,... It is interesting, while we consider how crossing this invisible, artificial dividing line will affect us, to consider the last time the human race crossed a major chronological border, the entry into the twentieth century...." "Witness" then highlighted samples of the Archives' holdings from the decade of 1895 to 1905.
Pointing out that the 1890s saw the beginning of "a great surge of Protestant nondenominational effort that continues in many ways to this day," the article noted early evangelists such as Dwight L. Moody and J. Hudson Taylor, whose examples encouraged the growth of parachurch organizations.
Collections (containing sermons, scrapbooks, and other records) in the Archives reveal something of the earliest efforts of evangelists in the United States such as Billy Sunday, whose initial work was in the small towns of Iowa, and William Biederwolf, whose material is valuable in that it sheds light on various other evangelists. Documented, too, is the emergence of specialized ministries (like that of Mel Troffer who in 1900 founded a "rescue mission in Grand Rapids, Michigan...the first of dozens he started or influenced around the country"), as well as reports on "mission outreach to the poor, homeless, sick and destitute."
There is also much on foreign missions in Japan, China, India, Africa, S. America, including the widespread efforts of the Woman's Union Missionary Society, formed in 1860, to enable single women to serve as missionaries. Here is a comprehensive resource on nondenominational Christian missionary work at the turn of the last century.
Contact: Archives of the Billy Graham Center; Wheaton College; Wheaton,
IL 60187. Phone: (630) 752-5910; e-mail: bgcarc@wheaton.edu.
The Historic New Orleans Collection [HNOC] has acquired the library of the Ursuline Sisters of New Orleans, an extraordinary collection of 1,900 rare books and library materials dating back nearly four centuries. It contains many unique items, including southern colonial materials believed to be the only ones in existence. According to Dr. Charles Nolan, Archivist for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, it "is probably the most extensive early southern Catholic library that exists." The Ursuline Order established their community in New Orleans in 1727.
Following transfer from the Ursuline Sisters to the HNOC/Williams Research
Center in the French Quarter, conservation and preservation of the collection
will be addressed. After custom cataloging (by the Online Computer Library
Center's [OCLC] TECHPRO Unit), the records will be entered into the WorldCat
database (the OCLC Online Union Catalog) of nearly 38 million records,
a "first" for many of these Ursuline titles. Contact: Gerald F. Patout,
Jr., Head Librarian; Williams Research Center; 410 Chartres St.; New Orleans,
LA 70130; e-mail: geraldp@hnoc.org.
The Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists meeting on July 24-July 29,1998, in Mundelein, near Chicago, will host Archbishop Francisco Marchisano, the President of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church. He will present the keynote address on July 24,1998, and Dr. Cristina Carlo-Stella, the English Department Director of the Commission, will close the ACDA sessions on July 29, with a presentation on the Commission's activities and projects. The session on Appraisal and Access to Church Records in Germany, Israel, and the Netherlands, proposed by the International Council on Archives, Section on Archives of Churches and Religious Denominations (ICA/SKR), was approved and will be presented in Mundelein on July 28.
The ICA/SKR Steering Committee meeting and tours* will be held
at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Archives in
Chicago, July 29-31, 1998 (*tours of the Archives of ELCA, of the Billy
Graham Center and of Wade Center at Wheaton College, and of other local
religious collections).
WE'LL SEE YOU AT...SAA ANNUAL MEETING ORLANDO, FLORIDA, August 31 --September 6, 1998 & our ARCS Business Meeting w/ elect. of Secretary & At-Large Member/Steering Com. (See SAA registration packet for date & time)
For SAA Annual Mtg. info: Debra Mills @ (312) 922-0140
For ARCS Bus. Mtg. info: Kinga Perzynska @ (512) 476-6296
The Archival Spirit is published three times a year by the Archivists of Religious Collections Section of the Society of American Archivists. For membership information contact the SAA at: 600 S. Federal, Suite 504, Chicago, IL 60605; 312-922-0140; fax 312-347-1452; e-mail: info@archivists.org.
The Editor would like to include in future issues selections from your local news or newsletter, items of special interest in your area, and comments on current or recent projects. This information can be of interest to many. We ask that you send in your material, whenever possible, in electronic format -- either E-mail or disk. Paper is fine if you cannot send an electronic version. Also, please tell us what topics you would like to see covered in future issues. Next Deadline for submitting articles and information is: Sept. 15. [1998]
Editor: Mrs. Yvonne C. von Fettweis, Church Historian, The First Church of Christ, Scientist.
[Originally issued in two column format on six pages with SAA logo banner as a single fold mailer.]