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The Archival Spirit, November 2004, Fall Issue
Welcome back from SAA in Boston, from vacation or from whatever you’ve been doing over the summer! I always think of fall as the real beginning of a new year! It must be the sudden change in the weather we experience in the Northwest – or perhaps it’s all those years of abruptly exchanging the lazy days of summer for early morning wake up calls and those soggy trudges to the school bus stop. Whatever it is, its hallmark is change and that’s what ARCS is greeting you with as well.
Welcome to the first electronic-only edition of the Archival Spirit. SAA will no longer be mailing out section newsletters. Section members will access their newsletters through section web sites. The publication of SAA section newsletters in electronic format is part of SAA’s “ten-year plan for phased electronic publication of its periodicals and monographs.” See the Mar/Apr 2003 issue of Archival Outlook. An email announcement – such as the one you just received -- will be sent out alerting you to the availability of the current Archival Spirit on the ARCS web site. If you’ve accessed our web site before, you’ll know that ARCS is way ahead of the curve as the Archival Spirit, including current and past issues, has been available on our web site for some time. If you haven’t looked at the web site before, now that you’re here, take a few moments to check it out.
While I’m on the subject of the newsletter, I’d like to encourage you all to submit articles about your archives, special projects, new collections, staff, etc. And, if you have a digital photo to go along with your electronic article, all the better!
Electronic-only publications are here to stay and SAA is rightfully availing itself of this technology. However, while acknowledging the possibilities of electronic technology, we don’t want to lose sight of the purpose of our publications, which is to keep our membership informed. It is very important to the ARCS leadership that all section members receive the news of the Section so provision will be made for those members who may not yet have Internet access.
As archivists we have a responsibility to use to our advantage new tools as they become available but we must also maintain the old. To do our jobs we must be able to manage whatever records in whatever formats come our way. Whether they are old-fashioned slides in need of a projector or old-fashioned floppy disks in need of a 5.25 inch disk drive or modern electronic newsletters in need of an Internet connection – our job is what it has always been – to capture the record and make it accessible.
Officers Present: Diane Wells, Chair; Loretta Greene, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect; L. Dale Patterson, Past Chair/Nominating Committee; Wesley W. Wilson, Newsletter Editor; Mark Duffy, Web Coordinator; and Gwynedd Cannan, Secretary. Opening Remarks of the Chair Member Survey Form
Newsletter of the Archivists of Religious Collections Section, Society of American Archivists
[This issue is published in its original form as an electronic document.]
Contents
From the Chair
Diane Wells
Do you have an old slide projector in your basement or attic that can be used for the old fashioned slides, 1 ¼ by 4 inches? We have some fine old slides but our modern projector won’t work with them. Annie Wright Seminary Alumnae News, Tacoma, WA October 1951
The more things change – the more they stay they same!
Archivists of Religious Collections Section, Annual Meeting, Minutes
August 5, 2004
The Chair greeted and welcomed the assembly. She encouraged members to make a proposal for the next annual meeting in New Orleans for which there is no theme. She thanked Sandra Sudak of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts for arranging the previous night’s reception at Emmanuel Church. The Chair remembered Kinga Perzynska, a former Chair of ARCS, who had passed away earlier this year. The assembly bowed their heads for a moment of silence. The Chair then encouraged the members to fill out forms for the directory, to run for office, and to recommend programs. The Chair ended by congratulating two members who had won elections for positions in the Society of American Archivists: Mark Duffy is now serving on the Council, Elisabeth Wittman is on the Nominating Committee.
Secretary's Report
The Chair called on Gwynedd Cannan, Secretary, who announced that the minutes of the previous meeting had been published in the November 2003 issue of Archival Spirit.
SAA Council Liaison
The Council Liaison updated the members on SAA activity. The Society continues to play an activist role on issues that are of concern to the profession. It is, for example, objecting to the sale of archives on eBay and objecting to the manner in which a change has been made in the position of Archivist of the United States. The Society, in promoting the profession, has increased publications, set up listservs for each group, and provided assistance to members and groups in setting up electronic newsletters and listservs. This year Peter Wosh takes over from David Haury as Council liaison.
Nominating/Election Committee Report
The Chair called on Dale Patterson, Nominating-Elections Committee Chair who announced that Suni Johnson of United Methodist Archives was standing for secretary and Nancy Taylor, President of the Historical Society in Philadelphia, was standing for representative at large. There were no other nominations and the two were elected.
Mark Duffy proposed a by-law amendment allowing the meeting to proceed to election without a ballot. The amendment of the by-law carried.
Acknowledging that the election had occurred out of order, the Chair asked for and received consent of the Section to the election of officers in accordance with the bylaw change.
Communication Committee
Newsletter: Wes Wilson asked the members for articles.
Web site: Mark Duffy asked for new ideas for the website. He reported that a bibliography was online and that additions to the bibliography would be welcome.
Listserv: Dale Patterson announced that a listserv for the section had been set up in the past year. 27 members now participate. He asked others to join noting that the list was moderated to control spam. The Chair added that she had used the one way listserv established by SAA to announce the reception held the night before.
Sister M. Claude Lane Award Committee Report
The Chair called on Elisabeth Wittman to report on the Sister Lane award since the Committee Chair, Julia Randle, was not present. Ms. Wittman explained that the award is for persons who distinguish themselves in the field of religious archives and is sponsored by the Society of Southwest Archives. It was announced that John J. Treanor of the Cardinal Bernardin archives is the awardees for 2004.
New Business
Elisabeth Wittman reported that she, Mark Duffy and Christine Taylor would be attending the International Council on Archives (ICA) meeting in Vienna on August 23. All three serve on the Steering Committee for Church Archives. Members were encouraged to join and/or to put in names to receive the newsletter.
Closing Remarks Adjournment Convened by Diane Wells, Chair at 11 a.m.
Present: Diane Wells, Chair; Loretta Zwolak Greene, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect; L. Dale Patterson, Past Chair/Nominating Committee Chair; Joan Clemens; Nancy Taylor, Representatives at Large; Suni Johnson, Secretary; Wesley W. Wilson, Newsletter Editor; Mark Duffy, Web Coordinator; Gwynedd Cannan; The Steering Committee met at Society of American Archivists Annual meeting, The Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers in Boston, Massachusetts. The meeting was opened at by the Chair.
Opening Remarks: The Chair recognized Nancy Taylor and Suni Johnson to the Board; introductions and greetings followed.
ARCS Website/Newsletter: Discussion about format of adding ARCS newsletter to website - format, standards, archiving. Mark Duffy and Wes Wilson will look into SAA standards and decide between PDF, HTML or both.
ARCS Listserv: Decision made to sponsor listserv with Dale Patterson as moderator, discussions groups to be broken into general and leadership.
Membership Survey: Mark Duffy to collate results of survey collected in ARCS meeting and pass on to Diane Wells. Dale Patterson to receive names of those interested in the listserv.
Models and Resources Committee: Diana Sanderson, former Chair is no longer with ARCS - discussion on whether or not to maintain this Committee. Noted that the original intent of this committee was to act as a clearing house for resources, websites, bibliographies, program descriptions, finding aids, depository info; thus to provide structure and patterns for ARCS members. Discussion: Should this committee continue and should objectives remain the same? Based on surveys, many members have requested access to forms on donation, transfer and policy. Mark Duffy suggested citing specific goals, number of new bibliography entries, etc. Decided that a commission specific task force should be instituted with Joan Clemens and Nancy Taylor checking into use survey to identify specific needs, use listserv as means of discussion, use website to share forms (but not to issue standards). All form templates should be checked first by Steering Committee to make sure this information is not available through other venues. Use committee to build bibliographies, provide models and affirmation; to serve as a forum for resource discussions.
Nominations Committee: For 2005, need new Member-at-Large to replace Joan Clemens; need new Vice-Chair/Chair Elect to replace Loretta Zwolak Greene
Program Presentation SAA and ARCS: Discussion: Need to raise ARCS visibility at SAA programs, noted only one ARCS member in general presentation panels. Need to discuss ideas for both general and ARCS programs on listserv – promote October 8 deadline for session proposals for 2005. Need to use ARCS programs as springboards to general SAA programs. Consider past sessions for ideas on new sessions.
Suggestion for panels:
For general Program: Connection with business archives; issues of records alienation, custodial responsibility and legal ramifications of holdings policy. For ARCS Program: Suggestions via survey responses:
Further business: Decided to appeal for smaller room such as meeting had this conference, but will be dependent on the program. Lorretta Greene will be responsible for convening the 2005 Steering Committee meeting in New Orleans.
Meeting adjourned by Diane Wells at 1 p.m. Hall Joins Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives Taffey Hall has recently joined the staff of the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee, as archivist. Ms. Hall completed her BA degree from Tennessee Wesleyan College and is completing her MA in Public History at Middle Tennessee State University. Prior to coming to the SBHLA, Taffey worked as graduate research assistant at the Rutherford County Archives and as an intern at the Tennessee Valley Authority Historic Collection and Tennessee General Assembly. She has also served as a staff writer for her hometown newspaper, The Daily Post Athenian. Hendley Collection Reflects Evangelist's 67 Years in Ministry NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) The Jesse Murphy Hendley Collection, documenting more than 60 years of the Southern Baptist evangelist's ministry, is now available for research at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Nashville, Tenn.
Hendley, often called the dean of Southern Baptist evangelists, began Atlanta’s first Christian radio broadcast in 1931 which developed into “The Radio Evangelistic Hour” and continued until his death at age 87 in 1994.
”Jesse Hendley was one of the most remarkable evangelists Southern Baptists ever produced,” said Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Patterson listed four reasons for his high regard for Hendley – “a remarkably saintly life and sweet spirit, refusal to compromise on biblical truth regardless of political correctness, thorough knowledge of the Greek New Testament, and a willingness to serve churches of all sizes.”
”His love for the lost and his desire to see men come to Christ is legendary,” Patterson said in a statement to Baptist Press.
In 1995, a room in the historic Manor House at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., was named in honor of Hendley, along with such Southern Baptist leaders as Adrian Rogers and James Merritt. Manor House, a guest house for prospective students known as “The House of Prophets,” was renovated under the leadership of Patterson and his wife while he was president of the seminary.
Hendley’s name at Manor House serves to “remind incoming students of the kind of preachers we ought all to be,” Patterson said.
Raised in Atlanta, Hendley accepted a call to preach while he was a freshman at Georgia Tech University, prompting a transfer to Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. His first pastorate was at Liberty Baptist Church in Liburn, Ga.; he then served at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in East Point, Ga., for 14 years. Under his leadership, the church grew from 85 people to an average Sunday attendance of 2,300.
Once he became a fulltime evangelist, Hendley preached throughout the United States and in Africa, India, Indonesia, Singapore and South America. A life well spent: Through Jesse Hendley's Christian radio broadcasts and his work as an evangelist, countless people came to know Christ as Savior. Documentation of his ministry is now available in Nashville, Tenn. Photo courtesy of Jesse Hendley Collection The Hendley collection consists of 11 linear feet of material including his sermons, sermon outlines and sermons on cassette tape that were presented on his radio show. The collection also includes a gamut of material showcasing Hendley’s talents as an author, poet and hymn writer, according to archivist Taffey Hall at the library and archives. “The collection would be most useful to researchers studying 20th-century religious culture and evangelism in the United States,” Hall said.
In addition to the documentation of Hendley’s ministry are letters of correspondence between him and some of the great ministers of the 20th century and beyond, including Billy Graham, R.G. Lee, Eddie Martin and Charles Stanley.
The Hendley collection was donated to the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives by Hendley’s children, Helen Hendley Herron of Ellijay, Ga., and Jesse David Hendley of Tucker, Ga. “We wanted it to be in a place where it could be preserved and where other ministers or people who were interested in his ministry could go there and look it up,” Jim Herron, Helen’s husband, told Baptist Press. The pair worked nearly three years to compile the collection.
Hendley was a strong supporter of the Southern Baptist Convention and loved its ministers, so they concluded the proper place for the collection was in the convention’s care.
Helen Herron also shared what her father would want said of him:
Herron explained that her father had an office in East Point, just outside Atlanta, filled with file cabinets of sermons. He also had kept a collection of the monthly newsletters he distributed. “He had a monthly newsletter and it had at least one sermon if not more in it. Most of the time it was monthly, except sometimes when times got hard, like during WWII. He never would beg for money. If the funds got low, he would let people know that there was a need, but he said, ‘I will never beg for Jesus,’” Herron said.
Bill Sumners, director of the library and archives, said the large number of audio recordings that document Hendley’s radio broadcasts are a significant part of the collection.
“The radio show is one of those things you do that a lot of times you don’t see how it impacts people,” he said. “Obviously he was committed to that kind of ministry. I think that is a fairly unique thing as part of our collection.”
An inventory of the collection may be viewed on the library and archives’ website, www.sbhla.org.
Catholic Relief Services Free Book
Copies are available of the Catholic Relief Services – A Short History of the Early and Post-War Years, printed in 2003. It is unbound, 83 pages printed on one side. It was prepared by Larry Bourassa and consists of “passages from twenty-seven CRS oral histories of seasoned alumni.” Anyone wanting a free copy of this work, may request it by contacting Marcia Stein, Archivist, Chicago Province Archives, Society of the Divine Word, Techny, IL 60082, phone: 847-753-7431, fax: 847 753-7464. The General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church, located in Madison, New Jersey, has received a film preservation grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation for $12,000.
This grant will go toward the preservation of two films in the GCAH film collection, Worship: A Family’s Heritage and Far From Alone. Both films are from the mid-twentieth century. Both are suffering from deterioration. The project will create for each title a new film master, a copy from which new copies can be printed (called a print master), a patron copy, which can viewed at the Archives Center, and a DVD version, for even easier patron viewing.
Worship is a documentary made in the late 1950s about the nature of worship. It provides a wonderful window into the nature of mid-twentieth century United Methodist worship practices and beliefs. Alone is a movie made by the former Board of Temperance and may well be the last temperance-related film made by the denomination. The film tells the story of a young college athlete pressured to appear on a television program sponsored by a beer company and the support he discovers from friends, parents and coaches in standing up for his convictions.
GCAH has several hundred film and television titles and is beginning a preservation program for these films.
For more information please contact: Dale Patterson, Archivist-Records Administrator, General Commission on Archives and History, P.O. Box 127, Madison, NJ 07940, phone: 973-408-3195, dpatterson@gcah.org.
The quadrennial Congress of the International Council on Archives took place in Vienna, Austria, Aug. 23-28, 2004. The theme for this year’s meeting was, “Archives, Memory and Knowledge.” The program chair was Dr. Francis X. Blouin, University of Michigan. Unlike other congresses, the program sessions were arranged in the same way as sessions of the annual meetings of the Society of American Archivists. The new method of creating a program called for input from each section and the Section on Churches and Religious Denominations sponsored several sessions. Topics for these and other sessions with a religious archives component were: “Music in Spanish American Colonial Religious Institutions;” “Transforming Historic Sacramental Registers into Databases to Support Genetic Research;” “Religious Archives and Society;” “New Religious Movements Collections: Development and Access Issues;” “Challenging Times: Archives, Accountability and the Law;” and “International Collaboration in Preserving Church Archives.” SAA members from ARCS among the program participants were Jac Treanor, Chicago Archdiocese Archives and Records Center; Mark Thiel, Marquette University.
The Section on Churches and Religious Denominations (SKR) held its quadrennial meeting during the congress, which meant that the makeup of the Steering Committee and officers were changed. The new chair of the section is Dr. Herbert Wurster, Diocese of Passau, Germany; Vice-chair is Dr. Michael Hausler, Archives of Diaconal Work of the Evangelical Church of Germany, Berlin, Germany; the new secretary is Christine Taylor, Archdiocese of Seattle; and Elisabeth Wittman, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is vice-secretary. Other SAA members on the Steering Committee include: Mark Duffy, Episcopal Church USA and Mark Thiel, Marquette University. Other steering committee members come from Austria, Belgium, England, Germany, Hungary and Israel. In the interim between the quadrennial congresses, the Steering Committee works on section matters, via an annual meeting, which is tentatively planned to take place in Rome in 2005. For the governance of ICA itself, there was also a two-day meeting of the General Assembly. Among the decisions made there was to adopt a new constitution; approval of “CA Strategies and Priorities Areas;” and the establishment of the North American Archival Network. Exactly what this latter group is and what it will do are not yet known. Elections were not held at the ICA General Assembly in Vienna, as the new constitution introduces a postal ballot system. Under the transition provisions, the first elections by ballot will be conducted by March 2005. In the interim period, the host of the 2004 Congress, Lorenz Mikoletzky is the ICA President.
In addition to regular program sessions, the congress featured a number of social events including an opening reception with music by a string quartet; an evening at a “Heurigan”(wine tavern); an organ concert at St. Stephen’s Cathedral; and a ball, “The Congress Dances,” at the Vienna Rathaus (City Hall). Another very special event for the members of SKR was an evening at the residence of the Archbishop of Vienna. While he was not able to be present, Bishop Dr. Ludwig Schwarz, SDB, hosted the group. Entertainment was provided by a string quartet. Formal greetings were given from Bishop Schwarz and from out-going chair of SKR, Dr. Helmut Baier, Nurenberg, Germany. The evening concluded with a buffet supper.
The next ICA Congress, in four years, will take place in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. For additional information on SKR and ICA, other sections, meetings and publications, check: http://www.ica.org
The Archival Spirit is published three times a year by the Archivists of Religious Collections Section of the Society of American Archivists. Feature pieces as well as announcements of acquisitions and projects are welcome. Send submissions to: Wesley W. Wilson at wwwilson@depauw.edu. For membership information, contact: Society of American Archivists, 527 S. Wells, 5th Floor, Chicago, IL 60607, 312-922-0140, fax 312-347-1452, info@archivists.org [End of document. HTML document version prepared November 7, 2004.]
The program focused on the ramifications of merging or closing archives, creating new archival entities, use of outside repositories, contract services, and the disposition of cultural heritage. Vice-chair Loretta Greene introduced Margery Sly of the Presbyterian Historical Society who discussed her own experience in planning the merger of two facilities. She also provided six examples from other institutions which offered various experiences and issues, with various ideas for dealing with them. A discussion followed. The Chair summed up the discussion by noting that the theme appeared to be a need for organization support. What is the responsibility of the organization to the records? Do archivists have to educate them to their responsibilities? Do they understand the consequences of relinquishing their custody? The Chair called for a continuation of the discussion and suggested program sessions.
The Chair closed by encouraging members to get involved. She invited them to think about program sessions and the structure of the meetings and to inform the officers about their reflections so that the officers can then make decisions on the direction of the section.
The meeting closed at 12:00 noon
Respectfully submitted by
Gwynedd Cannan, Secretary
ARCS Steering Committee Meeting August 5, 2004
By Erin Curry
“Jesse Hendley was the greatest scholar-evangelist I have ever known,” Jerry Vines, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., said in a statement to Baptist Press. “He is the only man I ever knew who knew each of the 5,000-plus Greek words in the Greek New Testament by its lexical definition. He could quote entire chapters of the Greek New Testament. He was probably the most effective evangelist in reaching people for Christ I have ever heard. The greatest revival in the history of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, in terms of evangelistic results was conducted by Jesse Hendley. After one week, we had 375 people saved and 350 of them were baptized. He was a dear friend and mentor to me.”
He wanted put on his tombstone that Jesse Hendley loved Jesus with all his heart. He served Him for 67 years. He was saved when he was 20, and he was 87 when he died. That is literally all that man did. My mother took care of everything else, and all he did was pray and study that Word and preach. He was fluent in Greek and Hebrew, and I guess traced every word of the Bible to its origin so that he would be correct about it. The main thing I would want to say was that he loved Jesus.
GCAH Gets Film Preservation Grant
Archivists of Religious Collections Section Officers
Chair: Diane Wells, Episcopal Diocese of Olympia (Wash.)
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Loretta Zwolak Greene, Sisters of Providence Archives
Secretary: Gwynedd Cannan, Trinity Church, N.Y.
Past Chair/Nominating Committee: L. Dale Patterson, General Commission on Archives and History, United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J.
Representatives-at-Large: Joan S. Clemens, Pitts Theology Library, Emory University; Wesley W. Wilson, Archives of DePauw University and Indiana United Methodism
Newsletter Editor: Wesley W. Wilson
Web Coordinator: Mark J. Duffy, The Archives of the Episcopal Church USA