The Pink and Green

Special Collections Receives NEH Preservation Assistance Grant

Hannah Scheiwe, '09, working in the rare books and archives storage area.

A Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities offers promise for the future of the Library’s special collections. The $6,000 award will underwrite a preservation survey of Special Collections, which includes the College archives and rare books collection, along with the archives of the West Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Albion College Special Collections consists of approximately 7575 volumes and 1726 linear feet of archival material. The archival collections associated with the United Methodist Church precede the division of the West Michigan and Detroit Conferences and, in some cases, even the founding of the College in 1835.  Important college archival collections include the Marvin J. Vann Collection of artifacts and moving and still pictures of the Lacandon Indians of Chiapas Mexico and the J Harlen Bretz Collection of maps and personal papers documenting his discovery of the origin of the Channeled Scablands. Both archives contain records, manuscripts, ephemera, photographs, scrapbooks, art and artifacts, textiles, furniture, slides, magnetic sound recordings, LPs, 16mm film, and video–all documenting the history of the College and the Methodist Church in Michigan from 1814 to the present.

The rare books collection contains a wide variety of items in the humanities, including: Americana; modern first editions of literature; historical and philosophical texts and papers in the sciences, mathematics, voyages and exploration; archeology; early 20th-century poetry; fine press books; and early American textbooks. Nearly 90% of the rare books collection covers the disciplines of theology, literature, and history, dating from the 15th to the early 20th century. Few small colleges have a collection that so broadly represents, through printed books, manuscripts, artifacts, and archival collections the history of printing and binding and the development of Western civilization and thought.

Our collections are used frequently by faculty, students, and staff of the College and the West Michigan Conference as well as by researchers from other institutions for exhibitions, student and faculty scholarship, institutional research, and publications, including books, articles, stage productions, and documentary films.

Mary Houghton measuring to create a protective enclosure for a rare book.

The survey that the NEH grant is funding will: (1) assess possible risks to collections from building- and environmentally-related problems; (2) address fire protection and security concerns; (3) evaluate institutional policies and procedures as they apply to preservation; (4) review the maintenance program of Special Collections in terms of shelf preparation, book repair, and commercial binding; (5) provide recommendations for improving storage and handling practices; and (6) review the general condition of paper-based collections.

The primary goal of the assessment will be to obtain recommendations and priorities for Special Collections that can be provided to Albion College’s Campus Master Plan Committee and the Library and Learning Commons Research Team as part the current campus strategic planning process. These two committees will be holding discussions regarding possible renovations and additions to our library buildings over the next year. Thus, it is critical to have this assessment information to ensure that the collections will be properly housed and cared for into the future. The secondary goal of this process is to (1) identify portions of the collections that are in need of further preservation assessment, and (2) review any current policies, procedures, or practices that are in danger of causing harm to the collections.

The grant will be applied towards a preservation consultant from the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts, who will evaluate current environmental and storage conditions and any potential risks to the collections. The process will consist of a one-day site visit in March of this year and the creation of a detailed report, outlining recommendations for the future management, storage, handling, conservation, and exhibition of the archives and rare books collections.

We’ll be sure to keep you up to date as progress with the grant and NEDCC assessment continues, both here and in our Facebook group–become a member today!

Thinking Albion, along with the column from the College Archives, “A Day in the Life,” will return next Friday, February 27, 2009. Be sure to check out Thinking Albion and all it’s content! You can subscribe to it here: http://www.albion.edu/news/.

In celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, here’s a little tidbit you may not have known:

Did you know Albion has a Lincoln connection?

Franklin C. Courter (1854-1947), former student and art professor at Albion College 1888-1895, painted this famous portrait of Lincoln and Sojourner Turth that was exhibited at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, “Lincoln Showing Sojourner Truth the Bible Presented Him by the Colored People of Baltimore.” The painting was exhibited in the Michigan building at the World’s Fair.

After the Columbian Exposition, the portrait was hung in the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where it was later destroyed during a fire. Later in life, Courter made a studio in New York City, where the portraiture of President Lincoln was his specialty. He was also commissioned often to restore the paintings of John Singer Sargent.

Courter was also a collector of Lincolniana, owning a group of 22 portraits of the former president, copies of 43 of the 48 authentic Lincoln photographs then in existence, life and death masks of the martyred president and casts of his hands, in addition to a number of documents relating to him. At one time, three of Courter’s own portraits of Lincoln hung in the college chapel (now Dickie Hall). One of these hangs in the Stockwell Memorial Library, another, pictured below, is located in the College Archives. “Lincoln in Repose” was presented to G. Lynn Sumner, ’07, by one hundred of his friends on February 6, 1941 at his presentation of “Abe Lincoln, The Man” for The Advertising Club of New York City. Sumner was also a great Lincoln collector, with over 1000 volumes in his library.

"Lincoln in Repose" by Franklin C. Courter, Gift of the Class of 1876.

Courter is also responsible for the painting of Lewis Ransom Fiske that hangs in the President’s Room in the Stockwell building. It was a gift to the College by the Class of 1895. While in Albion’s employ, Courter taught both G. Glenn Newell, ’91, well-known for his Liberty Bond posters and landscapes of farm life, and Lynn Bogue Hunt, 1901, a famous illustrator of wildlife. Courter also taught Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, whose objective in studying with Courter was to establish a background for his chalk-talks and studies in anatomy.

This week’s post is on target in terms of the publication date but a few days early regarding the subject matter. However, I wanted to celebrate the 186th anniversary of the birth of Judson Dwight Collins on February 12, 1823 in Rose, Wayne County, New York.

Collins graduated in the first class from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1845. He was an instructor at the Wesleyan Seminary at Albion (now Albion College) from 1845-1846. While an instructor at Albion, Collins taught courses in Latin, Greek, chemistry, botany, and rhetoric. He also served as a Sunday school teacher for the local Methodist church and conducted research in anatomy and Hebrew.

Collins is most important to Albion College and to the Methodist Church because he was the first Methodist missionary to China, along with Dr. Rev. Moses C. White in the spring of 1847. Unfortunately, Collins’ short tenure in China was fraught with many obstacles, including his inability to learn the language, the strong Chinese sentiment against foreigners, and finally an illness that required him to return home to Michigan in 1851. He later died at his parents home in May of 1852, never having regained his health.

In honor of Collins and his mission, a stone monument on the quad was inscribed with his name, as well as that of the first principal of the Seminary, Charles F. Stockwell, and first president of Albion College, Clark T. Hinman. Upon the north side of the square obelisk was inscribed,

In memory of Judson D. Collins, A.M., First Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church to the Empire of China. Died May 25th, 1852. ‘Go ye into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’ -Christ-

In his 1852 address to the University of Michigan’s Union Missionary Society of Inquiry, Rev. C.T. Hinman praised Collins’ missionary spirit, calling him a “martyr for China and for man.” In the 1930s, Alumni Secretary W.B. Buck attempted to find out what had happened to the obelisk. His final impression was the monument had been removed either by choice because “it suggested a cemetery rather than a campus” or that it had been vandalized and broken and had to be removed. It was believed that the names of Stockwell, Collins, and Hinman were transferred to a wall in the Chapel (now Dickie Hall).

In 2001, an exhibit was held by Special Collections, in conjunction with International Week, that highlighted Albion’s Methodist connection to China and Judson Collins’ role in it. Some of the materials from that exhibit are still available online at <http://www.albion.edu/library/specialcollections/Exhibits/collins_exhibit1.asp>.

Below are additional materials regarding Collins and the monument to him that were not included in the 2001 exhibit or the online overview. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view of the image or a pdf file. You will need Adobe Reader to view the pdfs.

Tehilim, owned by Judson D. Collins

Excerpts from Pilcher, Elijah H. (1878). Protestantism in Michigan. Detroit: R.D.S. Tyler & Co., Publishers.

Dryden, Mrs. S.H. (1850, October). Burial of Judson. Western Christian Advocate.

Correspondence between W.B. Buck, Alumni Secretary, and Alumni Elvin Swarthout and Carmi Smith regarding the fate of the Collins monument (1934, February)

Scott, Clifton W. (1934, December 13). Judson Collins--Sainted Hero. Michigan Christian Advocate.

Galloway, Nina B. (1941, July 10). A Visit to the Michigan Grave of Our First Missionary to China. Michigan Christian Advocate, p6.

Eva, Sidney D. (1947, February 20-March 13). Judson Dwight Collins--Missionary from Michigan. Michigan Christian Advocate.

Excerpt from Pellowe, William C.S. (1959). The Beginnings of Methodism in Michigan 1804-1856. Reprint. The Historical Society of the Detroit Annual Conference.

Brunger, Ron. (1985, November). The Collins Family: The First Notable Family in Michigan Methodism. Detroit Conference Historical Messenger, pp3-5.

Brunger, Ronald A., Ed. (1987). Judson Collins--140th Anniversary. The Detroit Conference Historical Messenger, pp1-2.

To view past issues of “A Day in the Life,” please go to <http://www.albion.edu/library/specialcollections/histories/adayinthelife/>.

Unknown Group, circa 1890.

To view past Photos of the Month, please go to:
http://www.albion.edu/library/specialcollections/Exhibits/pastphotos.asp