Artifact of the Month

“Who Cares for the Woman Who Toils for Her Bread?”: The Ministry of Virginia Healey Asher

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment
Portrait photo of Virginia Asher, 1905. Photo File: Asher, Virginia.

Scattered throughout the Evangelism & Missions Archives are paper fragments that tell the story of a remarkable woman – Virginia Healey Asher.

Virginia Healey was born to Irish parents in Chicago in 1869. Although her family was Catholic, she attended the church that had grown out of Dwight L. Moody’s Sunday School class and there gave her life to Christ during an evangelistic meeting when she was eleven. Her future husband, William Asher, was saved at the same meeting. When a few years later D. L. Moody called for workers, she volunteered. He assigned her to outdoor street meetings in Chicago where she sang and witnessed. She planned to go to Moody’s school in Northfield, Massachusetts when William, who had also volunteered for evangelism ministry, proposed. She was a teenage bride when they married on December 14, 1887.

Continue reading →

It’s a beautiful day in Chicago!

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment

Along with hundreds of collections on global missions and evangelism, Wheaton Archives & Special Collections also holds records documenting the history of Chicagoland, from institutions like the historic Moody Church, Chicago Gospel Tabernacle and the Chicago Sunday Evening Club to individuals like William Leslie, Herbert J. Taylor, Vaughn Shoemaker, and Harold “Red” Grange. This month, Wheaton Archives & Special Collections features one such collection, the papers of hymn singer and radio broadcaster Everett Mitchell, best known for his memorable opening line, “It’s a beautiful day in Chicago!”

Continue reading →

‘Oswald in His Presence’

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment
Oswald Chambers, 1917. Photograph #SC112-068.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Oswald Chambers’ birth on July 24, 1874, in Aberdeen, Scotland. Chambers’ best known work, My Utmost for His Highest, has remained in print since its first publication in Britain in 1927. The daily devotional has been translated into over forty languages and ranks in the top ten of religious bestsellers in the United States, with millions of copies sold since the first American edition was published in 1935.

Continue reading →

Pages of Wonder: A Journey Through the William S. Akin Rare Book Collection

/ Emily Banas / 2 Comments
William S. Akin
William Akin (SC-01, Folder 2-91).

In this day of technology, AI, and rapid information growth many decry the extinction of the printed book. But when someone handles a fine rare book, one does not easily look to its demise. Books are wonders. They are thoughts distributed to the world. They are invitations to new possibilities and new horizons.

Wheaton Archives & Special Collections has many wondrous examples of the power of the book – as presenter of ideas and as art. Special Collections’ foundational rare book collection, SC-01, was a gift from collector William Sanford Akin. The collection numbers over 2,000 monographs, with a special emphasis on British literature, including James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Lewis Carroll, and John Bunyan.

Continue reading →

The Scriptures Visualized: Archives of Christian Film

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment
Cover of the film catalog of Scriptures Visualized Films (later the C. O. Baptista Film Mission), ca. late 1940s. Collection 225, Box 1, Folder 1.

In the 20th century, Archives became museums of obsolete technology, collectors of valuable records in formats no longer commercially viable or practical. This growing list includes wax cylinders, wire recordings, analog audio tapes, audio cassettes, microcassettes, Dictaphone disks, 1” and 2” video reels, U-Matic video cassettes, VHS and Beta cassettes, as well as 8mm and 16mm films.

From the mid-1930s through the late-1980s, 16mm film was a very popular medium for schools, businesses, churches, and parachurch organizations. The Evangelism & Missions Archives has hundreds of movies in these formats (especially 16mm), as well as the production and correspondence files of evangelical film companies. Meant to be shown in church or at church events, these movies were particularly thought to be a means of attracting young people to church. 

Continue reading →

A Holiday by the Lake

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment
Photo File: Moody Church, Exteriors

Collection 330 in the Evangelism & Mission Archives is the Records of Moody Memorial Church, one of the oldest and largest independent churches of Chicago, Illinois. Part of that collection is Photo Album VI, an old and dilapidated scrapbook with this introduction pasted onto its inside front cover:

THIS BOOK OF PICTURES REPRESENTING THE FRESH AIR WORK OF THE Moody Sunday School (during the years between 1903 and 1905) is presented to the Moody Sunday School and to be kept where the officers and teachers of the Sunday School may have access.

The pictures were taken by G. P. Rockwell who at that time was Superintendent of the Fresh Air work under the direction of A. F. Gaylord who was Supt. of the Sunday School. The book was made by Mr. Rockwell and after many years of care, become the property of the Moody Sunday School. The book is very dear to his heart and many pleasant memories could be recalled through the pictures and the wonderful fellowship of the School and dear Mr A. F. Gaylord.

Needy boys and girls were selected by Mrs. A. F. Gaylord for the occasion of a vacation out in the country. Groups of about 75 were taken on the Northwestern Railroad to Ravinia, Ill. and Glencoe, Ill. Each group was kept there under the care of a competent Christian workers for about two weks [sic]. Then they were carried back to the city much to their worrow [sic]. Often another group would take their place and thus the work was carried on during the entire summer,

Physical training were given the boys and girls daily. Big, hikes were given the groups each week end sometimes daily. Occasionaly [sic] they were given a taffy pull or hay ride to Fort Sheridan but every day they were taken to the lake where they splashed and ran and were taught to swim. Each child was given some work to do about the home and every one of them looked forward to the night time when they gathered for their evening devotions before going to bed. Thank God many found the Christ at the Camp for the General Supt. Mr Gaylord insisted that the spiritual work should come first.

Continue reading →

Memories of a College Life

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment

Each class of Wheaton College brings new traditions, experiences, and stories to the long history of the campus. One of the ways the College Archives seeks to preserve these transitory memories is by collecting student scrapbooks. With their rich ephemera of college life – jokes, notes, invitations, photographs, and other mementos – student scrapbooks offer a glimpse into a strange yet familiar past. While clothing has changed, new buildings have appeared, and student groups have come and gone, these scrapbooks document the continued vibrancy and experimentation of a liberal arts college education. Here are the snapshots of jaunts off-campus, the portraits of new friends, the paper remains of events (official and unofficial), and the scraps from the programs and clubs that come to define many students’ college experience.

Continue reading →

Music to the Glory of God

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment
Dr. Hans Rookmaaker (SC-18, Box 25)

The meeting of Hans Rookmaaker, a Dutch art critic, and Mahalia Jackson, a Black American gospel singer seems, at first impression, unlikely. Yet, archives are full of such improbable pairings.

Born February 27th, 1922, in the Netherlands, Hans Rookmaaker came to adulthood under the storm of Nazism and war. As the Dutch Nazi Party organized, teenaged Hans pursued a growing interest in art and music, developing an abiding passion for jazz. Spending his pocket money on albums and phonograph needles; some of his favorites included Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. Under the Nazi occupation, Hans joined the Underground Press and agreed to distribute anti-Nazi leaflets. Arrested after his first night, he was eventually freed through his father’s political connections. However, in 1943, thousands of Dutch reservists, including Hans, were “officially” enlisted for service at a collecting center where they were herded into trains and transported to concentration camps.

Continue reading →

Remembering Christmas Past

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment
Blanchard Tower displays a huge wreath, decorated with lights, c. 1960.

It has often been astutely observed that our warm feeling for Christmas are not about the present but the past. In other words, sentimental memories of remembered holiday seasons profoundly color our present expectations. As the caretaker for the physical memories of Wheaton College, Wheaton Archives & Special Collections maintains many photos, stories, and other mementos of the joyous, bygone yuletide seasons celebrated throughout the college’s history. As we wistfully glance back at campus festivities, perhaps the candlelit glow of our present Christmas will burn even brighter.

Continue reading →

The Landon Chronicles

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment
Kenneth Landon’s graduation from Wheaton College, 1924

One of the exceptional artifacts held by Special Collections are the 95 hours of oral history interviews with Kenneth and Margaret Landon, conducted over thirteen years by their youngest son, Kip (Kenneth). Gathered together as ‘The Landon Chronicles,’ the interviews provide rich detail and insight into the lives of these two remarkable individuals.

Margaret Mortenson and Kenneth Landon met as undergraduate students at Wheaton College in the early 1920s. Kenneth graduated in 1924 and the two were engaged in September 1924 before his move to Princeton, where he pursued a Th.M. degree. Margaret graduated from Wheaton a year later in 1925 and taught school until their wedding in June 1926.

Continue reading →