Wheaton College

Faith, Memory, and Archives: An Interview with Devin Manuzullo-Thomas

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Last September, Wheaton Archives & Special Collections hosted Dr. Devin Manzullo-Thomas for the annual Archival Research Lecture, where he presented “Exhibiting Evangelicalism: Exploring the History of Christian Museums in the United States.” This month, we feature an interview with Dr. Manzullo-Thomas, delving into his archival exploration of how evangelical communities engage with and commemorate their histories.

When and how were you first introduced to Archives & Special Collections?

I first visited the Archives and Special Collections at Wheaton in 2013 or 2014, to conduct research related to my denomination, the Brethren in Christ Church. (Several Brethren in Christ leaders are either alumni of Wheaton College or are otherwise represented in Archives & Special Collections materials.) While there, I also visited the Billy Graham Museum on the first floor of Billy Graham Hall, and my interest was piqued. Because of my training as an archivist/public historian and my scholarly work on the history of my own denomination, I’ve long been interested in how religious communities present their history in museums and historic sites. I started wondering: “How have other evangelical groups and institutions represented the past in public spaces?”

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Tracing Wheaton’s First Black Students Through the Archives

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February is national Black History Month, and in celebration the Wheaton Archives & Special Collections offers a glimpse into the lives of Wheaton College’s first African American students: Mary Barker, Edward Sellers, and William Osborne. To trace these stories, archivists delved into the institutional records held in the College Archives and other sources to explore and uncover the unique voices and experiences of these pioneering students.

How did Mary Barker, Edward Sellers, and William Osborne pursue higher education at Wheaton College at a time when even few middle-class, white Americans could boast about holding a college degree? What challenges and obstacles did these individuals encounter on their educational journey? After completing their studies at Wheaton College, where did their paths lead, and what professional endeavors did they pursue?

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Humble Beginnings

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While December signifies the year’s end, this last month also marks a significant point of beginning for the stories of the fledging Illinois Institute of 1853 and the emerging Wheaton College of 1860.

On December 14, 1853, one-hundred and seventy years ago, the first classes of the Illinois Institute were held in the basement of a incomplete stone building atop a hill in Section 16, Township 39, DuPage County. Only a small town on the Illinois prairie in the close of 1853, the location in the new Milton Township offered the advantage of legislation common to many Midwest townships that enabled the special use of land in section 16 for schools.

Sketch of ‘Main and White House,’ c. 1863. College Archives Photograph #CA-B14012
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Pages of Wonder: A Journey Through the William S. Akin Rare Book Collection

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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.

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From Pantomimes to Parliamentary Procedure: Remembering the Wheaton College Literary Societies

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In his history of the Wheaton College literary societies, former Wheaton College communications professor, Edwin Hollatz, aptly stated that “the development of the American college is a story that can hardly be told without some consideration of Literary Societies” (Wheaton Alumni Magazine, September 1967). These student-led organizations, which thrived at Wheaton College from the mid-nineteenth century until World War II, played a pivotal role in shaping the college life and education of Wheaton students.

Members of the Celts (Excelsior) and Phils (Philalethian), brother-sister societies, 1914. (College Archives Photograph B06142)
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“From force of habit”: The Chicago, Aurora and Elgin

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For nearly sixty years the primary means of transportation for Wheaton College staff, students or anybody traveling from the Fox River Valley into the concrete canyons of the Windy City was the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin railway. Established in 1902, the locomotive, called “The Roarin’ Elgin,” conveyed passengers and freight between Chicago, Geneva, Batavia, Aurora, Elgin and St. Charles. Because evening trains headed westward from Chicago into the setting sun, it was also romantically (but unofficially) nicknamed the “Sunset Lines.”

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Memories of a College Life

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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.

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Research by Proxy: In the Manuscripts Reading Room with Chelsey Geisz

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While Wheaton Archives & Special Collections continually adds new digital content to our online archival photograph database and oral history interview collections, most of the thousands of pages of records in our collections can only be accessed in the Manuscripts Reading Room. We frequently receive inquiries from researchers who are unable to travel to use the collections, and so keep a list of local researchers who provide research and scanning services to distance patrons as “proxy researchers.” This week, we sat down with Chelsey Geisz for a behind-the-scenes look at proxy research in the Archives.

Chelsey Geisz is in her final semester of Wheaton College Graduate School’s MA in Systematic Theology. For the last year and a half, she has also served as a proxy researcher and a research assistant for a major College history project. Because of her work as a research assistant, she has the dubious distinction of likely being the only person alive who has read every Wheaton student publication from 1860-2000!

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‘He Had Something to Say and He Said It Well’: Billy Graham at Wheaton College

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Billy Graham, The Tower, 1944.

Next week will mark the five year anniversary of Rev. Billy Graham’s passing on February 21, 2018. This month, in remembrance of his remarkable life and legacy, Wheaton Archives & Special Collections commemorates the beginnings of Billy Graham’s evangelistic ministry as a fledgling undergraduate preacher at Wheaton College in 1940.

During Billy Graham’s time as a student at Florida Bible Institute (1937-1940), Alma Toff Edman, mother of then-interim president of Wheaton College, V. Raymond Edman, heard Graham preach at a local service. Impressed, she told her son Elner Edman and his friend Paul Fischer about the young preacher and urged that they hear him too. The two men invited Graham with them as a caddy for a round of golf. Similarly impressed with his passion for ministry and gift for speaking, they urged him to attend Wheaton College after graduating from FBI, to add a liberal arts education to his Bible and homiletics training. Graham applied to Wheaton and was accepted, starting on September 19, 1940.

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Remembering Christmas Past

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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.

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