Pages from the past being preserved
11-10-2008Newspapers dating to 1884 find new home at Philander Smith library
Efforts are under way to restore and preserve more than 120 years of history printed on the pages of the Arkansas United Methodist and its predecessor publications, the Arkansas Methodist and the Western Methodist.
Bound volumes of the papers date to 1884. Arkansas Conference archivist Marcia Crossman is overseeing the project, which includes the careful repair of the most fragile books and their binding and the preservation of the often brittle paper by applying a special liquid preservation agent. The work is being done at the United Methodist Archives at Bailey Library on the campus of Hendrix College in Conway.
The set of papers Crossman is working on was formerly housed at the Conference offices in Little Rock. Due to space limitations, however, the bound volumes “were on top of some cabinets,” Crossman said, offering limiting accessibility. Plus, “this did not seem like a worthy or safe place for such a valuable, historical collection. ”
Martha Taylor, Arkansas Conference director of communications, contacted Crossman in November to discuss the best option for the safe keeping and preservation of the collection.
“Even though microfilm of the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper is available in several places,” Crossman said, including the archives at Hendrix College, “reading, touching and turning the original newspaper pages give us a link to the Methodist people who came before us. This printed history is a valuable part of who we are and how we got where we are. We never want to loose that.”
Once the project is complete, the bound volumes will be at home in the archives section of the Donald W. Reynolds Library on the campus of Philander Smith College in Little Rock — a building that is next door to the Kendall Center, which houses the Arkansas Conference ministry offices.
“Gracie Carter, who is the Philander Smith College archivist, graciously offered us space in their new state-of-the-art archives facility,” Crossman said. “We knew this would be a fabulous place … The archives are both light- and temperature-controlled. The bookshelves are even on tracks that move with the turn of a wheel.”
The conference Commission of Archives and History has been consulted and involved in the preservation project and is providing some funding as well.
Once they become part of the library’s archive collection, the newspapers may not be checked out but can be studied and viewed onsite at the library.
