A conversation in the Ice house, October 2009:

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Mac: Ella, please pick up your crayons (or something like this).

Ella: [saluting] Right eye, Captain!

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I rarely put family stuff like this on this blog, but this is so cute I can’t resist.  We have no idea where she heard ‘aye, aye, captain’ but her rendition is priceless.  We are writing all of these down.  Trust me there are many more; Laura maintains a book for each of the girls.  It’s hard to believe this time next year Ella May will be in kindergarten.  Seems like yesterday I was announcing her birth on this blog.

Sometimes kind serendipity kisses you on the lips.  Some of my neatest finds come while I’m looking for something else.  Here is a serendipitous find from the January 20, 1920 issue of Christian Leader.  It is a short newsy item sent in by R. B. Neal about an infant school, Christian Normal Institute, in the eastern Kentucky mountains.  Grandad went to CNI in about 1926, and his father (my great-grandfather) Dr. KC Ice taught biology there gratis.  The school was oriented towards training teachers and preachers, not necessarily in that order.  It was then, and is now, a “Christian Church” school.  That is, it was established and supported by and considered as “one of our schools” by Stone-Campbell folks who favored the use of instrumental music and missionary societies.  It appears from this notice that from the very beginning they were a good deal more conservative than the Disciples who operated schools in Lexington, Hiram or Bethany.   It is now Kentucky Christian University and remains affiliated with Christian Churches and Churches of Christ (sometimes called Independents, or 4C’s).  Interesting that Neal writes to the Leader, a moderate Cincinnati paper aligned with acapella Churches of Christ.  It would seem that the lines were not in 1920 so clearly drawn as the came to be in subsequent decades. I find the appearance of this notice in CL significant for that reason in addition to what light it sheds on the life of the school which trained my grandfather.

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CHRISTIAN NORMAL INSTITUTE

Our Bible school took a collection yesterday of over $300 for the building of the new church home.  The new home will cost us about $10,000 more than we counted on, owing to the high cost of lumber and labor.  We have in marble in front, “Church of Christ.” The old building had “Christian Church,” which was an eyesore to many of us.

The Christian Normal Institute for mountain boys and girls has been incorporated.  We had a fine attendance last year.  Look for much better this year.

Grayson, Ky., Jan. 5.  R. B. Neal

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Is the building shown on this postcard the “new home” mentioned in this notice?  May well be.  If so, by the time the building was finished and the card issued, it was known as the Christian Church, not the Church of Christ, in Grayson, KY.

I nurture a few interests in my reading and book-collecting…in generally this order

–Books published by Gospel Advocate Publishing Company, McQuiddy Printing Company (both of Nashville), and F. L. Rowe (out of Cincinnati).

–Festschriften for Restorationist scholars (Restorationist broadly construed here; I have a particular interest in Churches of Christ scholars publishing in and being honored by festschriften).

–Biblical and theological scholarship produced by Churches of Christ writers.

–Nashville life, history, culture…even historical geography.

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Chime in…what are your collecting interests?  or at least, what tends to fill your shelves?

This from the January 1940 issue of The Apostolic Times (page 71), published in Nashville.   Unsigned, I attribute it to the paper’s editor and publisher, James A. Allen.

Faith in Christ lies at the bottom of every Christian life.  Without faith there would be no Christian life.  The Spirit enters the heart through the gospel, and then a new life begins in the heart.  Faith is the first evidence of this life within.  A man cannot believe in the absence of the Spirit.  It is faith in the heart that causes the sinner to repent of his sins.  It is not through fear of hell that we obey the commands of the Lord, but it is through faith and love.

Andrew Phillips blogged this a few days ago:

Today as you go about your tasks I ask that you remember in prayer my friends Clint and Adele Holloway.  They are en route, as I type, to China to finalize the adoption of their son, Jin.

I’ve known Clint for about ten years.  Clint is Associate Director of World Convention and Adele is an educator.  We have worked together on a few projects and we share a love for all things Stone-Campbell.  We have talked long and often about our common (and diverging) histories in the movement.  As a writer and historian he has done us a real service by chronicling the presence of the movement across the globe through his writing the National Profiles on the World Convention website.  Most recently (last week) he gave me the deluxe tour of Milligan College and Emmanuel School of Religion (their alma maters).   Better people you will not find!

Read about their journey here.

Owen Chapel Church of Christ, just south of Nashville, recently celebrated 150 years of ministry.

See this article for a bit more information.

Thanks, John Mark.

Read the full post here.

The first few Explorations installments were so verbose, I thought it appropriate to hold my comments to a minimum this time and let the pictures speak for themselves.

First, a quote:

With a binding like you’ve got, people are going to want to know what’s in the book. ~ Alan Jay Lerner, An American in Paris (screenplay)

I doubt the playwright had McQuiddy Printing in mind when he wrote that one, but I’ll go with it anyhow for starters….:)  In this post I want to begin exploring the art of the book in the Stone-Campbell movement.  Not all bibliophiles are readers, and not all readers are bibliophiles, and some researchers are neither but that is beside the point just here.  Whatever the case may be, there is an aesthetic dimension to publishing among the heirs of BW Stone and Thos. Campbell that has been ignored.  Too bad, really, because the books and periodicals…not too mention the ephemera…are worthy of exploration.   The books as objects make a fascinating study, as well shall see.  Also, it is an unfortunate irony that the tangible and aesthetic aspect of the movement’s literature has been both handled and at the very same time overlooked by every reader, researcher and bibliophile since the very beginning.  Here’s my attempt to attend to this.

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In the earliest days of the movement, there were a few books but several periodicals.  Though some publishers (Alexander Campbell did) offered bound volumes of their periodicals at the end of the year, subscribers often had their own single issues bound themselves.  Most editors supplied a title page for the entire volume year in the last issue of that volume.  Then you took your papers to a binder and had them done up as simply or as nicely as your theology and pocket-book would allow.  The Harbinger below is typical of the style and size of the early periodicals.  The earlier ones were simpler, and as time passed (and for the lucky ones… increased revenue no doubt helped as well) the type improved and the covers grew more decorative.  By mid-19th century, especially after the Civil War, the periodicals to 11 x 17 or larger.

Here’s a single issue of the Millennial Harbinger (May 1851)

Here’s a bound volume of the Harbinger (1849) in 1/4 leather with marbled paper boards.

Campbell’s Christian System (3rd ed., 1840). Admittedly, not the nicest condition copy you’d find, but comparable in style to most American publishers of the day.  Simple leather (sheep, calf or morocco if you are fancy) boards with plain spine labels are the standard attire for books prior to the Civil War.  Cloth and paper were cheaper options (see below).  I wonder if this one was bound in the same shop that printed the Harbinger (which still stands in Bethany village today).

Moving up in time, here is Campbell’s Christian Baptism (1851) in a simple cloth binding.  I’ve seen it in varieties of leather as well.

The periodical output grew by leaps and bounds by mid-century and so did the book publishing.  By the 1870’s and 1880’s there are ‘brotherhood’ publishing houses…if you account for the differing degrees of official brotherhood (or if you prefer, denominational) status.  At the turn of the (last) century there was quite a back-and-forth between Christian Standard and Standard Publishing Company vs. Christian-Evangelist and the Christian Publishing Company concerning whether there is or ought to be an official brotherhood publishing house.  Anyhow, these houses put out the books.   Here we see the art of the book really come into its own (or remain plain as the theology and the pocket book dictated).  The latter part of the 19th century was the heyday for Stone-Campbell biblioaesthetics.

T. W. Brents, Gospel Plan of Salvation (Cincinnati: Bosworth, Chase and Hall, 1874) in plain cloth, blindstamped covers, gilt lettering to the spine:

William Baxter, Life of Walter Scott (Cincinnati: Bosworth, Chase and Hall, 1874), cloth with decorative front cover:

A. S. Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve (Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875)

Elizabeth Jameson Reid, Judge Richard Reid, A Biography (Cincinnati: standard Publishing Company, 1886), probably one of the best examples of Victorian style meets Campbellism:

J. W. McGarvey Evidences of Christianity ["Text and Canon"] (Cincinnati: Guide Printing and Publishing Company, 1886).  Claude Spencer notes in his Author Catalog of the Disciples of Christ that the companion volume to McG.’s Text and Canon, the Credibility and Inspiration of the New Testament was in its first printing defective.  The front cover is misspelled Creditability and Inspiration…I have yet to lay eyes on that one.

Isaac Errett, Evenings With the Bible 3 vols. (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Company, 1884, 1887, 1889).  BC Goodpasture reissued this set in the middle 1950’s.  Same content inside but with classic GA style on the outside.  (I prefer the true firsts on this set).  I’ve seen variations in the binding on this set, perhaps due to two or more printings???  I have yet to see a set bound in leather.

Z. T. Sweeney, Under Ten Flags (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Company, 1889) has blindstamped covers and a bold, striking spine:

Not all Stone-Campbell books were published by “brotherhood” operations.  Two examples: Robert Richardson’s Memoirs of Alexander Campbell (1868) and J. W. McGarvey’s Lands of the Bible (1881) both of which were published by Lippincott.  Memoirs was also issued in a one-volume edition on thin paper.  I’ve seen Memoirs in cloth and in 1/4 morocco leather with marbled endpapers and boards.  Very nice!

And James A. Harding’s debate with T. L. Wilkinson was published in Canada.  Debate on Baptism between J. A. Harding and T. L. Wilkinson (Toronto: William Briggs, 1886) has an understated design on the front board.

Gospel Advocate Publishing Company and McQuiddy Printing got into the game in the late 1880’s and 1890’s.  I’ll explore their items in another installment.

What Have You?

For editorial purposes I am very anxious to secure any book, paper, or pamphlet, that I do not already have, by or concerning the “pioneers” of what is commonly called the “Restoration Movement.”  Here are some items that I need to complete my collection: Sweeney-Munnell Debate; Millennial Harbinger 1833, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1867, 1869, 1870; the Christian Messenger, any year; the American Christian Review, any year; the Apostolic Times; the Gospel Advocate before 1900; Life of Jacob Creath; Religious Historian; Christian Magazine.

Please send me a list of what you have, I will pay reasonable price for any item I can use.  Address me: 1198 Clifton Rd, NE, Atlanta, Ga.

–B. C. Goodpasture, “What Have You?” Gospel Advocate, February 25, 1932, page 223.

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In February 1932 BCG is a regular columnist for GA, submitting items from various Restoration divines of the 19th century.  If you are casting about for a research project, it will be revealing I think to collate these articles that BCG thought worthy of the time of a 1932 Churches of Christ readership.  Who is he reading?  What are they saying?  What is he saying by reprinting them? All good questions, I think.  Bibliophile I am, I have a few other questions.  It appears his collection of the Harbinger is respectably complete, as his his run of GA since 1900.  He doesn’t mention Christian Baptist or Scott’s Evangelist…does he already have them?  ACR and Apostolic Times were difficult to find in 1930’s…how much more so today!  Tolbert Fanning’s Religious Historian and Christian Magazine are two Nashville journals often overlooked because they are, I think, overshadowed by the Gospel Advocate. The Sweeney-Munnell discussion is subtitled “Shall Christians go to war?”  published in 1872 it is an intramural debate (Thomas Munnell and J. S. Sweeney are both disciples).  The Creath biography is another rare book made accessible in the 1950’s by Old Paths Book Club.  But in 1932 there was no OPBC,  neither was there a Harbinger Book Club (operated by Goodpasture from his Caldwell Lane home in Nashville). So, BC Goodpasture is sleuthing for rare restoration paper.  I wonder what he got, if anything?  He doesn’t say.