Andrews University

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Institute of Archaeology, Andrews University

Drawing Plan Of Baal Peor

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Serving Lunch

Van Arsdale, Katharine

Burton, Kevin

Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Faculty Publications 4-28-2025 A New Collaborative Project on Millerite Adventist Historical Research Katharine Van Arsdale Andrews University, vanarsdk@andrews.edu Kevin Burton Andrews University, burtonk@andrews.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pubs Recommended Citation Van Arsdale, Katharine and Burton, Kevin, "A New Collaborative Project on Millerite Adventist Historical Research" (2025). Faculty Publications. 5335. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pubs/5335 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact repository@andrews.edu. by Katharine Van Arsdale and Kevin Burton10         FOCUS         WINTER 2025RESEARCHWE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE A multi-year collaborative project between Aurora University (Aurora, Illinois), Andrews University’s Center for Adven-tist Research (CAR), and the Adventist Digital Library (ADL) to digitize Aurora’s Jenks Me-morial Collection of Adventual Materials. The Jenks Collection comprises over 350 linear feet of printed and handwritten ma-terials, including books, tracts, periodicals, broadsides, person-al correspondence, diaries and unpublished manuscripts that represent the lives of William Miller, Joshua V. Himes and countless other Millerites. These invaluable sources are very rare or unique and are difficult for researchers to easily access— indeed, this significant collection at Aurora University is primarily known only to those with word-of-mouth information. For years, devoted scholars have made the trek to rural Illinois to consult the Jenks Collection and, par-ticularly, 800 letters of William Miller’s correspondence held by Aurora University.Thanks to the partnership between Aurora, CAR and ADL, everyone now has free and easy worldwide access to some of these precious documents through the Adventist Digital Library. As more are digitized, more will be available online in the coming months and years.Aurora University was found-ed in 1893 by Advent Christians, a denomination that, like the Seventh-day Adventist Church, arose in the wake of the Great A New Collaborative Project on Millerite Adventist Historical ResearchDisappointment. However, Aurora University dropped its denomina-tional affiliation in 1971.While these historical religious materials remain important to Au-rora’s heritage, their library does not have the budget to improve access to the Jenks Collection. Nevertheless, Sarah McHone-Chase, the director of Aurora University’s library, hoped that an outside partnership would offer a path to preserve and share these Materials (top and middle) from the Jenks Memorial Collection of Adventual Materials (bottom) at Aurora University. PHOTOS: Jenks Memorial Collection of Adventual Materials, Aurora UniversityPhoto by Katharine Van ArsdaleAndrews University         ANNUAL REPORT         11Researchimportant resources. With a similar denominational history, Andrews University seemed like a perfect fit. As a result, McHone-Chase emailed Paulette Johnson, dean of libraries at Andrews University, in February 2024 to see if the two universities could restart a conversation that had begun many years earlier.Within a few hours, Johnson had connected with Katharine Van Arsdale, digital librarian, Adventist Digital Library; Kevin Burton, direc-tor, Center for Adventist Research; and Gary Burdick, dean of research. The group began working on this collaborative project. In April, Van Ar-sdale and Burton traveled to Aurora University to speak with McHone-Chase and her team in person and to assess the size and content of the Jenks Collection. After that positive meeting, Van Arsdale began draft-ing a project agreement that was signed in June. The team selected the “Manuscripts and Papers of William Miller” to be digitized first, due to the unique and important nature of the collection contents.In August, Van Arsdale and Burton traveled to Aurora and picked up the first seven boxes of the William Miller collection, as well as a broadside by Ellen Harmon titled “To the Little Remnant Scattered Abroad,” pub-lished April 6, 1846. The broadside is in impeccable condition and may be the finest copy in existence. The first seven Miller collection boxes contain letters from about 1814 to 1842, a re-cord book kept during Miller’s tenure as sheriff (1809–1811), and drafts of essays and sermons, among other treasures. In December, Van Arsdale, Burton and Fabio Batista, digitization manager, Adventist Digital Library, returned the first set of materials on loan from Aurora University and retrieved the second half of William Miller’s personal papers. These boxes contain Miller’s correspondence from 1842 through his death.In the fall of 2024, Shania Mama-rimbing, Andrews University nursing student, joined the ADL team to scan and process Miller’s papers and the White broadside. Thanks to her excellent work, over 700 documents are already available online through the Adventist Digital Library. As of February 2025, all Miller collection boxes have been scanned, and pro-cessing is underway. The complete Miller collection will be uploaded to ADL throughout the summer and fall of 2025. In the meantime, Mama-rimbing has started to transcribe Miller’s handwritten material using AI-powered software called Transkri-bus. The transcription process, which ordinarily might take years of pains-taking work, is projected to take only months thanks to software available today. Once the transcription process is complete, the content of Miller’s correspondence will be unlocked for keyword searching. A small grant provides funding for ADL to license transcription software and to hire students to digitize the Miller papers according to industry standards. As the scanning is done, both Aurora University and CAR re-ceive complete copies of the digitized collection to preserve, thereby back-ing up the work in multiple locations. Interested supporters are invited to follow the progress of digitization and uploading by regularly visiting the “Manuscripts and Papers of William Miller” on the Adventist Digital Library website: The files will continue to be shared freely online by each institution according to the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license.The teams at Aurora and Andrews universities are committed to the success of this project. Throughout the summer of 2024, Van Arsdale and Burton worked with Burdick and Carlisle Sutton, spon-sored research officer, to submit a grant proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities. While the team waits to learn the results of their application, the Aurora University and ADL librarians are spreading the word about the project through scholarship, starting with a col-laborative poster session that took place at the Illinois Library Association conference in October 2024. More will follow. Continued financial support is vital to make this project possible. Invest in the work: Kevin Burton, Fabio Batista and Katharine Van Arsdale picking up the  last seven boxes of William Miller’s papers  PHOTO: Kevin Burton

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