PUBLIC
SERVICE

billy graham center archives
2006 annual report

Wayne speaking in September to the first class to use the new Archival Seminar Room

Among some of the specific projects that the staff worked on were:

Presentations highlighting relevant archival documents and including exercises on how to do research in primary documents were prepared for classes in African History, America in the 1920s, Asian History, Current Trends in Missions, Emerging Evangelism, History & Philosophy of Christian Education, History of Evangelism, Cross Cultural Research Methods, Introduction to Historical Inquiry, Women's History in the United States, Social Psychology. These included seminars from Asbury College, Moody Bible Institute. The last class was held in the Reading Room early in the year. Starting in the fall, all classes from now on will meet in the Archival Seminar Room next door.

As part of the annual Treasures of Wheaton program, held for Wheaton College alumni just before commencement in May, Bob gave a talk entitled, "'That was the Time I Got Converted' : Born Again Tales From the BGC Archives" about the tapes, letters and other documents in the Archives where people describe their own conversion to Jesus Christ.

In September, the Archives participated in the Haystack 2006 conference in Madison, Wisconsin, sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Youth With a Mission. The Haystack prayer meeting of 1806 is usually considered the beginning of overseas foreign missions in the United States. The 2006 conference was to remember the past and plan for the future. The Archives staff prepared a display room with hundreds of documents from American mission history spanning the years from 1821 to 1981. Included in the room were letters, reports, minutes, posters, maps, photos, interviews, films, and videos from many countries spanning the years 1821 to 1981.

A display of documents on the origins and early years of Christianity Today magazine was prepared for the staff of the magazine as part of a fiftieth anniversary celebration.

A display of documents from missions history, in cooperation with the Special Collections department of the Wheaton College Library, was prepared for participants in the annual conference of Midwest Fellowship of Mission Studies.

The staff also conferred with Scott Matheson of the Navigators headquarters staff about the best way for that venerable evangelistic ministry to develop their own archives.

Bob giving the BGC Archives portion of the annual Treasures of Wheaton program for the Wheaton College alumni in May. In back of Bob are photos of Andrew Wyzenbeek, the narrator of the Archives' very first oral history interview, recorded in 1978.

The Archives received over $8,600 gifts in 2006 and almost $4,600 in fees.