August 27, 2001
Texas Historical Collection has moved
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___After 65 years at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and three years at the Baptist Building in Dallas, the Texas Baptist Historical Collection now has a home of its own.
___The Baptist General Convention of Texas recently moved the collection to a 6,000-square-foot suite on the first floor of the Amberton Tower, 4144 North Central Expressway in Dallas.
___The expanded facility will allow the collection to do far more in helping Texas Baptists preserve their history and understand their heritage, said Alan Lefever, director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection.
___When the director of the collection and his staff came to work for the BGCT and relocated to the Baptist Building in 1998, the collection's holdings filled a little more than 800 linear feet.
___In the past three years, as the collection grew, it was spread out over two floors and warehouse space at the Baptist Building.
___The new facility immediately provides 3,000 linear feet of storage for the collection's holdings in a controlled humidity environment. And a motorized compact metal shelving system allows for expansion up to 8,000 linear feet.
___"This is exciting for us because it gives us the ability to actually go out and seek materials from churches and individuals," Lefever said.
___The collection houses the archives of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas and the personal papers of Texas Baptist pastors and denominational leaders.
___"We would love to have sermon files from pastors who have served churches of any size, anywhere in the state," Lefever added.
___The collection includes historical information on about 2,000 churches, the minutes of church conferences for about 400 congregations, and a biographical database on Texas Baptist ministers with more than 300,000 entries.
___Churches that deposit their minutes in the collection retain the property rights to them and may remove them at any time. The collection also provides microfilming for official records as a service to Texas Baptist churches at no cost.
___The new facility includes a reading room for researchers.
___For the first time, the collection has a preservation area for archival materials. The staff will be able to repair, clean and bind books and to de-acidify documents on site.
___"This is the first time since the collection was established in 1933 that we have had this kind of facility," Lefever said. "This is something we have dreamed of for a long time."
___Note: The Texas Baptist Historical Collection needs volunteer assistance. Contact Lefever at (972) 331-2235.
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