W.L. Lyons Brown Library
Thomas Merton Center
Bellarmine University
The Thomas Merton Center has four ongoing goals:
- Preserving the materials that comprise the Merton archives.
- Facilitating on-site and remote access, as appropriate, to materials in the archives for scholars, students and the general public.
- Promoting use of the archives and Center, particularly by faculty and students of Bellarmine University.
- Acquiring additional Merton and Merton-related materials as they become available through gift or public sale.
Once again achievements have been made in all of these areas:
Preservation:
- A small group of the most unique and vulnerable pieces in the collection have been assessed by a paper conservator and are to be treated so as to better ensure their preservation.
- A project to re-house non-book secondary literature about Merton continues.
- The Center’s holding of typescripts are being rehoused into better archival enclosures.
- Having completed the re-mastering of Merton’s conferences to the Gethsemani community an on-line finding aid has been created: Recorded Conferences of Thomas Merton.
- The FM-200 fire suppressant system is now serviced twice a year and staff training (including campus security) is provided.
Access:
- An on-line database is being created for the Center’s holdings of manuscript material – manuscripts of books, essays and poems by Merton.
- A database of non-book secondary literature about Merton is being compiled in conjunction with the project to re-house this material.
- The tables of contents for all volumes of The Merton Seasonal are now available on the web site and a similar project is planned for The Merton Annual.
- The Center’s bibliography of musical settings of Merton’s work has been greatly developed and many new pieces have been acquired for the collection. The holdings can be browsed at: Musical Setting of Merton's Work.
- The Center continues to keep a running bibliography of new works appearing by and about Merton, and this is published quarterly in the Merton Seasonal.
Promotion:
- Statistics for the use of the archives show a slight reduction in the numbers of visitors 2,939 (3,276), and telephone calls 1,197 (1,282), but a continuing increase in the number of both long 1164 (845) and short 3,182 (2,891) reference inquiries, with longer inquiries increasing by approximately 40%. The greater part of these inquiries are handled by e-mail. (These figures are for Jan. – Dec. 2007. Figures in brackets are for the same period in 2006.)
- A wide variety of groups continue to come to the Center for talks introducing the life and thought of Merton or meetings, including two Merton Elderhostels a year in the Spring and Fall.
- The Center has also been involved in assisting in the publication of a number of books in the past year, assisting students working on academic projects as well as book and journal publishers requiring access to images or permissions.
- In February the Center held the first of an annual Merton lecture in Black History month exploring Merton’s thinking on Civil Rights, racial issues and other questions relating to democracy and social transformation. The inaugural lecture was given by Vincent Harding who was also a guest on State of Affairs, broadcast live from Bellarmine. The 2008 lecture will be given by Albert J. Raboteau on February 28th, and in 2009, by Barbara Holmes.
- The Center has also been involved in assisting in the publication of a number of books in the past year, assisting students working on academic projects as well as book and journal publishers requiring access to images or permissions.
- In October the Center arranged and hosted the first conference to focus specifically on Thomas Merton’s poetry. Participants came from all over North America and from as far away as Switzerland. Speakers included all the major authors who have worked on Merton’s poetry:
The Conference also included a panel of poets, chaired by Frederick Smock, who personally knew Thomas Merton:
- The Center was involved in working with some other organizations in town and in sponsoring a number of other events including the Merton-Heschel Pilgrimage in October and a lecture by Joanna Macy in November.
- The photography exhibit “A Hidden Wholeness – The Zen Photography of Thomas Merton” started the year at Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago and was exhibit through the summer at the Martin de Porres Center at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, OH.
- Paul completed his term as the 10th President of the ITMS and took over as Program Chair for the 11th ITMS Conference to be held in Rochester, NY in 2009.
- Paul and Mark both participated in the 10th ITMS conference with both giving concurrent session presentations. Paul also gave the presidential address subsequently published in the Fall issue of The Merton Seasonal.
- Plans are moving ahead for the publication of a bilingual edition of the papers from the first Spanish Merton Conference held in Avila. These should be published in 2008, edited by Fernando Llavador Beltran and Paul Pearson.
Acquisition:
- Many new publications, including foreign translations, dissertations and other materials were added to the collection.
o Of particular note were a number of early translations of Merton's work including:
§ El Signo de Jonas. Spanish. The Sign of Jonas. 1955.
§ The Living Bread. Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds, 1954.
§ Seeds of Contemplation. Dublin: Clonmore, 1949.
§ The Ascent to Truth. Dublin: Clonmore, 1951.
§ No Man is an Island: Burns & Oates, 1961. Collected Edition.
o An uncorrected proof of Turning Toward the World.
o Twenty-nine new theses and dissertations were added to the collection.
o Thirteen copies of The Columbia Jester with articles, cartoons, and poems by Thomas Merton.
- Further acquisitions of digital images of Merton’s drawings and calligraphies held in other archives.
- Letter to Merton from David Friend Aberle.
- Card to Merton from Doris Dana.
- Signed copy of Bread in the Wilderness, with dedication to Beatrice Lillie.
- 3 “internal monastic notes” by Merton donated by former novice, Raymond DeSutter.
- 3 letters donated by Linda Orell (formerly Forest) – 2 signed typed letters and one handwritten card.
- Donation of 4 original letters from Thomas Merton to Catherine S. Smith dating from 1960 and 1961. Donated by the Alcuin Library at St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN.
- Two original typescripts from the Abbey of Gethsemani – The Ascent to Truth (Light) and Viewpoints.
- Copies of correspondence from Merton to Victor Hammer, Ed Rice, Jack Ericson, Louis Zukofsky, and Naomi Burton Stone.
- A collection of signed editions belonging to John Yungblut, along with copies of correspondence and calligraphies, donated by his widow Penelope Yungblut.
- A photograph of Merton taken by Dr. Harry L. Millard.
- Papers relating to Fr. Dan Walsh, including some pages of handwritten notes by Thomas Merton, donated by Eugene Conahan.
- Two photographs of Thomas Merton and Naomi Burton Stone.
- Digital copies of photographs of Merton with John Jacob Niles taken by Helm Roberts and donated by his wife.
- Original music setting scores of Alexander Peloquin’s arrangement of Thomas Merton’s “Four Freedom Songs.”
Paul M Pearson.
Director and Archivist.
Copyright (c) The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University. All rights reserved.