Visual Arts

Vining Rare Book Collection

The Vining Collection was the personal library of Edward Payson Vining (1847-1920) and was donated by his family to Gordon College in 1921. The collection consists of 7,000 books, manuscripts, and letters, ranging from the 12th century to the early 20th century. It contains over 900 Bibles in 140 languages and is rich in Shakespeareana, Early Americana, geography, travel literature, ethnology, and especially philology – with vast holdings in indigenous languages.   

Examples of materials that can be found in this collection include:

• John Eliot’s The Holy Bible: Containing the Old Testament and the New. This Bible is the first of its kind to be translated into the native Algonquin language in 1663.
• Shakespeare’s 2nd Folio titled Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies and printed in 1632.
• Martin Luther’s Pamphlet Das schöne Confitemini: an der Zal der CXVIII Psalm (1530), Von den letzlen Worten Davids (1543), and Enarrationes Epistolarum et Evangeliorum, quas Postillas vocant (1521).
• Ptolemy’s Geographiae (1511 & 1525)
• Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on .... Virginia (1787)
• Captain John Smith’s The Generall Historie of Virginia… (1624)
• Biblia Sacra Polyglotta – Hebraice, Chaldice et Gracae (1514) the first printed polyglot of the entire Bible, edited by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros and published by Complutense University of Madrid. Of the 600 printed six-volume sets, only 123 are known to have survived to date. The work is widely known to be a monument of the Spanish Renaissance. Gordon College possesses only the fifth volume (New Testatment). 
• Erasmus’ Novvm Testamentvm Omne (1522) - Greek-Latin parallel text prepared by Erasmus and printed by Froben in Basel. First published in 1516, this is Erasmus’ third edition. It was used by Tyndale for the first English New Testament (1526) and later by translators of the Geneva Bible and the King James Version. With the third edition as well, the Comma Johanneum was included for the first time.

Pictured: Cosmographia by Ptolemy (1486) [Vining G 87 .P84 1486]

Vining Rare Book Collection

The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles… by John Smith (1624) [Vining F 229 .S61 1624]

Vining Rare Book Collection

The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles… by John Smith (1624) [Vining F 229 .S61 1624]

Archaeological Collection

Israel – Tel Dothan Archaeological Collection

• The Israel – Tel Dothan Archaeological Collection includes artifacts from the Early Bronze through Iron Age II (3,000 – 600 BC) from the site of ancient Tel Dothan which is located 60 miles north of Jerusalem. The dig was conducted in 1954-1955 by Wheaton College and the American Schools of Oriental Research. The Collection is a gift of former Providence Bible Institute (later Barrington College) alumnus, George Kelsey (1950), who was the first assistant to Joseph P. Free, the Director of the expedition.

Egyptian Archaeological Collection

• The Egyptian Archaeological Collection was donated by Elizabeth Eliot Gren and contains artifacts from a dig performed by William Cowper Prime in 1855. It also includes a 19th century Arabic outfit.

Pictured: Egyptian sarcophagi pieces (not much known about them).