billy graham center archives
2003 annual report
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Researchers Reports

Here are reports from several researchers who worked in the Archives Reading Room in 2003. The researcher comments were gathered from exit interview forms and edited together.

Mr. Jonathan Aitken, Writer in Residence, St. Matthews, Westminster, United Kingdom

The exact nature of my project was the research and writing of the official biography of Charles W. Colson, to be published by Doubleday. I came to the BGC Archives because Charles W. Colson's papers are stored there.

I did not know what I expected to find because Charles Colson himself had been doubtful about whether I would find the material in his papers of much use to my biography. From Mr. Colson's description I had the impression that the collection of his papers was in some way or other incomplete. I therefore came with low expectations. What I actually found was an outstandingly well catalogued collection of highly important papers of immense relevance to the life and ministry of Charles Colson. Although the archive does not have much material relating to Colson's early years, nevertheless the material relating to his experiences in the White House, during the Watergate drama, during his Christian conversion and throughout his early years of ministry, is all of great value to a biographer.

I came across many papers and documents that were exceptionally interesting. These papers include Colson's hitherto unpublished notes on his prison life in diary form and correspondence with numerous interesting figures in his life story ranging from President Nixon to Colson's mother. My research in the BGC Archives has helped me enormously in my efforts to write the first full length and fully sourced biography of Charles Colson.


Mr. Alister Chapman, Doctoral candidate, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, United Kingdom

Travelling to Wheaton in February may have sounded like a treat to many of my English friends, but here they betrayed their ignorance of Midwestern weather. I came to the Billy Graham Center Archives to do some research for an article I was writing on the evangelical Lausanne movement, and found to my delight that the welcome at the Center was much warmer than the climate outside. Bob Shuster's encyclopedic knowledge of the archives was a great help, and my debt to the people who spent hours and hours putting together the online collection-descriptions is great indeed.

I looked at dozens of files during my week in Wheaton, probably giving the poor people upstairs [in the archival storage area] several hernias, and found a great deal of fascinating and useful material on the Lausanne movement. Some documents I had come specifically to see, but others turned up as I trawled through boxes, and if research can be likened to a treasure hunt, I returned to England rich indeed, loaded with material from which to craft the article. Favourite ‘finds' included an amusing allegory written by Peter Wagner on the tensions within the Lausanne movement, and a letter from John Stott in which the world trifle was, in true English style, used as an adjective. The article, now sitting on an editor's desk somewhere in the United States, aims to provide a deeper understanding of the challenges evangelicals had to face in the second half of the twentieth century as they sought to construct a global coalition. It also makes some methodological suggestions as to how to go about writing good religious history. I am grateful to the staff at the Archives for all their help and for the superb facility they provide, which made for a enjoyable and fruitful research trip to the blizzard-land of Wheaton earlier this year.


Ms. Angela Lahr, Doctoral candidate, Northern Illinois University

Initially, I was a little apprehensive about choosing a dissertation project on which I would be spending many, often frustrating hours. I finally decided to explore the changing relationship between the U.S. evangelical community and the national culture. Specifically, my research deals with the influence of premillennialism in the early Cold War on the evolution of evangelical identity within American culture. The amount and diversity of the materials of the BGC archives on evangelicalism, along with its convenient location, made the archives an essential place to work.

Since I have to examine a wide variety of sources that are not in one place, I found some surprising materials that have added different dimensions to my project. Looking through the records of Decision magazine, for example, I discovered numerous boxes of contest submissions by young people who sent in essays on, "Why I Believe in God." I found these to be excellent resources for analyzing the thoughts, priorities, and faith of students. Materials like these should aid my project in expanding on arguments by historians such as Paul Boyer and others, who have researched the impact of prophecy belief on believers' worldviews.


Dr. Michael G. Long, Professor, Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania

My hope is to prepare a book manuscript—tentatively titled Brother Graham and the Beloved Community: The Social Ethics of Billy Graham during the Martin Luther King, Jr., Years (1955-1968)—which will detail the sources, content, and evolution of Graham's social ethics during one of the hottest periods of U.S. history in the twentieth century. More particularly, the study, which I will begin to write after I finish my second book on King, will look at Graham's understanding of the three dimensions of "the beloved community" envisioned by King—racial integration, economic justice, and peace.

I traveled during Christmas break 2002-2003 to the BGC Archives primarily because the Archives is the best repository of public papers related to the subject. My purpose was to begin original research that would help me unpack the details of Graham's thoughts on race, economic justice, and peace during the MLK years, and the Archives is the very best place for beginning such research. I expected to find what was listed in the excellent online catalogue. Indeed, the online catalogue was invaluable for locating sermons, press conference transcripts, essays, and correspondence related to my subject.

What did you actually find? Because the papers are so well archived, I found what I was looking for—audio versions of sermons, typed transcriptions of major news conferences, and correspondence between Billy Graham and major political figures. The trip was successful in the sense that it introduced me to volumes of material, both in transcript and audio form, on Graham's social ethics

I was surprised to find policy proposals that Billy Graham had recommended to major political figures. Not only was Graham preaching personal salvation to millions during the King years, he was also actively working behind the scenes with politicians, especially Eisenhower and Johnson, on all of the social issues related to the beloved community. I hope that my current research is filling a gap in both Graham and King studies. It seems to me that Graham scholars have focused on his theology and evangelisms, but have largely ignored his social ethics. In addition, King scholars have done well to compare King to other major figures of the time, most notably, Malcolm X, but have largely ignored his relationship to Graham.


Dr. Hans Krabbendam, Roosevelt Study Center, Netherlands

I visited the BGC Archives to collect materials on the preparations and effects of the Billy Graham campaigns in Amsterdam and Rotterdam in 1954 and 1955 and about the involvement of the Youth for Christ organization in this mission. This specific question is part of a larger project which maps out the European-American connection during the early Cold War era, with a special focus on the religious interaction. Before I decided to make the journey, I consulted the Archives' excellent web site and discovered that a great many collections could hold relevant documents. I expected to find correspondence about the rallies in the Netherlands and some reports. Realizing that the early years might not be covered completely and that the rallies in the Netherlands lasted only one day, I had modest expectations. Fortunately, I found a great deal of relevant information, among them a complete clippings file of articles in the Dutch press on Billy Graham and his organization. I derived the most satisfaction from finding a large body of letters by Corrie en Boom and of the interest of the Dutch royal family in the ideals of American evangelicals. Though significant in itself, these collections shed also new light on the evangelical network of evangelicals in Europe and in the United States emerging in the decade following the close of World War II. As my interest is in Dutch-American relations in the Cold War period, I was pleasantly surprised to find how strong these contacts were and how both sides recognized common missionary and political aspirations. Since my time ran out quickly at this particular visit, I certainly hope to complete my research at the BGC Archives during a next trip.


Dr. Axel R. Schãfer, School of American Studies. Keele University, United Kingdom

[My] study is part of a larger historical research project on the transformation of church-state relations after World War II. It is tentatively called "Evangelicals, Cold War Liberalism, and US Social and Foreign Policy, 1942-1990" and seeks to understand the ways in which the expansion of the federal government had an impact on the political resurgence of evangelical Protestantism. The study relates to current research on three levels. First, the study contributes to social policy research, which has largely ignored the interaction between religious social service providers and the government. Second, it sheds new light on the role of the Cold War in mobilizing religious social movements. Finally, it traces the relationship between religious groups and the government as part of an analysis of the role of state-private networks during the Cold War.

The archives have the most comprehensive collection of materials on evangelical social action and political involvement. I was interested in a wide variety of materials, such as the records of Christianity Today, the Fellowship Foundation, the Voice of Calvary Ministry, Prison Fellowship Ministries, and Evangelicals for Social Action. In addition, I spent significant research time looking at materials in the Wheaton College Archives.

I was looking for records which provided insights into the interaction between Evangelicals and government agencies in the social and foreign policy arenas. Moreover, I was looking for materials on the development of social thought among Evangelicals and on their attitudes toward the relationship between church and state. I found that I needed to spend more time in the BGC Archives! The collections are well organized with excellent finding aids and background information compiled by the archivists. Regarding the project, I found relevant material which added to what I had found in the primary and secondary sources which I had examined previously.