Dunham Bible Museum
The Dunham Bible Museum, with its extensive collection of rare Bibles, is dedicated to telling the story of the most important book in the world. On public display are:
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ancient manuscripts
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decoratively illuminated medieval Scriptures
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examples of the earliest printed Bibles
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the earliest Bibles in English
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the earliest Bibles printed in America
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Bible translations from across the centuries and around the world.
The Museum's creative exhibits awaken and enhance an appreciation of the history, preservation, and influence of the one Book most influential in individual lives and in the culture of civilizations.
SPECIAL EXHIBIT:
They Read the Same Bible: Bibles from the American Civil War
Commemorating the sesquicentennal of the American Civil War (July 1-3 will be the 150th anniversrary of the Battle of Gettysburg), a special exhibit of Civil War Bibles is on display through Decmber 13.The exhibit’s title is taken from President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, given a little over a month before he was assassinated. In his insightful meditations on the Civil War, Lincoln pondered over the fact that both sides, “read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. … The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.” All of the twenty Bibles or hymnals in the exhibit are from the Dunham Bible Museum’s collection. They include Testaments belonging to soldiers of both sides, many with personal notes or poems in them. The rarest volume is a New Testament printed by the Confederate Bible Society; only 11 known copies of the Testament exist. One of the Testaments captured by the Union as it was shipped through the blockade to the Confederacy is also on display.