Wesley in America

3 February - 11 April 2003

The exhibit, Wesley in America, was opened at Bridwell Library's Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Galleries during Ministers Week, February 3, 2003, in celebration of the tercentenary year of John Wesley’s birth. The exhibit remained in place through April 11, spanning the conference by the same name and hosted together by Perkins School of Theology and Bridwell Library (April 3 – 5). Dr. Richard P. Heitzenrater and Peter Forsaith served as curators.

In recent years, Bridwell Library had made several spectacular acquisitions in the area of Wesley Studies, including John Wesley’s original Will and Testament dated March 16, 1770, and the lost notations and corrections to the missing eighth journal extract (1749-51) in William Pine’s first edition of Wesley’s Works – revised by Wesley himself. This exhibition featured many notable items from the Bridwell collection that reflect the development of Methodism in America and Wesley’s relationship to that development. Ninety-seven important items comprised the exhibit, portraying the influence of Wesley in America – from his visit to the fledgling colony of Georgia in 1736 to the Centennial of American Methodism in 1884.

In addition to Bridwell Library holdings, the exhibit featured important documents, engravings, and paintings on loan from the Methodist Archives and Research Centre of John Rylands University Library of Manchester by special permission from the Archives and History Committee of the Methodist Church of Great Britain, the Drew University Library, the Rare Book Manuscript, and Special Collections Library of Duke University, the Olin Library Special Collections and Archives at Wesleyan University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Methodist Mission House, London, the American Tract Society, Garland, Texas, and the personal collections of Richard Heitzenrater and James Kirby.

Wesley in America was a traveling exhibition, and we are pleased and honored that Duke University and Drew University were also venues for the exhibit during this important tercentenary year.