Numerous students and faculty have walked by it and haven’t even noticed what they are missing. It’s The Missionary Presses exhibit, which is ironically located at Bridwell’s entry hall for all to see. The four-case exhibition showcases 12 books that are translations of either Bibles or religious texts.

What is special and interesting about the exhibit is that all of these texts were all published by and for Christian missionaries instead of established publishers.

Looking at the books through the cases in which they are displayed, one can find they come in many different sizes and bindings. Some are larger and have hard leather covers while others are pocket-sized.

From Hawaiian to Mandarin and even Native American languages, you can find the wide variety of translations. Such a spectrum of languages is evidence of the western missionary work that spread all over the globe in the 17th century.

The good news is that students don’t have to see these rare texts through a case all the time because The Bridwell Library owns them. The purpose of the exhibition is to let students know about the wide variety of books that the library has for them to read and study.

Eric White is the library’s Curator of Special Collections. Even though Daniel Slive is the curator of this specific exhibit, White would like to entice students to come and take a closer look at the library’s collections.

He finds these texts to be exotic and very important to our history. White isn’t too worried about the exhibit’s small audience size.

“If somebody has time, they can read and browse,” he said. “It’s just a kind of welcoming presentation.”

Some students have come in to see the exhibit on class tours in their theology courses.

The texts will be in exhibition until early December after which students can actually read any of these books. However, they are not allowed to check them out. Instead of bringing the books to them, they can “come to the books,” as White explains, by having the books brought out to them to read at the library’s Special Collections Reading Section.