Programs & Events

Archival Research Lecture Series

What is it like to do historical research in an archives? How do researchers use scrapbooks, letters, newspaper clippings, oral history interviews, and other materials to construct a historical narrative? What are the benefits of using these physical fragments to understand the past? Every year the Archival Research Lecture features a scholar whose research in Wheaton Archives & Special Collections answers some of these questions.

2014 Annual Lecture

Join us every autumn for the Archival Research Lecture, and learn how scholars use archival sources to understand the past. 

Walking Tour of Billy Graham's Wheaton

Curious about Billy Graham’s connection to Wheaton College? Want to learn more about Billy Graham’s experiences as a Wheaton undergraduate? Join the staff of Wheaton Archives & Special Collections as they visit sites around the Wheaton College campus and greater community where Billy Graham lived, studied, socialized, and preached, both as a student and during his later ministry.

Bob and Flowering Trees

Walking tours of Billy Graham's Wheaton are usually held bi-annually in spring and autumn, weather permitting. Group tours can also be available upon request. 

Lilias Trotter Symposium, September 2016

Lilias Trotter Symposium Title Graphic

In September 2016, Special Collections hosted a Symposium on Lilias Trotter (1853-1928). A gifted painter whose art drew high praise from John Ruskin, Lilias Trotter left a comfortable life in Europe for work as a missionary in Algeria. Along with an exhibit of Lilias Trotter's journals and sketchbooks from Special Collections, the Sympsoium included presentations from Miriam Rockness, Matthew Milliner, Laura Waters Hinson, Lena Connor, and Giovanna Meek, as well as a film showing of Many Beautiful Things: The Life and Vision of Lilias Trotter. Explore a collection of the recorded talks from the Symposium here.

The Evangelical Archives Conference, July 1988

In July 1988, the Evangelism & Missions Archives hosted the The Evangelical Archives Conference at Wheaton College. Sponsored by the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals and funded by the Lilly Foundation, the Conference addressed the unique challenges facing archives and memory institutions dedicated to acquiring and preserving materials documenting American evangelicalism. Final reports and recommendations from the Conference were published as Heritage at Risk: Proceedings of the Evangelical Archives Conference.