A Legacy of Biblical Size

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. — Bishop William A. Quayle read a book every day, and wrote more than 25. He took a walk every day, and loved all things in nature.

He also collected rare Bibles, and his fascination helped give Baker University one of the most prominent collections of the kind in the Midwest.

The legacy he left the small United Methodist university on the prairie when he died in 1925--more than 250 Bibles--has now grown to 1,100 Bibles, many of them rare.

“It is widely known all over the country,” said rare book expert Ardis Glenn who appraised the collection in 1993.

The Quayle collection includes early Bibles handwritten by monks, and two first editions of the 1611 King James Authorized Version, which set the standard for English usage for centuries.

“Not only am I glad to have it in this collection of mine, but am glad to have it in America, which is just becoming the great book possessor of the world,” Quayle wrote in his notebooks when he bought his first King James Bible.

Also part of the current collection is a book of the Psalms of David translated into the Ojibway language, published by the Upper Canada Bible Society in 1855. That book is called Oodahnuhmeahwine Nuhguiimoowinum Owh David.

“Our focus and the uniqueness and quality of what we have, I think, puts us head and shoulders above other universities our size,” said John M. Forbes, Baker’s director of libraries and curator of the Quayle Bible Collection.

The collection has a small Latin Bible that bears the signature of English poet Robert Browning, and another once owned by his mother, Sabrina Browning.

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It also has the Robert Louis Stevenson family Bible. The author of “Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped” left it behind when he sailed to Tahiti, where he died and is buried.

The collection includes a leaf from a Gutenberg Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany, sometime before 1456. Johann Gutenberg, who invented movable type, ushered in the first information revolution and the Gutenberg Bible is believed to be the first book printed from movable type.

The school also has the Presidential Bible Collection, with Bibles signed by every president since Harry Truman.

“It’s a grand collection,” said Cynthia Buffington, a partner at Philadelphia Rare Books and Manuscripts, which has sold Baker University some of its Bibles. “We know its librarians have cared for it with a loving intelligence. It is very well regarded.”

Quayle was a prominent United Methodist minister, speaker and writer. He received his bachelor’s degree from Baker University in 1885, and soon became professor of Greek. He became the university’s president in 1890, but resigned four years later to become a pastor. In 1908, he was named bishop.

Quayle wrote more than 25 popular religious books, with titles like “Out-of-Doors With Jesus.” He also was in heavy demand as a public speaker, Forbes said, all of which gave him money to buy rare Bibles.

His bequest gave Baker the embryo for its present collection, which now has about 1,100 Bibles, although only 450 to 500 are rare enough, or interesting enough, to be displayed.