Posted on July 19: Lessons from McMaster’s ‘troll in the hole’

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Mark-Steinacher_opt.jpg” caption=”Mark Steinacher”]Somewhere, amid more than two kilometres of shelving that's teeming with boxes of historical records, large and small artefacts and rare books, there is man at a small desk that's piled high with new archival donations to be filed. He's the self-proclaimed “troll in the hole,” working to organize, preserve, and amass McMaster University's archival history along with the Canadian Baptist Archives, deep within the belly of Divinity College.

An instructor at both Divinity College and Toronto's Tyndale Seminary, part-time archivist, pastor at a church in Toronto, and author, Mark Steinacher says he likes to keep busy. He can be found in the archives three days a week, orchestrating a great reorganization of existing files and finding space for recent additions that donors often bequeath to the collection, which is also the third-largest Baptist Archives in the world.

“People who come to the archives need to understand it'll take them some time to sort through boxes of information, and that nothing is internet-ready,” says Steinacher. “But that's my favourite part about archives  the Easter eggs or interesting tidbits you discover even when you're not looking for them.”

The archives hold diverse forms of information including documents, journals, correspondence, and rare books. There are also more than 1,400 glass slides that are between 70 and 110 years old, often taken by ministers and missionaries who made efforts to document their way of life and work. The historical information found in the archives spans continents, because in addition to once-rural and remote areas of Canada, many items hail from Baptist missions in locations as culturally diverse as Africa, Bolivia, and India.

But Steinacher says it's the items contained in the archive vault that are perhaps the main attraction for some. The vault contains a number of artefacts that are too valuable and historically significant to leave on permanent display, including two windows from Senator McMaster's home in Toronto - one etched glass and the other stained-glass - bearing the McMaster family crest. There's also pottery that dates back to as early as 2000 BC, and significant materials that relate to well-known Baptist figureheads such as David Livingston and William Carey.

Steinacher can recount the story behind many items in the archives, and the people to whom they once belonged. It's those little details that help him to round out a story, and add an extra dimension to history.

“Working in the archives, you really get a feel for people,” says Steinacher. “They're not just a portrait on the wall, or a 100-word biography  there's a chance to learn what their circumstances were like, how they lived, their best qualities and their worst.”

Steinacher - a church historian by training - began working part time in the archives when he was still a graduate student six years ago. Some of the information he's discovered while sifting through the archives has helped inspire two books in progress: one, a translation of his doctoral thesis into a more reader-friendly format, and a second book tentatively titled A brief history of the end of the world an examination of some end-times beliefs through the ages.

The Divinity College Archives are available to students, staff, faculty, and community members.

Some items in the Divinity College Archives include:

• Two windows from Senator William McMaster's home in Toronto - one stained glass, one etched glass, bearing the McMaster family crest. (The home later became Moulton College, a residential all-girls school named after Lady Moulton McMaster.)
• A piece of a tree from David Livingston's burial site in Africa. (The missionary's body was buried in England, but his heart was buried in Africa. A tree grew above the heart's grave.)
• Cupboard door and fountain pen from William Carey's home. (Carey was a pioneer Baptist missionary who went to India. Funding was scarce, so Carey paid his own way by working full-time at a dye factory. In his spare time he learned 23 languages and provided a number of bible translations.)
• Back issues of a French-Canadian multi-denominational protestant newspaper, L'aurore. (Currently the Quebec government has launched a search to stock copies for archival purposes.)
• Academic costumes from McMaster University's early days (originally located in what is now the Royal Conservatory of Music building in Toronto) and its pre-cursor school, the Canadian Literary Institute, which moved to Toronto from Woodstock in 1860.
• Also included are ancient pottery dating back to 2000 BC, a bayonet, blueprints for churches, political cartoons, and wood carvings.

Photo caption: Mark Steinacher, an instructor at both Divinity College and Toronto's Tyndale Seminary, part-time archivist, pastor at a church in Toronto, and author, in the McMaster Universities archives in Divinity College.