2023 Annual Report

The Thomas Merton Center has four ongoing goals:

• Preserving the materials that comprise the Merton archives.

• Facilitating on-site and remote access, as appropriate, to materials in the archives for scholars, students and the general public.

• Promoting use of the archives and Center, particularly by faculty and students of Bellarmine University.

• Acquiring additional Merton and Merton-related materials as they become available through gift or public sale.

Once again achievements have been made in all of these areas:

Preservation:

• The rehousing of archival materials to current archival standards including the migration of the Merton Center’s 20,395 pieces of correspondence between Merton and over 2,100 correspondents to archival hanging files continues.

• Ongoing digitization of materials, especially in relation to developing digital collections available over the internet .

Access:

• With a growing number of theses and dissertations available electronically the database of theses and dissertations about Thomas Merton now includes a link to the online version of the thesis if it is freely available:
  https://merton.org/Research/Theses/

• Continued development of the web pages for The Merton Seasonal archive and The Merton Annual archive  with the full text of The Merton Annual now available from volume 1 through 16 (https://merton.org/ITMS/Annual/annualarchive.aspx), and The Merton Seasonal from volume 1 through 42 (https://merton.org/ITMS/Seasonal/seasonalarchive.aspx).

• The ITMS Newsletter has now also been added to the website from Volume 1, 1994 up to the current issue, volume 30, Fall 2023 - https://merton.org/ITMS/Seasonal/newsletterarchive.aspx.

• A digital exhibit of the Merton Center’s collection of editions and translations of Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain was launched on January 31st, 2023 to celebrates the 75th anniversary of its publication on October 4th, 1948. The exhibit, a virtual bookshelf, comprises 98 books in 22 languages and is available at: https://merton.org/research/Mountain/

• Also, to mark this anniversary:
  - the September Tuesdays with Merton webinar focused on The Seven Storey Mountain with a presentation by Mark on: "The Seven Storey Mountain at Seventy-Five: Classic or Déclassé" and this presentation can be viewed on the Tuesdays with Merton YouTube Channel or downloaded as a Podcast.
  - and the Bellarmine Magazine Book Club featured an article by Paul on: "The Seven Storey Goldmine: The Extraordinary Success of Thomas Merton's Autobiography."

• A process has begun, working in tandem with members of Bellarmine’s IT department, to identify vendors for a migration of the merton.org website (internet homepage of the Merton Center and the International Thomas Merton Society) to a contemporary technological architecture. The current platform is antiquated for support and development and is not responsive to the wide variety of screen sizes of devices accessing the website. The goals are to find a suitable content management system to allow future migrations (whether to a new platform or new design) more easily. Attention will be given to the different needs of the pages intended for visitors to the Merton Center, members of the ITMS, and to researchers needing specialized research tools. The research tools may require a separate platform working parallel to the website to meet specialized academic needs. Research into specialized archival data management systems are ongoing.

• Web site security was enhanced and brought up to current standards through working with Bellarmine’s IT to deliver merton.org securely over the https protocol (instead of http). This caused a barrier for some website users that has now been overcome.

• Over 120 items were added to the Center’s Digital Collections with 1,799 publicly viewable and 6,440 viewable at the Merton Center’s “self-service” kiosk.

• Continued development of the database of book reviews by and about Merton.

Promotion:

• The numbers of visitors and researchers continue to increase but are still below pre-pandemic levels, though a number of groups came to the Center for tours. These included a group of High School Principals from Melbourne, a visit originally planned for 2020 and repeatedly postponed.

• Much of the Center’s work with researchers still continues via email though in-person visits are on the rise.

• The Center negotiated the loan of sixteen paintings by Owen Merton from the time he spent painting in Bermuda to the Bermuda National Gallery. The paintings will be on exhibit at the Gallery from December 2023 until August 2024. Further details about the exhibit, including the exhibit catalog, are available online at: https://bng.bm/exhibition/a-bermuda-interlude/

• The Seventeenth Annual Thomas Merton Black History Month lecture was held on February 21st, 2023. It was given by Craig A. Ford, Jr. who spoke on “Merton’s Letters to a White Liberal, In a Queer Key.” The audio of the lecture is available at: https://merton.org/Research/AV/TMBHM/Ford-2023. mp3 

• The 18^th Annual Thomas Merton Black History Month Lecture will be given by Raymond Carr on February 20^th, 2024 at 7 pm.

• In liaison with other events happening on campus the Center opened to visitors on two Saturdays, one in the spring and one in the fall. Further Saturday openings will be listed on the Center’s website as they are arranged: https://merton.org/visit.aspx

• The Center continues to publish quarterly a running bibliography listing new works by and about Merton.

• The Center oversaw the publication and distribution of The Merton Seasonal (volume 48, issues 1-4) and volume 35 of The Merton Annual. With changes in the Office of Marketing and Communication at Bellarmine the typesetting for The Merton Seasonal and ITMS Newsletter is now undertaken by the Merton Center.

• The Center continues to work with the ITMS and the Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union on a series of webinars, “Tuesdays with Merton,” offered on the second Tuesday of every month - https://merton.org/ITMS/TWM/. Recordings of earlier webinars are subsequently available as podcasts or on YouTube.

• Paul gave a paper at the College English Association 51^st Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX. on March 31^st, 2023: “The Paradise Consciousness of Thomas Merton: Using His Camera to See with a Paradise Eye.”

• Regular postings are made on social media, especially Facebook, with the addition of weekly “Merton Memory Monday,” as well as on Twitter – follow @MertonCenter – and Instagram - instagram.com/thethomasmertoncenter/.

• Mark served on the Program Committee for the 2023 ITMS conference that was held at St. Mary’s College, South Bend from June 22^nd – 25^th. Both Mark and Paul presented papers at the conference:
  - Mark: “An Unpublished Merton Poem on Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Good Country People’ and Christian Existentialism in Her Fiction.”
  - Paul: “From One Wise Master to Another: St. Benedict’s Influence on Thomas Merton’s Prophetic Spirituality.”
  And Paul was also part of a panel presentation on Merton research resources: “Creating a Community of Merton Scholars.”

• Mark continues to serve on Bellarmine’s committee on mission, renamed at the beginning of the fall semester “President’s Advisory Board for Mission.”

• Paul is serving on the Program Committee for the 2025 ITMS conference to be held at Regis University, Denver, CO from June 19^th – 22^nd, and continues to serve as ITMS Resident Secretary and Account Manager.

Acquisition:

• Many new publications, including foreign translations, and other materials were added to the collection, including 8 doctoral and master theses.

• A watercolor painting by Owen Merton was purchased: “Hillside.” 1923. 35 x 44 cm. https://merton.org/Owen/OM-77.jpg.

• Over 10 pieces of correspondence were added to the collection including correspondence with:

  • Clare Booth Luce.

  • Raissa Maritain.

  • John Paul Merton.

  • Naomi Burton Stone.

  • Evelyn Waugh.

  • Robert Lawrence Williams.

• Correspondence with the late Harold Talbott, in particular in relation to Merton’s time in Asia, where Talbott was instrumental in arranging Merton’s audiences with H.H. the Dalai Lama.

• Molly Rush and the Thomas Merton Center of Pittsburgh donated a monastic habit and scapular worn by Thomas Merton to the archives at an event held in Pittsburgh on September 17^th to honor the work of Molly Rush.

• The Merton Center commissioned an Icon of Thomas Merton from William Hart McNichols: https://merton.org/TMC-Art/Hart-McNichols-Holy-Prophet-Thomas-Merton.jpg.

• Recorded interviews, transcripts and other materials from the CBC production Heretic Blood: An Audiobiography of Thomas Merton were donated to the archives by Bernie Lucht and Michael Higgins.

• Additional materials from the 1984 documentary, Merton: A Film Biography, were donated by the films coproducer Audrey Glynn.

• The script of a play about Thomas Merton, “The Burnt Man,” by Merton biographer Monica Furlong.

Financial assistance is needed to assist with funding these special events at the Thomas Merton Center. If you would be interested in assisting with funding, or becoming a major sponsor for one of these events please contact:
Dr Paul Pearson on (502) 272 8177 or by e-mail: [email protected].