The New Andrews/Spicer Collection

Recently the Andrews University Center for Adventist Research received a very significant collection of materials related to John N. Andrews and his family. The donor is D. Jeanne Andrews-Willumson, the great granddaughter of the John N. Andrews who went to Switzerland in 1874. She was born in the mission land high in the mountainous Tibet region of China. Her first few years were spent in a mission compound while her doctor-father cared for the health needs of the people as well spread the good news of Jesus.

This significant collection contains the largest known number of original John N. Andrews letters. There are 30 letters written by Andrews between the early 1860s until a couple of months before his death in 1883. Also in the collection are several letters or testimonies hand written by Ellen G. White in the early 1860s. All together there are 67 letters to and from various members of the Andrews family between 1855 and 1906. Together these letters open a new chapter in our understanding of our foremost scholar and theologian as well as church administrator, teacher, evangelist, and missionary.

This is Jeanne Andrews-Willumson, the donor of the Andrews/Spicer Collection. She is the great-granddaughter of the first official missionary, John N. Andrews. With her is her daughter Tina.

Also highly significant are the 150 letters written from the Tibet region of China by Dorothy Spicer-Andrews from 1916 to 1931. They provide a picture window into life on missions cutting edge. This edge was very rough at times as described in the letters.

What is the Spicer connection? Dorothy Spicer, daughter of William A. Spicer, married John Andrews in 1916 and went with him to China as missionaries. Dorothy’s sister, Helen, was something of a writer and collected a lot of Andrews and Spicer family materials which make up a portion of this collection.

For more information about what is in the collection, visit the Center for Adventist Research web page and go to the personal papers section–http://www.andrews.edu/library/car/papers.htm, or ask to see the printed register at the Center’s public service desk.

It should be noted that nearly everything in this exhibit came from the Andrews/Spicer Collection.