Calvin Theological Seminary

“College Conduct” at Calvin in the 1920s

“College Conduct” at Calvin in the 1920s

Some of the Calvin College students in the cover image of this post look like they could be rascals; one or two look studious. There were troublemakers of various sorts on campus in the 1920s and 1930s, as at pretty much any school. But what […]

Sadie Roelofs and Women Students at Calvin in the 1920s and 1930s

Sadie Roelofs and Women Students at Calvin in the 1920s and 1930s

In November 1928 Sadie Roelofs set off a “November Revolution.” Editor-in-chief of the Calvin College student newspaper, Chimes, she criticized apathy among students and implied the same about faculty, all in a short editorial entitled “Self-Satisfaction.” Other Chimes writers followed her lead. One urged toleration […]

Architecture and Philosophy on Calvin’s Campus

Architecture and Philosophy on Calvin’s Campus

This blog post summarizes, excerpts, and links to a story done by Chimes, the student newspaper at Calvin University. The Chimes story is based on a summer research project done by student researchers Gabby Freshly and Natalie Sytsma and supervised by art history professor Craig […]

The Rivals – The Origins of Basketball at Calvin

The Rivals – The Origins of Basketball at Calvin

While researching the origins of the Calvin-Hope men’s basketball rivalry, I was intrigued by references to a group of Calvin students around 1920 who played basketball under the name “The Rivals.” Who were these guys? Who were they rivals for (if anyone)? And was the […]

Remember Your Confession

Remember Your Confession

This week a patron donated a couple of small items to Heritage Hall. Our thanks to him. We often get donations when a family member finds something in the attic or wants to clear a shelf. It’s often a book, such as a Dutch psalter […]

Preserving Our COVID-19 Stories

Preserving Our COVID-19 Stories

“The influenza played havoc with everything run to schedule in our village and vicinity. Churches, Schools, Movies, even Poolrooms were promptly closed in the beginning of the dreaded disease, even before it had really reached us, and by the time the Flu caught us in […]

The Life and Ministry of Johannes Groen, 1865-1924

The Life and Ministry of Johannes Groen, 1865-1924

Humble origins and deep piety marked the Dutch Reformed immigrants who came to Michigan in the mid-nineteenth century. So to did a love of learning, especially theology, and an inclination to apply Reformed theology and thought to all aspects of life. All these characteristics marked […]

Early Chinese Leaders in the Christian Reformed Church

Early Chinese Leaders in the Christian Reformed Church

Dutch immigrants probably come to mind when people think of the ethnic history of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC). But that history is an ethnically diverse one, and not just in recent decades. Chinese communities in the CRC date to the 1950s […]

Failure in Maxwell, New Mexico, or Faithful Legacy?

Failure in Maxwell, New Mexico, or Faithful Legacy?

The story of frontier families and settlements is one of triumph in American mythology, creating civilization out of wilderness. The actual history of frontier life includes a lot of failure, however. Failed homesteads, with families moving on to start over somewhere else. Communities beginning, then […]

The Flu Epidemic of 1918-1919 and “Churchless Sunday”

The Flu Epidemic of 1918-1919 and “Churchless Sunday”

“What’s happening is unprecedented!” I keep hearing people say that about Covid-19 (a coronavirus). Some seem to mean that a pandemic like this is unprecedented. Others mean that the public health response—shutting down schools, sporting events, perhaps eventually churches, etc.—is unprecedented. Neither is unprecedented, really. […]