Hill Museum & Manuscript Library - Saint John's University
Location2835 Abbey Plaza, Collegeville, MN, USA
Type(s) of establishment
Type Permanent exhibition
Collection Bibles, books and manuscripts
Hill Museum & Manuscript Library , Collegeville, MN, USA.
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML), located at Saint John’s University, holds the world’s largest archive of manuscript photographs in both microfilm and digital format. HMML’s archives now contain more than 200,000 complete manuscripts.
In addition to its manuscript collections, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library holds works of art and rare printed books from the Middle Ages to the present and is home to The Saint John's Bible, a modern manuscript commissioned by St. John’s Abbey University.
The Saint-John's Bible a monumental work that is almost two feet by three feet wide when opened. It is currently unbounded, and it took twenty-three artists and 15 years to complete this one single work of art.
The Bible is currently on permanent display at Saint John’s University’s Alcuin Library. The gallery has 1,653 square feet of floor space and is in the lower level of the library and exhibits original folios from the seven volumes of The Saint John’s Bible.
Challenge
The goal for Zone Display Cases was to create a unique and challenging mounting system to display this unbound manuscript in the new gallery. The gallery features twenty-eight folios at one time.
The system needed to allow the client to change those folios and to display the unbound folios as if they were an open book in a floating position.
Our Solutions
Through a unique collaboration between the Director of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library and our design studio, we have created a very flexible and personalized concept that would display the folios on concealed acrylic holders with a magnetic system to hold the folios in place.
These holders were attached to an anti-reflective and ultra-clear glass stand that was supplied with a pull-out sliding mechanism to facilitate access. A special hinge would also provide 180° access to the interior of the case.
