From TheOneLion: I thought you’d be interested in a six week seminar taking place on Wheaton College campus in Wheaton, Illinois. It includes a visit to the Wade Center where CS Lewis’ desk and wardrobe are on display and JRR Tolkein’s desk is on display. Visitors can indeed touch the museum pieces, however they no longer allow visitors to climb into the wardrobe since it is a unique furniture piece and its age requires them to take certain steps to ensure its preservation. The Wade Center is an amazing little library/museum full of fantastic British authors works and some very interesting Tolkien original writings and other items related to The Lord of the Rings. The seminar is as follows and meets in the Rolland Center cafe – lower level. An as-of-now unscheduled trip to see the anticipated movie that we are all anticipating.
From Weaton.edu: The Marion E. Wade Center of Wheaton College, Illinois, houses a major research collection of the books and papers of seven British authors: Owen Barfield, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. These writers are well known for their impact on contemporary literature and Christian thought. Together they produced over four hundred books including novels, drama, poetry, fantasy, children’s books, and Christian treatises. Overall, the Wade Center has more than 11,000 volumes including first editions and critical works. Other holdings on the seven authors include letters, manuscripts, audio and video tapes, artwork, dissertations, periodicals, photographs, and related materials. Any of these resources may be studied in the quiet surroundings of the Kilby Reading Room.
In addition, the Wade Center has a museum where such pieces as C.S. Lewis’s family wardrobe and writing desk, Charles Williams’s bookcases, J.R.R. Tolkien’s desk, Pauline Baynes’s original map of Narnia, and a tapestry from Dorothy L. Sayers’s home can be viewed. Photographs, rare books and manuscripts, and other small items of memorabilia round off the displays. A current exhibit, entitled “The Craft of Detective Fiction”, details the contributions made by G.K. Chesterton and Dorothy L. Sayers to the genre of detective fiction.