Christianity’s influence permeates western civilization, reaching into every nook and cranny of our history and culture. The Bible, Christianity’s scripture, is likely the best-selling book of all time. Even as American society has become more secular and many Americans turn away from organized religion, the Bible itself is available in an ever-expanding variety of languages, translations, and editions with all manner of supplements for its readers.

This exhibit explores not the history of the Bible itself but the history of the printing of the Bible. It begins with Gutenberg and other early printers in continental Europe, then moves across the English Channel to examine the publication of Bibles in England, Wales, and Scotland. The exhibit then turns its attention to Bibles and related scriptures, some in English, some not, in the American colonies and later the United States.

All of the Bibles in this exhibit are the property of Swem Library, except the Aitken Bible of 1782, which is the property of Bruton Parish Church but is normally stored at Swem. We thank Bruton Parish for permission to display it.

Curator: Beatriz Hardy, Marian and Alan McLeod Director of the Special Collections Research Center; Exhibit design and installation: Chandi Singer, Burger Archives Assistant, Ellen Cloyed, Serials Cataloger, Priscilla Wood, SCRC Volunteer, and Kaitlyn Gardy, Humanities & Computing Graduate Student Assistant.

Images of the installed exhibit are available at the SCRC's Flickr page. An audio tour of the exhibit by Dr. Hardy is available in the W&M Digital Archive.