Rare Hymnals Displayed at Leland Speed Library | Arts & Culture

The year was 1632 in England when its ruler Charles I issued a charter for the colony of Maryland in a place we know today as the United States.

It was the same year that a commonly used congregational songbook for English worship was printed. In a sheepskin binding, a copy of the songbook is part of a display of rare hymnals at Mississippi College’s Leland Speed Library.

On display through early May, the noteworthy collection belongs to MC music professor Lewis Oswalt. The Clinton resident began collecting hundreds of historic hymnals as a doctoral student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in the 1980s.