The Doris and Harry Vise Library

Special Collections

Bert H. Coble Choral Music Collection
The Bert H. Coble Choral Music Collection consists of 437 choral music pieces. Dr. H. Bert Coble (1923-2017), decorated veteran of WWII and the Korean War, minister of music for churches in Texas and Tennessee, came to Cumberland University with his wife Mrs. Sue B. Coble, also a music educator, in 1972. Dr. Coble served as Chair of the Music Department and Director of Choral Activities for CU, roles which included leading his Cumberland Singers on numerous college and high school tours. In 1988, Dr. and Mrs. Coble and the Bert Coble Singers held their first Christmas Dinner Show in CU’s Baird Chapel. Each Christmas season since then the Bert Coble Singers have filled the Baird Chapel with music and simultaneously raised funds for the Bert Coble Endowed Music Scholarship at CU. This popular tradition has continued under the leadership of Dr. Coble’s former student Ms. Jennifer Perry.

George W. Franz Historical Research Collection
The George W. Franz Historical Research Collection of almost 2,000 volumes represents a great depth and breadth of resources in early American history. Biographies and personal papers of prominent individuals, examinations of colonial life in urban and agricultural settings, and in-depth exploration of the birth of American political parties, including especially the impact of Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, together offer students a wealth of research materials on this foundational period. Dr. Franz served Pennsylvania State University for three decades. In addition to his role as a faculty member, Franz acted as a PSU administrator in various capacities: he was Director of Academic Affairs at the Brandywine campus for ten years and served as Interim Chancellor for that campus 2013-14. Dr. Franz was instrumental in directing the Papers of Martin Van Buren project at Penn State Brandywine. He began on the project as Associate Editor (1975-76), then oversaw completion of the project as Editor (1976-1986) and Project Director (1976-1988). Under his leadership, the project produced 55 microfilm reels containing approximately 13,000 documents from over 260 different repositories. Dr. Franz served (2015-2020) on the advisory board of the Papers of Martin Van Buren at Cumberland University, which is producing print and digital editions of the Van Buren’s papers. Dr. Franz intended that his donation of books to Cumberland University would assist with this project in addition to amplifying the resources available to Cumberland’s students in their own historical research.

James V. Miller Native American Collection
The James V. Miller Native American Collection consists of 168 books collected by Lebanon native James Victor Miller (1939-2008). Mr. Miller co-authored with Dr. Kevin E. Smith of Middle Tennessee State University one of the books in the collection: Speaking with the Ancestors: Mississippi Stone Statues of the Tennessee Cumberland Region (2009). Mr. Miller’s obituary succinctly traced his deep and long-standing historical interests: “His early interest in the Civil War, by the time of the first grade, and his curiosity about the first residents of the area, American Indians, matured quickly into scholastic endeavors and led to [a 30-year] history teaching career [at Lebanon High School] and later contributions as a noted lecturer and writer. He was an authority on local history, Middle Tennessee Indian cultures and the battles of the Civil War.” In addition to working alongside Lebanon residents Jack Cato and Sue Siens to establish the City of Lebanon Museum and History Center in 1997, Mr. Miller hoped to see a Visitors Center established at the Sellars Farm State Archaeological Site, maintained by the Friends of Sellars Mounds, and where sketches Miller made of many of the Native Americans who inhabited the area are displayed. Jack Cato, the friend to whom Miller entrusted his Native American book collection for safe-keeping until a Sellars Mound Visitor’s Center is in place, has in turn entrusted the collection to Vise Library, via long-term loan, to care for and make available for research by Cumberland students and other scholars.

Lebanon Democrat
When the publisher of the Lebanon Democrat newspaper relocated in 2020, they entrusted Vise Library with the preservation of the bound volumes of past issues (1987 – 2020) that had been stored in their former office building. This print collection enhances our ongoing collection of microfilmed copies of the Lebanon Democrat (1843 – present*), Lebanon Wilson World (1980 – 2004), Lebanon Wilson Post (2005 – present*), and Mt. Juliet News (2013 – present*). (*Vise Library receives the microfilmed copies, produced by the Tennessee State Library & Archives, typically 1 – 2 years after an issue’s original publication).

Military History Collection
The Military History Collection began with a generous donation from Nashville’s Battery Press in 2016 and has continued to grow with the addition of books addressing multiple aspects of military history, ranging from individuals to units, from battles to wars, from equipment to memorials, from historiography to military doctrine, and more.

Stockton Archives
Vise Library houses the University’s Stockton Archives, which is dedicated to preserving university-related records in all formats and other memorabilia of Cumberland University’s long history. The Archives also holds a collection of old and rare books, including an original edition of the War of the Rebellion series.

Tennessee Collection
Vise Library’s Tennessee Collection consists of books and other materials that document local, regional, and state culture and history. Tennessee and Cumberland University authors’ works are also gathered here.