Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML)

Located at Saint John's University and Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) is a global organization that advances manuscript research and scholarly inquiry by digitally preserving, providing access to, and fostering research and scholarship opportunities into the cultures that produced them. HMML places a special priority on manuscripts from regions endangered by war, political instability, or other threats. HMML is the world's largest, most comprehensive, and most easily accessible collection of manuscript resources.

Founded by Benedictine monk Father Oliver Kapsner, OSB, in 1965, the initial scope of HMML's work was Benedictine monastic libraries in Austria and Germany. Soon HMML widened its work to include manuscript collections across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Led by executive director, Father Columba Stewart, OSB, HMML is currently digitizing manuscript collections at fieldwork sites in Lebanon, Iraq, the Old City of Jerusalem, India, Egypt, Mali, Ethiopia and Malta. On-site work is done by local technicians trained, supervised, and paid by HMML. HMML serves as the preservation archive in case original manuscripts are destroyed, stolen, or simply disappear.

HMML holds the world's largest collection of resources for the study of manuscript cultures both East and West. HMML has photographed more than 140,000 complete manuscripts from 540 partner libraries worldwide, totaling more than 50,000,000 handwritten pages. HMML has several ways researchers around the world can access its archive. Explore HMML's online resources at www.hmml.org/research.

HMML is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization supported by generous individuals and private foundations. HMML receives major funding from Arcadia Fund of London, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Henry Luce Foundation. All administration, funding, and research activities are based in the United States at HMML.

The entrance to HMML is located on the lower level of the Alcuin Library on the Saint John's University campus. Students, faculty and staff are welcome to use the newly renovated on-site Reading Room for research, quiet study or to view selected artifacts from HMML's collection on display. The archival copies of original manuscripts at HMML are freely available to researchers on-site and copies may be ordered.

For more information, visit www.hmml.org.