Austrian ambassador to United States visits HMML

Her Excellency Eva Nowotny, Austrian ambassador to the United States of America, will visit the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) Thursday, April 26 on the Saint John’s University campus.

Ambassador Nowotny and her husband, Thomas Nowotny, Ph.D. will be escorted by HMML board member and Honorary Consul General of Austria, Ron Bosrock.

“I am pleased that Ambassador Nowotny will be able to learn about the Austrian collection at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library. It is HMML’s oldest and largest collection, and is a unique repository of the Austrian culture here in Minnesota that serves the academic community world-wide as an important focus for Austrian studies,” said Consul Bosrock.

Their visit will include a tour of Saint John’s University, the Abbey Church and HMML. The Austrian connection to HMML was established when HMML began microfilming Austrian manuscripts during the 1960s. The HMML collection now includes manuscripts from nearly all the libraries in Austria. It is the most complete of all of HMML’s collections and contains more than 30,000 manuscripts and other documents.

“This collection is really the one that ‘made HMML,’ ” said Father Columba Stewart, executive director of HMML. “It opened doors for us to more than 70 other manuscript libraries, and set the standard for the collaboration that has characterized HMML’s mission during our 40 years of work throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East.”

While at HMML, Ms. Nowotny will attend a lecture on HMML’s Austrian holdings by HMML curator of Austrian and German collections, Matthew Heintzelman.

“The collection is used extensively for research, and remains in great demand with national and international scholars and researchers,” Heintzelman said.

HMML was founded 40 years ago in response to the devastating loss of manuscripts and books during two world wars. It is the only institution in the world exclusively dedicated to the photographic preservation and study of manuscripts, particularly in locations where war, theft or physical conditions pose a threat. Since its inception, HMML has built the world’s largest collection of manuscript images, having photographed almost 100,000 manuscripts totaling more than 30 million pages.

For more information about the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library’s Austrian collections, please e-mail Matthew Heintzelman, curator of Austrian and German collections, or call him at 320-363-2795.