The Power of Place

“At its most simple level, place is the context for life and learning, for growth and development intellectually, spiritually, and socially,” wrote Hamilton, the book’s managing editor. “When it is created well, place is far more than a landscape or a collection of buildings upon the land.”

 

As the story of two unique places, Lift Thine Eyes describes how Northfield and Mount Hermon came into being, how NMH responded to change by becoming one united school, and how the NMH Board of Trustees decided to consolidate on the Mount Hermon campus.

 

The volume, four years in the making, is a comprehensive look at the school and contains more than 300 archival photographs, maps, and architectural drawings. Lift Thine Eyes ($60 hardcover, $40 softcover) will be released on October 23; a book signing with the contributing writers will take place the same day from 2–4 pm at the Rhodes Arts Center. To purchase a copy of the book, click here.

 

Northfield was Dwight Moody’s life-long home and Lift Thine Eyes is, in part, a homage to the man and his legacy—images of his birthplace, his residence, and his grave are set side-by-side testimonials from alumni, Moody quotes, and other perspectives on school’s founding visionary.

 

In the preface, Carol J. Ramsey ’70, trustee and former chair of the Northfield Stewardship Committee, and Rebecca Parfitt Kennedy ’67, trustee and cochair of NMH History Projects Subcommittee, urged readers to use the stories to reflect upon their own experiences.

 

They wrote, “Through this book we hope that you re-experience Moody’s founding vision of education of the head, the heart, and the hand … as the school fulfills its mission in a world vastly different from that of its founding.”

 

Watch a video preview of the book: