A Special Gift for Mepkin’s Archives
January 15th, 2010
On November 11th, Mr. Thomas Ashe Lockhart, a descendent of Mr. Henry Laurens, gifted Mepkin with the diary of Caroline Olivia Laurens. If you have visited the Laurens conference room of the Clare Boothe Luce Library, you could not fail to have noticed the four portraits which hang there. The first portrait is of Henry Laurens. There are two portraits of his sons. And there is a fourth portrait of the wife of one of his sons. This is Caroline Olivia Laurens. Mepkin is so pleased to have received this unique piece of the history of this land and of our nation. 
Mr. Lockhart has again, by his generosity, made us all the more aware of the significance of this place where we live the monastic heritage that is so dear to us. His regard for our life and his ancestry, allow us to be better stewards of this land and its historical significance. Our richer ‘sense of this place’ thereby encourages us to be more deliberate in recording the story of this land as it is now when celebrate the 60th anniversary of the arrival of the first monks which was in November of 1949.