The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum is a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 in Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

, one of ten Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum

Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum

The Karpeles Manuscript Library is the world’s largest private collection of original manuscripts and documents.The library was founded in 1983 by California real estate magnates, David and Marsha Karpeles, with the goal of stimulating interest in learning, especially in children...

s in the United States. It displays manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

s and document

Document

The term document has multiple meanings in ordinary language and in scholarship. WordNet 3.1. lists four meanings :* document, written document, papers...

s from the private collection of David and Marsha Karpeles, the world's largest such collection, as well as art exhibits.

The museum opened in 1992 in the former First Church of Christ, Scientist building in Jacksonville's Springfield

Springfield, Jacksonville, Florida

Springfield is a historic neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida, located to the north of downtown. Established in 1869, it experienced its greatest growth from the early 1880s through the 1920s...

 neighborhood, constructed in 1921. The Classical Revival

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 structure is a contributing property

Contributing property

In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...

 in the Springfield Historic District and is listed as No. SP-61 by the Jacksonville Historic Landmarks Commission.

Building

The first Christian Science

Christian Science

Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...

 services in Jacksonville were held in 1892 and First Church of Christ, Scientist

Church of Christ, Scientist

The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, by Mary Baker Eddy. She was the author of the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Christian Science teaches that the "allness" of God denies the reality of sin, sickness, death, and the material world...

 was organized in 1897. It met at several locations in Jacksonville before acquiring the property that would be its permanent home in the Springfield

Springfield, Jacksonville, Florida

Springfield is a historic neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida, located to the north of downtown. Established in 1869, it experienced its greatest growth from the early 1880s through the 1920s...

 area in 1921. The building, located at 101 West 1st Street (formerly 1116 North Laura Street), was built in the Classical Revival

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

style. A contributing building in the Springfield Historic District, it is listed as No. SP-61 by the Jacksonville Historic Landmarks Commission.

In 1992 the congregation sold the building to David Karpeles. After the sale the church was voluntarily dissolved August 10, 1993.

Karpeles Museum

The Jacksonville Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum opened in 1992. It is privately owned by David Karpeles, a former math professor who had made millions investing in real estate and then taken up manuscript collecting. In 1983 he began opening museums across the country to house his collection, now the world's largest. The museum features three or four exhibits from Karpeles' collection a year, as well as exhibits from other collectors and around six art exhibits.