Our guest writer this week is Rachel Nunley, a Virginia native and a Library Science (MS-LS) graduate student at the University of North Texas. She is currently doing her practicum at Special Collections in the Spring 2025 Semester.
USCCB Pro Life, 1981, Special Collectons, CatholicU
The USCCB Pro-Life Collection, housed at the Catholic University of America, Special Collections, provides a unique look into the Catholic Church’s involvement in pro-life advocacy. Covering the years from 1940 to 1991, this collection documents the Church’s legal, social, and pastoral efforts surrounding one of the most debated topics in modern history. Through a variety of records—including correspondence, court case files, legislative documents, committee meeting notes, and pro-life campaign materials—researchers can explore how the Church engaged with political and social movements concerning abortion.
The USCCB Pro-Life Collection consists of five boxes (6 linear feet) filled with correspondence, court case files, legislative documents, committee meeting notes, and pro-life campaign materials. It is divided into five series: Series 1: Population & Divorce, Series 2: Pre-Roe v. Wade Court Cases, Series 3: Pastoral Plan, Series 4: Mailings to Coordinators, and Series 5: Certification Project. This collection is a firsthand account of how the Catholic Church shaped and responded to one of the most divisive issues in American history. It gives researchers an inside look at how the Church influenced laws, supported pro-life activists, and navigated cultural shifts over several decades. One of the most compelling parts of the collection is how it highlights how faith, policy, and activism often intersect. The materials do not just reflect the official stance of the Church but also include grassroots efforts, legal battles, and political discourse that shaped the national conversation on abortion. These records show how abortion debates extended beyond religious contexts, influencing legislation, court rulings, and political campaigns.
USCCB Pro Life, 1982, Special Collectons, CatholicU
One of the most fascinating parts of this collection is the Pre-Roe v. Wade Court Cases series, which includes legal records from multiple states. These documents reveal the legal strategies pro-life advocates used before abortion was legalized nationwide. The Pastoral Plan series is also rich in history, showing how the Church organized its response to abortion and built a movement that extended beyond the political arena. Like many historical collections, the USCCB Pro-Life Collection comes with some preservation challenges. One thing that I noticed the most was fragile and acidic paper. Some of the older documents, particularly from Box 1, are brittle and delicate. This hands-on experience has deepened my understanding of archival preservation techniques and the importance of maintaining historical records for future accessibility. By preserving these materials, we’re keeping a vital part of history alive—not just for scholars and researchers, but for anyone who wants to understand the evolution of the pro-life movement. The pro-life versus pro-choice politics are still very much a part of our country, so having access to materials such as this one can help us understand history.
As a practicum student working with this collection, I have had the opportunity to gain firsthand experience in processing archival materials. One of my primary responsibilities has been organizing and describing the contents of the collection to ensure they are accessible to researchers. This work has allowed me to see how archival materials come together to form a historical narrative and how institutions like the Catholic University of America work to preserve documents that contribute to ongoing scholarly discussions. It’s been an invaluable experience to work with materials that have shaped debates and decisions. Especially because this is still such a hot topic today. Beyond the technical aspects of archival work, this practicum has given me insight into how archival collections support historical research. The USCCB Pro-Life Collection offers scholars, students, and historians a comprehensive look at how one of the most significant moral debates in American history unfolded within the Catholic Church.
If you’re interested in exploring the USCCB Pro-Life Collection, please see the online finding aid, and/or you can visit the Catholic University of America Special Collections by appointment. For more information, you can reach out via lib-archives@cua.edu. Special thank you to Alexis Howlett for scanning the two pamphlets.
Our guest blogger is Rachel Nunley, a Virginian native and a graduate student in Library and Information Science (LIS) at the University of North Texas. She is currently doing her LIS practicum at Special Collections in the Spring 2025 Semester.
Justine Bayard Ward, 1902. Special Collections, CatholicU
Justine Bayard Ward, born August 7, 1879, came into a world where music was deeply cherished and prioritized. From the very beginning, she was destined to continue her family’s contribution to music. Her father, William Bayard Cutting, was a founder of the Metropolitan Opera. Even as a child, Justine Ward was surrounded by the cultural and intellectual elite. Her family was involved in the Jekyll Island Club in Georgia, where they rubbed elbows with some of the most powerful families in America, including the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and the Pulitzers.
Justine Bayard Ward in Puerto Rico, ca. 1904. Special Collections, Catholic U
After her marriage with George Cabot Ward ended (1901-1904), she converted to Catholicism. This decision shaped the rest of her life’s works. She became passionate about sacred music within the Roman Catholic Church, particularly Gregorian chant. During this time, Pope Pius X was trying to restore sacred music’s place within Catholic liturgy. Her work aligned with the reforms that the Pope encouraged [1]. Ward believed that even young children could learn Gregorian chant, given the right method. This is how she came about creating The Ward Method, which combined vocal training, composition, music theory, and conducting. Her approach was influenced by the Solesmes school of Gregorian chant, which focused on restoring the purity, fluidity, and historical accuracy of medieval chant traditions [2]. While creating this method, she made sure it would be accessible for school children of all ages. Though she had originally created it to be taught in the United States, it eventually was adapted into Catholic sacred music education across Europe [3]. This created her reputation as a pioneer in liturgical music education.
Ward’s influence extended beyond the classroom. She helped found the Pius X School of Liturgical Music at the Catholic University of America in 1929, which helped promote the study and practice of sacred music. Her instructional books, written in collaboration with musicologists and clergy, provided a framework that was used for decades in Catholic education. She spent the later years of her life in Washington, D.C., where she remained active in Catholic music education until her passing on November 27, 1975, aged 96.
President Theodore Roosevelt arriving in San Juan. George Cabot Ward is the second person behind the TR (with a white hat-black ribbon around it). ca. 1902. Special Collections, CatholicU
The Justine Bayard Ward collection at the Catholic University of America includes personal correspondence with clergy, educators, and musicians regarding the implementation of The Ward Method, instructional materials, photographs and newspaper clippings that document her influence on Catholic music education, LP’s, and books. Her contributions to the field of liturgical music were instrumental in shaping Catholic music education in the 20th century. For my practicum, I had the privilege of working with this collection, organizing materials that document her impact on sacred music education. As a Catholic convert myself, it was a pleasure to unravel pieces of her history and contributions to the religion.
Justine Bayard Ward, ca. 1975. Special Collections, CatholicU
Here’s an example of The Ward Method being taught in a classroom:
Guest blogger, Bianca Farmer, is a CatholicU Library Science student who did a class practicum working with CUA Special Collections.
Fr. Clarence Rufus Joseph Rivers. 2002. Special Collections, Catholic University of America.
In the Fall semester of 2024, I enrolled in the Archives Management course. For our final assignment there was an option of completing a 16–18-page paper or volunteer to do a 50-hour practicum, I opted for the practicum to gain hands-on experience in the archival field. This decision led me to an exciting opportunity to work with CUA’s Special Collections, where I collaborated with Shane MacDonald, the curator of the digital and museum collections, and W. John Shepherd, CUA’s Archivist and Head of Special Collections.
I was given the freedom to choose which collection I would like to do. After reviewing several options, I chose the Fr. Clarence Rufus Joseph Rivers Ph.D. collection because of his work on incorporating black culture into Catholic liturgy, which I found historically and culturally significant. My task was to organize and process the collection and create a finding aid, all of which seemed daunting to me at the time, but the collection was relatively small, and it consisted of 4 boxes. The collection was donated in 2022 by Gerald Rape and Bonnie Leal, both who were lifelong friends of Fr. Rivers. They both believed that it was the wishes of Fr. Rivers to have some of his items at CUA because it was his alma mater. In contrast, there is another Fr. Rivers collection at Boston College that consist of 30 boxes, the CUA collection is much smaller, but no less historically valuable. The CUA collection consist of a wide range of materials such as vinyl records, DVD’s, CD’s, books, sheet music, hymnals, magazines, musical plays, correspondences, newspaper clippings, honorary certificates, photographs, and biographical notes.
Lead Guide Me African American Hymnal, 1987. Special Collections, Catholic University of America.
Fr. Rivers was a priest, composer, liturgist, educator, writer, activist, and community leader. Born in Selma, Alabama he became Catholic as a child when his family later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the first African American to be ordained a priest in the Archdioceses of Cincinnati in 1956. He served as a priest at the St. Joseph Church in the West End neighborhood of Cincinnati and was an English teacher at Purcell High School. Fr. Rivers was a graduate of CUA and continued his graduate studies at Catholic University of Paris, ultimately earning a Ph.D. in African American culture and Catholic liturgy for Union Institute in 1978. Fr. Rivers work was revolutionary particularly after the Vatican II council, which significantly altered Catholic liturgical practices by removing Latin as the dominant language for Mass. This directly influenced Fr. Rivers to incorporate Black gospel music into Catholic liturgy, he was the first to do so. His music was featured at the first English-language Mass in the United States in 1964.
Although the practicum seemed intimidating initially, it provided me with hands-on experience that enhanced my understanding of the information we were covering in class. Each week I would attend class on Tuesday and on Wednesday I spent time working in Special Collections. My class work and practicum were perfectly aligned. It allowed me to apply what I gained in class to a tangible project.
Fr. Rivers’ Books. 1970s. Special Collections, Catholic University.
On my first day, I carefully looked over the acquisition and I looked through each of the boxes to get more of a sense of what was in the collection. I did not make any changes to the materials or reorganize anything. Instead, I created an initial survey and documented everything in the boxes to a shared Google Doc. The collection itself was in excellent condition, there weren’t any items that were deteriorating, and the materials seemed to be in their own order. The vinyl records were in their own box and the books were mostly together. The fourth box only had two items, it consisted of a foot and a half long frame of a certificate to Bonnie Leal signed by Fr. Rivers with two photographs. What stood out the most, were these two binders that were arranged by the donor Gerald Rape. The binders’ items seemed to be in an order. It was an array of items, from photographs, biographical notes, an obituary, newspaper clippings and correspondences. There was also a photograph of Fr. Rivers wearing boxing gloves; it was refreshing to see him in a setting beyond his role as a priest.
I arranged the collection into four series, the first was “Audiovisuals” which consisted of CD’s DVD’s, and vinyl records. Second, was “Publications,” that had books, hymnals, sheet music, magazines, and musical plays. Next, was “Binders,” with this series, I kept the items from the binders in their original order and transferred the materials to acid free folders. My decision to keep the binders in their original order was helpful when it came to organizing the collection. Finally, there was “Oversize,” which was just the certificate to Bonnie Leal and the two photographs. Initially, the process was tedious, but once I organized each item in the Google Doc, physically organizing the items was effortless. I removed rusty staples and replaced them with paper clips, luckily, I did not damage any papers in the process.
Clarence Rivers, Priest and Boxer. 2002. Special Collections, Catholic University of America.
Once the collection was organized, I began creating the finding aid in ArchivesSpace. The week prior, I had a class assignment to create a mock collection in ArchivesSpace which helped me become familiar with the process. Despite some initial challenges, I received guidance from Abigail Hibbs and Shane MacDonald, and in the end, it was done successfully. Creating the finding aid was my most exciting venture. When it was completed, I sent it to my family and friends, I was very proud.
My most memorable part of the practicum was being with the staff and students in Special Collections and learning about Fr. Rivers. The atmosphere of the Special Collections office was welcoming, and I had the opportunity to learn from everyone. I was able to foster professional relationships. The research I conducted on Fr. Rivers connected me to the collection and I was inspired and eager to process the collection to the best of my ability. Processing this collection assured me that I made the right decision about pursuing a career in Library Information Science.
Special thanks to Shane MacDonald, Alexis Howlett, and Abigail Hibbs for their support and guidance throughout the practicum. For questions about how to access the Fr. Clarence Rufus Joseph Rivers Ph.D. Collection or any others, please visit our contact page. See also the podcast ‘Meet Father Rivers,’ where the author of this post is interviewed.
Stacks Entrance, Aquinas Hall, Special Collections, Catholic University
Guest blogger, Jisoo Ahn, is a Graduate Library Pre-Professional (GLP) working with CUA Special Collections.
In the Aquinas basement lies a space that Special Collections affectionately refers to as the “Stacks”. Behind an unremarkable door is where we house a significant portion of our archival materials related to American Catholicism and CatholicU history. Our staff, along with a rotating cast of student workers and practicum students, frequent this area throughout the year.
Stacks Rule #1: No food or drinks in the Stacks. It’s crucial to remember that food and drinks—even water—are strictly prohibited in the Stacks. Given the delicate nature of our materials, this rule is essential to preserving the collections for future generations.
Our Stacks are split into two large rooms: the Blue Room and the Red Room. Our University Archivist, William John Shepherd, named them for the color of the paper on the aisles. We like to keep things as simple as possible around here.
Red Colored Aisle Tags, Special CollectionsBlue Colored Aisle Tags, Special Collections
As the Graduate Library Preprofessional (GLP) of this office, I spend most of my days immersed in the Stacks. Processing collections and creating finding aids for future researchers is a big part of my role. With fluorescent lights as my primary source of Vitamin D, the Stacks can be a rather dreary environment. I felt compelled to inject some life into the space, not just for myself but also for our dedicated student workers and practicum students. And so, with careful curation, two gallery walls came to life.
The Blue Room’s gallery wall showcases a compelling juxtaposition of our collection’s old and new. I wanted this gallery wall to reflect the breadth of our holdings, so I divided the space into two sections: the right side for the older styles, and the left for the new style. This contrast is evident in the selection of Madonna and Child paintings, each offering a distinct artistic interpretation of this timeless subject.
Starting from the far left, we have a trio of artworks showcasing historic CatholicU campus buildings. To further emphasize the university’s rich history, we’ve included a framed reproduction of a map from November 25, 1895, depicting the area north of campus. This map features Fort Totten and Fort Slemmer, with the latter holding particular historical significance as a Civil War fort, one of 68, defending Washington, D.C. from Confederate forces.
The blue Madonna and Child is a geometric abstract piece by Angela Rooney. Interestingly, Angela’s husband, CUA alumnus Thomas Rooney (1924-2018), was also a renowned sculptor. Following his passing, Angela generously donated a portion of their art collection to our archives.
Right next to that, a circular Madonna and Child, is estimated to be between 200 and 400 years old based on our records. Beyond that, not much else is known. Currently, our office is collaborating with Dr. Christopher Daly, a David E. Finley Fellow at the National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. Dr. Daly is investigating the painting’s origins. And suggests that the painting might be from the Melzi collection of Milan, based on a 1951 auction catalog. This intriguing possibility hints at a Renaissance masterpiece. However, this claim remains unconfirmed as the art historical investigation is ongoing.
Interestingly, Dr. Daley has pointed out a historical inaccuracy. The auction catalog mistakenly identified the small figure on the left as Saint Catherine. It’s actually a depiction of the young Saint John the Baptist.
To the right of the circular Madonna and Child hang two oil portraits of young children, attributed to artists in the Durward family. Known for their distinctive styles in still lifes, portraits, and religious paintings, these charming works are believed to depict the artists’ family members.
Handwritten notes on the back of each portrait support this theory. The upper painting is inscribed, “A painting of Mary Thekla Durward (the only child born at the Glen). Painted about 1876.” The portrait below features a young blonde girl with the inscription, “M. Thecla C. Durward, Aged 16, BID pin x. 1880.”
Our collection boasts nearly 40 Durward paintings, including four that were returned to us in 2021 after an extended loan to the Museum of Wisconsin Art. More information about the Durward family can be found here.
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The Red Room, home to the GLP’s workstation, houses a captivating collection of 14 etchings from the “Romeo and Juliet Suite”. Printed in three distinct color palettes and containing strong elements of both Surrealism and Primitivism, these works are attributed to 20th century Hungarian-born artist Adám Würtz (1927-1994).
A graduate of Budapest’s Academy of Fine Arts, Würtz has exhibited internationally, including in Hungary, Japan, Russia, Romania, Vienna, and the United States. His original works are held in numerous public and private collections across the globe. It rotates frequently, but my current favorite of this series is the tenth print.
Near our bustling scanner station, where much of our digitization takes place, hangs an official Valamaster replica of a Gaspare Vanvitelli (1653-1736) masterpiece.
Gaspar van Wittel, the Dutch master better known as Gaspare Vanvitelli in Italy, is acclaimed for his groundbreaking work in veduta painting. His profound influence is evident in the art of subsequent generations, notably Canaletto.
A pioneer of the topographical painting genre known as veduta, Vanvitelli, often dubbed “Gaspar with the spectacles,” elevated the style to new heights. Our replica, “Il Bacino di San Marco con il Molo a la Piazzetta” (The San Marco Basin with the Pier and the Piazzetta), captures a stunning Venetian scene. This particular piece is part of the archive’s Magner collection.
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Our museum collection is certainly a repository of history and art, preserving a wealth of exceptional pieces. Click here to find out more about our holdings. You can also explore our museum’s online inventory via the Museum Objects Catalog. Whether you’re passionate about American Catholic history or simply curious about CatholicU history, please reach out. Even a quick hello is always welcome!
Special Collections Contact Information:
Email: lib-archives@cua.edu
Phone: 202-319-5065
Office Hours: Monday through Friday 9:00am – 5:00pm
Reading Room Hours: Monday through Friday 10:00am – 4:00pm
Location: The Special Collections office is located in Aquinas Hall, Room 101.
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Sources:
Daly, Christopher. “New Information on the tondo (Magner M293)” Received by Shane MacDonald, May 15, 2024
Shane MacDonald (Curator, Museum and Digital Collections) in discussion with author, August 2024.
Our guest blogger is Erika D’La Rotta, a graduate student in Library and Information Science (LIS) at the Catholic University of America, who completed her LIS practicum at Special Collections in the Fall 2023 Semester.
Dolores Brien and a 1966 letter she wrote to Leo Dolenski. Special Collections, Catholic University.
During the Fall semester, as part of my Archives Management coursework, I had the opportunity to participate in a 50 hour practicum with William John Shepherd, CUA’s Archivist and Head of Special Collections. My project was to arrange and process a small collection of letters, the Dolores Brien – Leo Dolenski Collection, which was generously donated to CUA in 2022 by Mary Ann Holthaus, a long-time friend. The collection contains weekly correspondence between Dolores Brien and Leo Dolenski from 1965-1974, in which they discuss their concerns about the Church, share ideas about their professions, and contemplate contemporary topics of interest.
Dolores was involved in the Grail, a Catholic Women’s Movement and spent time at Grailville, Ohio. Later in her professional career and for the majority of the letters, she was the Director of Career Planning at Bryn Mawr. Leo was a priest and taught Sociology. Their correspondence over ten years dealing with their concerns about the Church and contemporary issues led to their marriage. The collection also contains some newspaper clippings and magazine articles that the two attached to their letters throughout the years.
Leo Dolenski and a 1966 letter he wrote to Dolores Brien. Special Collections, Catholic University.
The opportunity to have hands-on work simultaneously with the classroom learning enhanced my educational experience. I have never worked within the Library and Information Science (LIS) field, but the classroom curriculum provided me with the foundational knowledge, network, and tools that I then applied the concepts on this project.
At the beginning, processing an archival collection seemed daunting! On my first day, I just stared at my box of unprocessed material wondering why I thought hands-on experience was a better option than writing a research paper; however, once I opened the box and looked through the letters to assess the collection, I knew I made the right decision. As I went through the entire collection, I made sure not to rearrange anything. It took me a while to come up with a plan for arranging and describing the collection. Once, I had a processing plan, I reviewed it with John to make sure I was on the right track.
I set out to arrange the collection in one series, arranging the correspondence chronologically by date in three month increments into acid-free folders to minimize the bulkiness of each file folder. The process of reorganizing the collection into 38 folders was a little tedious and extremely time consuming. My organization system included labeling each folder with the collection title, folder title, collection number, box number, and the folder number onto each folder. After labeling all the folders, I realized I had made a mistake with the folder numbers, which required me to start all over! Thank goodness for erasers. Erasing and renumbering took some time, but it was a lesson learned to slow down and always use a pencil. Additionally, I had to remove rusty paper clips from the letters, replacing them with new clips to limit the damage to the paper while preserving the order of the letters. My decision to replace the paper clips was to help keep the pages of the letters together. Fortunately, I managed to remove the old paper clips without tearing any of the letters!
After I arranged the collection, I moved on with developing a finding aid in ArchivesSpace to facilitate future research on this collection. Up to this point, CUA has never utilized ArchivesSpace for its collections, so I was excited to be a part of the Special Collections Department as they were transitioning from Encoded Archival Description (EAD) to ArchivesSpace!
My favorite part of the practicum was being around the Special Collections staff and LIS students. It gave me an opportunity to learn from more than one person and build professional relationships I would not have been able to otherwise.
Special thanks to Hannah Kaufman for scanning letters and photographs. For question about how to access this collection or any others, please visit our contact page.
Our guest blogger is Alexus Eudell, a graduate student in Library and Information Science (LIS) at the Catholic University of America, who completed her LIS practicum at the Rare Books in the Summer of 2023.
Photo Credit: Hannah Kaufman
I began my internship with the Rare Books department with Alex Audziayuk, the Rare Books Librarian, on June 7, 2023. My last day was August 9, 2023. I completed 120 hours during my time there. In the Rare Books department, my main project was the Clementine Library. The Clementine Library is a collection named for Pope Clement XI, one of the most distinguished members of the Albani family of Urbino and Rome. The library consists of about ten thousand books and pamphlets, and they date as early as the late 14th century to the early 19th century. Catholic University received the books in 1928. Catholic University holds one third of the collection, another third is in Italy, and the last third of the library was lost at sea many years ago.
With the Clementine Library, I was responsible for transferring the information and data from the handwritten catalog sheets about each individual book and pamphlet into a Google Sheets platform. The purpose of this was to prepare for the hopeful, eventual digitization of the collection; the department hopes to make information about the library available to be viewed through Catholic University’s online library catalog. I have helped the department transfer several folders of documents, with each folder containing about fifty to a hundred sheets in each.
When I was not working with the Clementine Library, I assisted Alex in other tasks for the Rare Books department. One of the things the department does, like many other libraries and information institutions, is keep track of and digitize old records regarding the department. I helped scan in several large folders of information pertaining to the rare books department and everything it has done over the years, such as: rare book class curriculums, grant requests, presentations, end of year progress reports, budgeting information, acquisition standards and procedures, and other documents.
Photo Credit: Hannah Kaufman
It was very interesting to see work from previous years, because I got to see how the department was run and what employees were doing to take care of the books and to expand the collection. Seeing the old course syllabi was also interesting, as I will be taking the Rare Books course in the upcoming fall semester, and I’ve heard great things about the course from my classmates in my Special Collections course, so I’m excited to experience it firsthand.
A mini project that I also worked on during my time in the department was with basic processing of new materials into the collection. The Catholic University of America’s Rare Books department received several boxes of pamphlets and books from other libraries that no longer wished to keep those items in their own collections. The pamphlets and books given to the university were focused entirely on some aspect of religion and religion-based groups and events. To organize them, I sorted the books in alphabetical order by publisher. The topics of the books ranged from everything, such as marriage expectations for men and women, conference overviews, prayers and songs, eugenics, the KKK, children’s expected behavior, etc. There was a wide range of publishers in the boxes, but several were very popular, such as: The Queen’s Work, The Paulist Papers, The Catholic Truth Society (with branches in New York, London, Ireland, Chicago, and San Francisco), Ave Maria Press, and Our Sunday Visitor. This was the last mini project that I worked on.
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My favorite part of the internship were the times I was able to actively handle materials. Something Alex mentioned when I started is that a lot of people have this misconception of the rare books department and believe that rare book and special collections librarians are always rushing around acquiring new materials and touching the books and doing this or that, but the reality is very different. Usually, the average day for a person working in a library involves sitting at a desk answering phone calls, sending and responding to emails, and conducting research. With the Clementine Library, the only time I physically touched the books were when Alex and I had to go find several books on the shelf to figure out why seven books had the same call number.
Photo Credit: Hannah Kaufman
Aside from handling the books, I did really enjoy learning new things almost every day. The handwritten catalog information about the Clementine Library were all in Latin, as the books were mostly written in Latin, with some books being in other languages (German, Hebrew, French, etc.). Although I can’t quite read Latin, I have found myself being able to catch a few words here and there. A lot of the words are either very similar to the English language or closely resemble another language, such as the words libri in Latin and libro in Spanish, or the words theologica in Latin and theology in English.
Something that people may think about the Clementine Library is that it’s a collection that focuses solely on religion, but that is far from the truth. The books were about many different things, such as poetry, medicine, history, languages, etc. I really enjoyed seeing what the Albani family enjoyed reading many years ago.
Clementine Collection
This practicum emphasized the importance of paying attention to details. As I mentioned above, there were instances where the same call number was assigned to multiple books. What this means is that multiple books had the exact same identification tag on them that identified where they were on the shelves. This was something that had to be fixed immediately, as it could cause issues for future researchers; they would search for one specific book using the call number and get seven completely unrelated books in their results. As I was inputting information, I noticed that I had typed the same call number several times and went back to review the documents. Bringing it to Alex’s attention, we had to go to the basement storage facility to track down every single book that had the same call number to identify what the problem was. The books in question were a set of pamphlets that were grouped together on the shelves and given the exact same identification number. To fix a problem like that, Alex and I had to open the books and identify the date of publication. That publication date would go at the end of the call number to make a clear, separate difference between the other books in the set.
The only thing about the internship that I struggled with was the chill in the room. The room is kept at a certain temperature and humidity to ensure the books remain in the best condition possible, so it is cold all the time. This is not something that anyone can change, but it does take some getting used to. If I had to give advice to incoming rare books workers, my first warning would be for them to bring a sweater.
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Clementine Library volumes
The first competency that really stuck out to me during my internship was the importance of negotiation and teamwork, and ethical management. Alex explained to me how items are acquired in the department and the necessary steps needed to verify everything the department received before it officially accepted it into its collection. Every item must have a clear chain of ownership. The details of ownership cannot be vague; heavy detail is preferred. The acquisition team is going to want to know where the book came from, the name of every person/institution that it belonged to, how much was paid for it, was the book altered in any way, is there a missing stamp of ownership from the previous institution that the item belonged to, is the title page inconsistent with other known copies of the book, etc. These questions must be answered because the university wants to avoid accepting an item that was obtained illegally, and they want to avoid paying a lot of money for a fraudulent book. There have been instances where an individual will steal an item from another library/institution and attempt to sell the book to make a profit. People have tried to alter books to make them resemble other editions so that the book would be worth more. Libraries work closely with verified rare book dealers and vendors to decrease the amount of fraud in the field. Each branch asks these questions to cover all their bases and to maintain credibility as trustworthy, reliable rare books specialists, even if that means spending weeks making phone calls and emails to track down every bit of information about a book.
Another objective that I developed an understanding of was the history and importance of the profession to the world. Libraries and information institutions share a common responsibility: capturing the diverse human experience and making that knowledge accessible. This is a very delicate line to walk because the diverse human experience will have things that are uncomfortable. There are items in the library that focus on heavy topics, such as racism. However, that’s not the overall message that the library is presenting to patrons. The purpose of the collection is to show all of history, the good and the bad, every perspective. This does not mean that the library or the university supports harmful statements and beliefs, just that they’re doing their duty of having the human experience documented. The Rare Books department at Catholic University does its best to capture the diverse human experience. In the Clementine Library, for example, a large amount of the books focus about Bibles and their contents. However, that is not the entire collection. The Clementine Library is a library that encompasses the books that the Albani family have owned and enjoyed since the 14th century. They weren’t just people who read Bibles and did absolutely nothing else. They read about poetry, romance, history, science, languages, politics, and other literature.
Photo credit: Hannah Kaufman
The contents of the books are not the only thing that can be educational. Even just looking at how a book was made in the 14th century as opposed to the late 18th century can tell someone a lot. With the department creating and maintaining that kind of environment, patrons can see what kind of topics and genres were popular a few centuries ago, which animals/materials were commonly used for book creation and binding, and see how those things changed over time.
Overall, I enjoyed my internship in the Rare Books department. I am very grateful for the opportunity that was given to me, and I enjoyed working with Alex, who is very knowledgeable and passionate about what he does in the department. This internship was a good introduction to the inner workings of a library for beginners, and I think it helped me gain a better understanding of what I can expect to see and experience as a library employee and what I want to do in the future.
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University Libraries Special Collections are happy to provide practicum opportunities to CatholicU students interested in obtaining hands-on experience at our Archives and Rare Books. Contact us at lib-archives@cua.edu for more details.
This post is by guest blogger Patricia Ortega-Miranda. Patricia Ortega-Miranda is a researcher, lecturer, curator, and Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Art History & Archeology at the University of Maryland, College Park. She earned her Master’s degree in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin, and has held fellowships from important institutions such as the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas; the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Patricia teaches Modern and Contemporary Art at the Catholic University of America and at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has organized various exhibitions featuring the work of internationally recognized contemporary Latin-American artists such as Carlos Martiel, Glenda León, and Daniela Libertad.
Students of Museum Practices Today pose with Instructor Patricia Ortega-Miranda and the poster created by Connor Robeck for the exhibit, May 2023.
WORKERS: Exploring Labor in the Strishock Print Collection is an online exhibition resulting from the collaborative work between students in the Art History Department at Catholic University and Special Collections. The idea of working collaboratively was central to my course Museum & Gallery Practices Today, which introduces students to various aspects of gallery and museum practices through a participatory methodology that seeks to foster collaboration, creativity, and criticality. In this course, students develop practical skills in, and generate critical approaches to, exhibition design and audience engagement programs, the two areas most radically impacted by the culture wars of the late 1980s, and the complex and constantly changing social and political landscapes that have emerged since. In this course students come into direct contact with the various processes involved in the development of an exhibition, and the idea is that each part of the exhibition would emerge quite organically out of our class discussions and assignments.
We began by conducting preliminary research about the Strishock Print collection itself and with the help of Maria Mazzenga and Shane MacDonald at Special Collections the students were able to inspect a number of these works and discuss the various printmaking techniques employed and how to determine the artistic and technical value of each print. We discovered that the collection contains works from quite a heterogeneous group of artists working in different parts of the world, in different styles and at different time periods. This was both a challenge and an opportunity. A challenge because there was not enough material to focus on a specific moment in this longer and transnational history of modernist printmaking. But it was an opportunity for the students to find connections between works, artists and contexts that were different and distant from one another. Yet, the heterogeneous character of the collection did capture the moment when a lot of European artists and printmakers migrated to the United States at the end of the 19th century. By the 1930s printmaking flourished in the United States, becoming one of the most important artistic and commercial practices all through the 1940s, the 1950s and well into the 1960s. This is the period that scholar Olga Viso calls the Golden Age of American Printmaking, and it is defined as such because of the unprecedented surge we see in printmaking practices and graphic arts in the United States indebted, in great part, to the influx of artists from Europe and the new institutional and commercial avenues for art. Printmaking was the privileged artform for American Modernism and it developed alongside muralism through portfolios, posters and illustrations commissioned by the US government as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Dory Fisherman, by Raphael LeRoy (Tod) Lindenmuth (1930) is a woodcut or linocut featured in the online exhibition.
After the preliminary research students began to consider subject matter, and after much consideration they come up with the theme for the exhibition. During our brainstorming sessions students noted the presence of various genre such as landscape and portraiture, and the importance of place and the human figure. The students noticed that there was a connection between the surge in printmaking as an artistic technique in the United States and the fact that as an art form it became accessible to a lot of people. The humbleness of the medium was something the students found important and something that still held relevance today as new technologies promise to democratize art and support social and political causes. The collection’s heterogeneity granted students the opportunity to diversify their selection by considering gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality as identity markers that would enrich their approach to this social, economic, and cultural history of labor. The students identified workers as a historically relevant theme in art and one that was present throughout the collection. They also noted the importance of highlighting the artistic and technical value of the print, and their choices led to incredibly interesting discoveries about the multilayered, complex and at times uneasy history of labor. For example, the environmental, economic, and social impact of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s led many agricultural workers to abandon their farms during the Great Depression. This is explored by Elena Barton and Moira McCoy in the prints by German artist Hans Alexander Muller and American artist Stevan Dohanos. Shannon O’Doherty uncovered the connections between the rising and thriving of consumer culture in New York City during the 1930s and the moment when women started to join the labor force, while Katie Coyle wrote about the fishermen of New England and their struggles sailing on the dory boat.
Mother and Child, by Alessandro Mastro-Valerio (1945) is a woodcut also featured in the online exhibition. Woodcut
In some of the students’ selections labor as a subject matter is less conspicuous, yielding new approaches to this theme. Annaliese Haman rescued the work of a printmaker woman whose skills have been widely overlooked. Marian Hebert’s aquatint is not only a masterful print but reveals how the very concept of labor in the United States gave rise to myths and narratives of resilience that emerged with the occupation of the Western lands. From her part, Clara Hodsen brought to light the work of Austrian-Argentine painter and printmaker Mariette Lydis, whose own personal struggles as a bisexual Jewish woman who fled Europe during the first years of Nazi occupation informed the eerie subject matter of her prints. Gender appears as a central theme in the woodcut Mother and child by Alessandro Mastro-Valerio. In her text Elena Barton explains that it presents “motherhood as a symbol of universal beauty and fertility, this print establishes a parallel between breastfeeding and farming as both acts of care and love that connects humans to nature.” To enrich this history of labor students looked beyond the context of the United States and Europe, Connor Robeck’s text about the work of Japanese master ukiyo-e printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige revealed the fascinating story about the 53 stations of the Tokaido. According to Robeck the print shows “a hub of commerce and interchange, but one still deeply connected to the land. People of all kinds come together to trade the fruits of their labor. This was common on the Tokaido, a highly important coastal road that acted as a place for people of all social statuses to travel and do their business. Because the Tokaido was typically traversed by foot, periodic rest stations were constructed. The 53 stations of the Tokaido were popular landmarks, and they proved a popular subject in the arts, as they provided a useful framework for showing their country’s rich culture and natural beauty.” Lastly, Moira McCoy’s text about Charles William Cain’s etching The Mahout explores the theme of labor in India, a colonial context that fascinated Western artists for centuries.
Poster created by Connor Robeck for the class’s online exhibit.
Among the many skills students developed working on this project the most important one was learning to write catalog entries. Although these are short texts, they required a lot of concision and the ability to synthesize. Connor Robeck, a studio art major and art history minor who specializes on digital art created the exhibition’s poster. His technical and artistic skills came through in his subtle and beautiful stylization of a print from the collection, emphasizing the use of stark contrasts that right from the beginning, he noted as a key and unifying element of most printmaking techniques. Since the second part of the course focused on audience engagement and programming, students explored various strategies and ideas for adding a community-focused element within the exhibition. After a brainstorm session, the idea came up to record interviews with workers around campus. In class we discussed the importance of involving public and audiences directly in the development of public programs in the context of museum exhibitions. I have found that working with a specialized collection, like the Strishock Print Collection, on an exhibition centered around the concept of collaborative curation is a powerful tool for teaching. First, because it allows students to come into direct contact with works of art, to understand their material and physical qualities and value in a profound way. And secondly, because it opens a window into the benefits and challenges of working collaboratively towards a common goal, to create something meaningful and valuable that can be shared with a larger audience and used as a teaching tool and to advance scholarship on the interconnected histories of printmaking and labor.
Our guest blogger is Elyse Ridder, a graduate student in the joint program for Musicology (MA) and Library & Information Science (MLIS) at the Catholic University of America, and a student employee in the Catholic University Special Collections.
John Webber, courtesy of WebberMusic.
One of the biggest projects I have been privileged to work on as a student employee at the Catholic University Special Collections is the John Webber Music Collection. John Webber initially donated his collection to our archives in Spring 2021, with a variety of compositions written throughout his life. However, this collection is very different from a majority of the materials we possess in the archives. This is a born-digital collection, where Webber’s works are entirely contained through digital storage. There is no physical paper trail at all. As Webber is still composing today, we regularly receive updates from him with new compositions to add to his collection.
John C. Webber (1949- ) served in the Royal Marines Band Service for the UK Ministry of Defense from 1963-1972. Webber received an undergraduate degree from Rheinische Musikschule in flute performance (1974). Before traveling to the United States, Webber received FTCL and LTCL (post-graduate performance diplomas) diplomas in music theory and composition, and flute teaching, respectively. Once in the United States, he received his M.A. in music theory and composition from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (1976) and his DMA in music composition from The Catholic University of America (1979). With experience from graduate assistantships and fellowships, he proceeded to teach music theory, piano, and composition at a number of universities in the United States and United Kingdom. Webber has founded and conducted various orchestras, and his music has been performed on both radio and television in Europe and the United States. His music is published by Arsis Press, Anglo-American Music Publishers, and his own Webber Music.
External storage devices that contains Webber’s compositions.
Webber’s original donation consisted of one external storage device with over 100GB of used storage. It amounted to around 50,000 files and over 300 different compositions. To say it was a daunting task is an understatement, and there was so much to do. With 43 years of music in front of me, I wanted to ensure that all of Webber’s compositions were given equal attention and nothing was overlooked. My task involved processing/inventorying all of the music, categorizing each work, writing a finding aid using EAD, and then ensuring that it was uploaded and accessible online for the public to view.
During my initial inventory, I scrolled and opened hundreds of files while brainstorming on how to cohesively organize Webber’s music so it was easy to find items. After about six months of processing, I had managed to categorically list all of Webber’s 369 compositions by musical subject using a system similar to the Library of Congress’ musical subject classification. Webber’s musical collection contains two series: series one includes compositions written by himself, and series two is a collaboration between him and John Gehl. Series one has seventeen subseries, consisting of orchestral symphonies and solo instrumental music to opera and teaching methods. Series two only has one subseries: opera/musical theater. However, that was only one piece of the puzzle completed.
One of Webber’s latest compositions for chorus and orchestra, 2022.
The next step was creating a finding aid for this voluminous collection. Our finding aids were built around listing paper material collections, so we did not possess EAD that could accommodate born-digital items. Because of this, an entirely new finding aid had to be composed for Webber’s collection. For example, I had to measure the extent of the collection by gigabytes and file numbers instead of linear feet. Webber classified each of his compositions by a six digit file number, and each file can contain cover images, scores, instrument parts, finale files, relevant text, etc. So to organize it cohesively, I used Webber’s file numbers and grouped relevant materials with each file.
John Webber has committed his entire life to music and has spent over 40 years sharing his compositions with performers, listeners, and fellow music professionals. My goal for this project (and still ongoing today) has been to ensure that Webber’s music is labeled, categorized, and easily accessible for anyone who wishes to perform, view, research, or listen to his works.
Our guest blogger is Elyse Ridder, a graduate student in the joint program for Musicology (MA) and Library & Information Science (MLIS) at the Catholic University of America, and a student employee in the CUA Special Collections.
Joseph Fahey, courtesy of Manhattan College.
During my time as a student employee at the Catholic University Special Collections, I have explored a few collections, especially music collections, since that’s my specialty. However, during my Fall 2022 semester, I worked on a collection that was entirely different. Joseph Fahey donated his papers in 2016 and it contains his life’s dedication to peace studies, including his employment at Manhattan College, correspondence with individuals throughout a fifty year period, many peace events he attended, publications, travels, and much more.
Joseph Fahey is a Catholic theologian and peace studies scholar and activist. A graduate of Maryknoll Seminary and New York University, he is a co-founder of Pax Christi, USA and was named a Pax Christi Ambassador of Peace. He is also a co-founder and Chairperson of Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice. A long-time professor at Manhattan College (1966-2016), he created the College’s Peace Studies and Labor Studies programs.
His papers originally arrived in three boxes, and there was no perceived order to how items were organized within the boxes. Papers, documents, letters, etc. were not processed or sorted through. There were notes from previous students that attempted to unbury Fahey’s life work but they were incomplete. I ultimately decided on reordering every single item. I created a three step method to successfully restructure the Fahey Papers. This included: 1) inventorying the entire collection by creating a preliminary box list of every item; 2) reorganizing the collection into appropriate series, subseries, and folders; and 3) composing a finding aid for public accessibility.
Fahey saved this from his trip to the USSR in the early 1990s.
As I sifted through letters and documents spanning from the 1960s to 2010s, I started to visualize a way to organize everything. After I finished inventorying, I created a rough skeleton of my arrangement plan. It consists of three series, with distinct characteristics and subseries to find items faster. The first series consists of newspaper clippings, personal documents, photographs, letters, etc. The second series is the largest in the collection and contains five subseries. The subseries includes correspondence, articles, promotional materials, and publications from organizations such as Pax Christi and Manhattan College to Fahey’s travels abroad and published original works. The last series contains correspondence with notable people he met throughout his life, including Pete Seeger, Eileen Egan, and many more.
By creating piles, reordering everything within the boxes to the appropriate series, disposing of duplicates or damaged items (after proper review), creating new folders, and ordering items chronologically, I managed to get Fahey’s collection down from three boxes to two. Lastly, I created a finding aid using EAD after I finished reorganizing the entire collection.
Finished Collection of the Fahey Papers.
Joseph Fahey had a prolific career and life devoted to peace studies and the betterment of people across the globe. The more I delved into Fahey’s works, the more I wanted to represent his dedication and passion for world peace by ensuring his collection was respectfully and logically organized so it is accessible for everyone for many years to come.
The Joseph Fahey Papers finding aid is available online here.
Our guest blogger is Rebecca Lemon, a Library and Information Science (LIS) student at Catholic University.
Last semester, as part of my Library and Information Science (LIS) coursework, I had the opportunity to arrange and process two small, related collections, the National Right to Life News Collection and the Long Island Pro-Life Collection , housed in the university’s Special Collections. Both collections were generously donated in 2021 to CUA by the Sisters of Life, a Catholic religious institute based in New York.
Copies of the National Right to Life News from 1984. Special Collections, Catholic University.
Since I had never processed any archival collections before, sitting down to look at the seven boxes of unprocessed materials in front of me felt rather daunting. I took it slowly, though, and began by simply looking through each box and trying to get a sense of what was there. It soon became clear that processing the National Right to Life News collection would be fairly straightforward. The collection contains all the issues of the National Right to Life News published between November 1973 (when it first began) and 1999. Arranging the collection, then, would be a simple matter of putting the issues in acid-free folders according to their date. The Long Island Pro-Life collection, on the other hand, was a very different story. Since this collection documents the grassroots pro-life movement on Long Island during the 1970s-1990s, it contains a wide variety of materials like pamphlets, newspaper and article clippings, newsletters, periodicals, correspondence, books, and other ephemera. Processing this collection appeared as if it would be much more complicated, so I decided to start with the National Right to Life News collection first and then move on to the Long Island Pro-Life collection after I’d had more time to think about the best way to arrange and describe it.
One of the event flyers in the Long Island Pro-Life Collection. Special Collections, Catholic University.
It took me only a few weeks to process and describe the National Right to Life News collection. I arranged the issues in acid-free folders and then labeled them for easy access, writing the collection title, folder title, and issue dates, as well as the collection number, box number, and folder number on each one. This not only makes it easy to locate the right folder at a glance, but also guards against the rare chance that a folder is inadvertently separated from the collection. In that event, enough identifying information is written on the folder itself to be able to locate its correct place.
Successfully processing the National Right to Life News collection gave me enough confidence to begin arranging the Long Island Pro-Life collection. Unlike the National Right to Life News collection, no clear order for arrangement was immediately apparent. I spent a good deal of time sifting through the collection, trying to discover any hints as to its organization that might have been left by the collector(s) of the materials. I found that, though there really was no particular order to the vast majority of the materials in the collection, there was a series of folders which had been labeled with handwritten names. So, I needed to be sure to preserve the general order of this series, but I was free to arrange the rest of the collection in whatever way would make its contents the most accessible. I decided that the best way of striking a balance between making the materials easily accessible and not overly disturbing the collection would be to organize it by format. I created five series in total: 1) Pamphlets, 2) Newsletters and Periodicals, 3) Newspapers and Newspaper Clippings, 4) Subject Files, and 5) Books. The process of sorting the materials into these series also helped me to glean some contextual clues about the origins of the collection. Although the collection was donated by the Sisters of Life, they were not the original collectors of the materials, and we unfortunately do not have any official documentation about the original collector(s). However, while going through the collection, I discovered that several of the newsletters, periodicals, and correspondence are addressed to Mrs. Mary Brennan or her family. The collection also contains some personal papers belonging to Mary Brennan, which document her active involvement in the leadership of the pro-life movement on Long Island during the 1970s-1990s. From this, we can infer that Mary Brennan was most likely the primary collector of the materials in the collection, and so we have indicated that in the finding aid for the collection.
Direct Line: The Long Island Birthright Newsletter. The Long Island Pro-Life Collection holds copies of this newsletter that were produced between 1973-1984. Special Collections, Catholic University.
As I learned through my experience with these two collections, archival processing has a lot to do with making educated guesses about the history and previous organization of the collection. The archivist must attempt to get inside the mind of the original collector(s) and find answers to the myriad questions that arise when processing and arranging the collection. For example, why did the collector(s) keep certain things and not others? Did they use a particular method of organization? If so, how can we preserve that method and yet make the materials easily accessible now for researchers in the present day? With a little patience and perseverance, the answers to these questions can be found by retracing the collection’s history through the clues left buried in the collection. In this way, boxes of unorganized papers cease to appear quite so intimidating and become instead an exciting mystery just waiting to be solved.
Interested in learning more about the items in these collections? Make an appointment with CUA Special Collections to come view the materials in person.
