As a special collections library on the Catholic University campus, we naturally collect materials that fit within the educational mission of the University. We have materials on Catholic history, canon law, and theology. But we also have collections that extend beyond the sacred, and that includes a small collection of vintage children’s literature. The most Read More

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. The USCCB Pro-Life Collection, housed at the Catholic University of America, Special Collections, provides a unique look Read More

“If the heart of the University is in scholarship, then the heart of scholarship is in the library,” pronounced Rev. Dr. Peter Guilday, Professor of American Church History, at the April 25, 1925 cornerstone laying ceremony for the John. K. Mullen of Denver Library.  Inspired by Guilday’s words, a display will be held in the Read More

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, born August 7, 1879, came into a world where music was deeply Read More

On an early morning in 1935, a 24-year-old year old Robert T. Meyer begins his day by typing a letter to a Ms. Dorothy Deex. Robert, a young grad student at this time, was so tired he nearly “used [his] typewriter as a pillow”. He daydreams in courier new about his future in academia: “… why, maybe, Read More

As a new year and semester dawns, you may notice a new look for the library’s digital collections. We are pleased to announce that our digital collections have moved to the JSTOR Forum platform: https://www.jstor.org/site/catholic-university/ We recently reached our institutional end of life for the Islandora platform, which has hosted our digital collections for the Read More

Robert Theodore Meyer was born August 6, 1911, third-generation in a lineage of farmers, in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. He grew up working on the farm milking animals, taking care of the garden, eating cherry tomatoes, and rising well before the sun. Some of Meyer’s earliest memories recall his “one-room red school house”, which Read More

Donations have always been the main way for our rare book collections to grow. Books, manuscripts, pamphlets, and parish histories, donated by generous benefactors over many decades (including such great friends of our Library as Msgr. Arthur Connolly, James Card. Gibbons, Bishop Thomas J. Shahan, to name a few), became the lifeblood of our holdings. These Read More

As the campus quiets down with students departing for the holiday break, our staff is readying the stacks for the season. As this archivist goes about his work, his mind wanders off to all the holiday traditions that he will soon partake in: the food, the decorations, the gift exchanges, the religious services, and more! Read More

Guest blogger, Bianca Farmer, is a CatholicU Library Science student who did a class practicum working with CUA Special Collections. 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 Read More