“Why do you need so many copies of the same work in your collection?” Such a question can be easily asked by any patron after finding in the library catalog that Rare Books houses 36 cataloged copies of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. It blows some people’s minds and raises questions: Why Read More

Special Collections has shared the University’s treasures with many classes from many schools and departments over the years: History, Library Science, Religious Studies, Anthropology, and Education among them. While we often use our museum collection materials for instructional purposes, we were privileged with our first visit from a class in the Department of Art, Rome School Read More

Attention music researchers! Through March 30, 2022, the University Libraries has a trial running for MGG Online.  MGG Online builds on the second edition of Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (which the University Libraries has in print), offering new and updated content. MGG Online’s content covers an array of topics not only in all areas of music Read More

Hannah Kaufman is a Graduate Library Pre-Professional (GLP) at The Catholic University of America, who also works in Special Collections. Since starting my position as the new archives GLP, I have been working on the finding aid for the USCCB/NCCB Secretariat for Cultural Diversity. Having never created a complicated finding aid before, I took one Read More

  In January, 2000, the U.S. Department of Labor held a ceremony in Washington, D.C. to honor Terence Vincent Powderly (1849-1924), the 1999 Labor Hall of Fame inductee. He joined fellow Hall-of-Famers such as rival Samuel Gompers, friend Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, and fellow Pennsylvanian and labor leader Philip Murray. The Labor Department Report announcing Read More

Equipe do Projeto Memória Acadêmica da Faculdade de Direito do Recife Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife – Brasil Em 2019, o Projeto Memória Acadêmica da Faculdade de Direito do Recife, atividade extensionista interdisciplinar desenvolvida na Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), firmou importante parceria com The Oliveira Lima Library (OLL) da Catholic University of America. A Read More

Giovanna Gobbi Alves Araújo  Doutora em Literatura Brasileira, Universidade de São Paulo (CNPq/Fulbright)  Scholar-in-residence at the Brasiliana Guita and José Mindlin Library (BBM-USP) giovannagobbi@alumni.usp.br   Manoel de Oliveira Lima’s efforts in curating a personal library throughout the years dedicated to diplomatic service, teaching, and research built a collection of immeasurable value not only for Latin Read More

Heather Roller Associate Professor of History Colgate University   It was the dry season of 1845, and the Guaikurú were on the move again. Some groups rode on horseback across the grasslands, while others navigated in canoes along the Paraguay River or its tributaries. These Native peoples had been visiting Brazilian and Paraguayan forts and Read More

The Special Collections of Catholic University is home to many valuable labor collections. Prominent among these are the papers of Terence V. Powderly, John Mitchell, John Brophy, and Phillip Murray. Less well known, but no less impactful, are the papers of Chicago natives Harry C. Read and Joseph Daniel Keenan (1896-1984). The latter is the Read More

In anticipation of the upcoming celebrations of the bicentennial of the independence movements of many Latin American countries, the Oliveira Lima Library has collaborated with Special Collections on a guide to relevant source material.    While the materials presented focus on Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela, we cannot overstate just how much impact these independence movements Read More