Every year, on the week of the 22nd day of September, the passionate community of J.R.R. Tolkien’s enthusiasts gather together all around the world to pay tribute to the creator of Middle-earth. This date wasn’t selected arbitrarily. On September 22nd, Bilbo and Frodo famously celebrate their concurrent birthday in the first chapter of The Lord Read More
Posts with the tag: special collections
The Archivist’s Nook: “The Road Goes On” – The Making of the Tolkien Exhibit
Posted in: Blogs Rare Books The Archivist's Nook University Archives | Tags: Catholic University, Catholic University of America, Christopher Tolkien, digital exhibit, exhibit, J.r.r. Tolkien, Online Exhibits, rare books, special collections | Comment
The Archivist’s Nook: Consequor – Rare Books Acquisitions, 2022-2023
Several previous blog posts have highlighted select rare book acquisitions via purchase on an annual basis since the department joined Special Collections in 2019. The most recent reporting year, which ended April 30, 2023, saw three very significant additions. This was assisted in part by the welcome promotion of Alex Audziayuk from Rare Books Technician, Read More
Posted in: Blogs Collection Management Digital Scholarship Rare Books The Archivist's Nook University Archives | Tags: acquisitions, Paris, rare books, Reutlingen, special collections, Tridentine, Venice | Comment
The Archivist’s Nook: Decked Out in Green
In Special Collections, we’ve dressed in our grandest greens to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. In that spirit, we wanted to take a moment to highlight some books in our collection which are a lot more prepared than us to celebrate the Irish saint’s day, such as these books from our Nineteenth-Century Irish Poetry collection, housed Read More
Posted in: Blogs Digital Scholarship Humanities The Archivist's Nook University Archives | Tags: Archives, blogs, Catholic University, Ireland, Irish history, rare books, special collections, St. Patrick's Day, The Archivist's Nook | Comment
The Archivist’s Nook: Tolkien, Milton, and Rare Books
Encountering a book once owned, signed, or inscribed by a distinguished person, is in some way encountering the person who signed it or closing the distance to only “a few handshakes away”. Holding the very same volume, read by someone we admire, turning the same pages, can become a transformative and inspirational experience. Books such Read More
Posted in: Blogs Digital Scholarship Rare Books The Archivist's Nook University Archives | Tags: association copies, autographs, books, John Milton, marginalia, Mullen Library, rare books, research, Robert T. Meyer, special collections, Tolkien | Comment
The Archivist’s Nook: Reflecting The Renaissance – Andrea della Robbia’s Annunciation
The following is a selection from Catholic University student Moira McCoy’s class paper on Andrea della Robbia’s Annunciation, a piece of Renaissance-era Italian art held by Special Collections at the University. Ms. McCoy’s piece was submitted as an assignment for Professor Tiffany Hunt’s course ART 272: The Cosmopolitan Renaissance and edited by Special Collection’s Dr. Read More
Posted in: Blogs Catholic History Digital Scholarship Humanities Religious Studies The Archivist's Nook University Archives | Tags: Archives, art, catholic history, special collections, university museum | Comment
The Archivist’s Nook: Curation, Campus, and the Classroom
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
Posted in: Blogs Catholic History Digital Scholarship Humanities Library Users Reference & Instruction The Archivist's Nook University Archives | Tags: Archives, Museum, renaissance, special collections, teaching | Comment
The Archivist’s Nook: A Man for All Reasons – Curating St. Thomas Aquinas
I first encountered Aquinas during my time as a philosophy undergraduate at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, NY, and his proofs for the existence of God had a great impact on my “reconversion,” my coming back home to the Catholic Faith, after years of falling away as an atheist. Thus when I learned Read More
Posted in: Blogs Catholic History Rare Books The Archivist's Nook University Archives | Tags: American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives, Exhibits, manuscripts, online learning, rare books, special collections, St. Thomas Aquinas | Comment
A Finding Aid for the Paulinus Bellet, OSB Papers
A finding aid has been completed for the recently processed Papers of Fr. Paulinus Bellet, OSB, a distinguished Coptic scholar. These Papers are one of several important Coptic archival collections housed in the Semitics/ICOR Library. Fr. Bellet (1913-1987) was born in the Catalonia region of northern Spain. He became a monk of the Abbey of Read More
Posted in: Semitics/ICOR | Tags: Catholic University of America, research, special collections | Comment
The Archivist’s Nook: Attainment-Rare Book Acquisitions, 2021
Special Collections, including the Rare Books Department, like the rest of the world, is operating under the strictures of the COVID Pandemic. Fortunately, we were able to acquire new books and related materials during the vicissitudes of 2020, which we reported on in a November blog post, and are pleased to announce further significant purchases Read More
Posted in: Collection Management Humanities News & Events Rare Books The Archivist's Nook University Archives | Tags: almanac, Anti-Catholic, Antwerp, Brussels, COVID, England, Jansenist, Mexico, rare books, recusant, San Francisco, special collections | Comment
The Archivist’s Nook: Rare Book Acquisitions, 2019-2020
Rare Books was formally added to Special Collections in May 2019, joining the University Archives, Museum, and Manuscripts, also known as the American Catholic History Research Collection. New acquisitions have been a challenge while operating in a climate of budget and staff limits even before the onset of the COVID Crisis. However, we are pleased Read More
Posted in: Blogs Humanities Rare Books The Archivist's Nook University Archives | Tags: anti-Catholicism, apologetics, France, Ireland, John Hughes, Mexico, otomi, Philadelphia, rare books, special collections | Comment