Special Collections

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Irish Repeal Campaign Cartoons
Illustrating opposing attitudes to the 1801 Act of Union which created a legislative union between England and Ireland. Three anti- union cartoons published in Dublin flatteringly portray Daniel O'Connell, (Irish statesman, founder in 1840 of the Repeal Association which sought restoration of the Irish parliament), in his struggle against English rule as personified by Arthur Wellesley, (Duke of Wellington, British Prime Minster, 1828-1830, 1834), and Sir Robert Peel, (Prime Minister, 1834-1835, 1841-1846). Accompanying O'Connell in two cartoons is a figure that may represent Thomas Osborne Davis, (Irish writer, organizer of the Young Ireland movement, founder of the pro-repeal newspaper, The Nation). In contrast, a fourth cartoon, by English caricaturist, George Cruikshank, represents O'Connell as an ax-wielding bully attempting to sever the hands of England and Ireland united in friendship. The final item, a damaged election flier entitled, "Under the British Flag," depicts Liberal policies favorably in comparison to those of the Tories (Conservatives).
Iturbide-Kearney Family Papers
Throughout his life, Agustin de Iturbide III (1863-1925) regarded himself the rightful heir of the Mexican empire, first established by Agustin de Iturbide I in the 1820s. Born in Mexico City, the son of a longtime Washington resident and a Mexican diplomat, he became ensnared in the political machinations of Mexico. In 1865, Emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlotta claimed guardianship over two-year-old Agustin Iturbide III to provide an heir to the throne. Two years later, Maximilian's regime fell. Subsequently, Maximilian, Carlotta, and Agustin Iturbide III lived as exiles in Cuba. Shortly afterwards, Agustin Iturbide III was re-united with his birth parents and lived in Washington until, at the age of twelve, he began his education in Brussels. Illness interrupted his stay in Europe, and he finished his education at Georgetown University. In 1887, he moved back to Mexico and enrolled in a military academy. Retaining his dreams of becoming emperor, Agustin Iturbide III engaged in a dispute with President Porfirio Diaz, was court-martialed in 1890, and subsequently exiled. He returned to Washington, became a professor at Georgetown University, and married Mary Louise Kearney, a descendant of James Kearney who emigrated from Ireland during the French Revolution and settled in Fairfax County. The bulk of the digital collection consists of papers and memorabilia from both the Iturbide and Kearney families, including correspondence, Mexican governmental documents, military medals and coins, newspapers, magazines, and portraits.
John A. Ryan Papers
From the first decade of the twentieth century to his death in 1945, John Augustine Ryan was the Catholic Church in America's leading expert on social and economic questions and one of its strongest advocates for improving the living and working conditions of American workers. Ryan was born in Minnesota in 1869, was educated and ordained there in the 1890s, and earned a doctorate in Sacred Theology from Catholic University in 1906. He taught in the seminary at St. Paul, Minnesota from 1902 until 1913 and then at Catholic University and Trinity College in Washington until his death. Ryan helped found the Catholic Association for International Peace in 1927 and served in a number of federal government posts during the New Deal era of the 1930s. From 1920 until 1945, he headed the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. Ryan wrote sixteen books and hundreds of articles and spoke frequently to audiences around the nation and on radio. His books include: Living Wage (1906), Distributive Justice (1916), and A Better Economic Order (1935). In 1919, he wrote the advanced draft of the Bishop's Program for Social Reconstruction, which advocated national health and old age insurance, a minimum wage, factory safety legislation, and labor's right to organize. His papers consist of personal diaries and journals from Ryan's seminary days; correspondence from 1925 to 1945, including letters written to him after his attack on Coughlin; drafts and copies of many of his writings; outlines and lecture notes from his courses; reference files; and scrapbooks. The papers digitized here focus heavily on the last twenty years of his life, 1925 to 1945. Ryan's correspondence is the largest portion of materials, occupying over half of the collection. There are also articles, sermons, clippings, reports, pamphlets, lecture notes, scrapbooks, a personal journal, a small number of photos, and some audio recordings.
John Luddy Notebooks
John Luddy was born in County Limerick, Ireland in 1830. A farmer, he married Honora Barlow in 1854 in the Parish of Galbally, County of Limerick. Between 1867 and 1869, Luddy completed three notebooks of Fenian prose tales and poetry while living in the parish of Ballylanders, Limerick, Ireland. John Luddy died in 1877 at the age of 47 from pneumonia in Mitchelstown, Ireland, after which his wife immigrated to the United States with their children. The Luddy family settled in Waterbury, Connecticut. Michael G. Luddy, the grandson of John Luddy, received a LL.B. degree (1916) and a LL.D. degree (1964) from The Catholic University of America and bequeathed the notebooks of his grandfather to the University's Department of Celtic Languages in 1968. Written in Gaelic, the three notebooks digitized here largely contain copied fragments of Fenian prose tales and poetry. Fine examples of Irish calligraphy, they were the work of Luddy while living in the parish of Ballylanders in Limerick, Ireland.
John M. Cooper and Regina F. Herzfeld Ethnographic Field Notes
This collection contains the field notes of Catholic University anthropologists John M. Cooper and Regina F. Herzfeld, taken during their ethnographic studies of the James Bay Cree of Ontario, Canada in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. John Montgomery Cooper, priest, theologian, anthropologist and sociologist, served as professor and administrator at the Catholic University of America from 1909 until his death in 1949. Regina Flannery Herzfeld trained under Cooper in the Catholic University Department of Anthropology, then joined the faculty herself. This digital collection contains the field notes of Cooper and Regina Flannery Herzfeld taken primarily during their ethnographic studies of the James Bay Cree of Ontario, Canada in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. These voluminous notes, both handwritten and typed, are comprised of a series of 3 x 5 index cards and depict observations on the traditions, culture, language, and territories of the Cree and additional tribes. The collection also contains museum objects, teaching notes, student-faculty correspondence, published material, and chapter and article drafts by both Cooper and Herzfeld, Field notes, both handwritten and typed, are comprised of a series of 3 x 5 index cards, and depict observations on the traditions, culture, language, and territories of the James Bay Cree.
The John Mitchell Photographic Collection
Mitchell, a legendary leader of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), was born 4 February 1870 in Braidwood, Illinois, to Robert Mitchell and Martha Halley. Though mostly working in Illinois, he also worked in both Colorado and New Mexico. Mitchell was first a member of the Knights of Labor and then, successively, legislative agent, organizer, vice president and president of the fledgling UMWA. He was also vice president of the American Federal of Labor (AFL) and member of the National Child Labor Committee, the National Civic Federation, Federal Milk Commission, Federal Food Board for New York City, New York State Labor Industrial Commission, New York State Food Administration, and the New York State Council of Farms and Markets. It was, however, as president of the UMWA, 1899-1908, that Mitchell would have his greatest impact. His leadership in the momentous Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 resulted in significant gains for coal miners and greater recognition for the UMWA. Often in poor health, Mitchell stepped down as UMWA president in 1908 and died in 1919. He is buried in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His published works include Organized Labor: Its Problems, Purposes, and Ideals (1903) and The Wage Earner (1912). The photographs digitized here, 1898-1924, entail many portraits of important people, such as Clarence Darrow and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as significant events like the 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike. There are also photographs illustrating mining techniques of the time., This is a collection of 207 photographs collected by John Mitchell from 1896 to 1924. These images are part of the John Mitchell Papers and relate to Mr. Mitchellbs personal and professional life as the President of the United Mine Workers of America.The collection includes images of Mr. Mitchell, his family, prominent Americans such as US Presidents and labor leaders (among others), union activities, and glimpses of what the workplace was like for coal workers around the turn of the twentieth century in the United States.
Joseph F. Byron Humanae Vitae Controversy Collection
Born in Albany, NY, in 1924, Joseph Byron attended parochial schools and Siena College for two years. After serving as an infantryman in World War II, he attended the seminary of Theological College in Washington in 1946 and was ordained in 1953 as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, serving in the Washington area through the 1960s. Following the promulgation of Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae, on July 26, 1968, Byron was among 40 signers of the Statement of Conscience, which expressed concern over issues surrounding artificial birth control. As a result of the Statement of Conscience, Byron and the other signers were suspended from priestly ministry to varying degrees by Cardinal O'Boyle. Byron was one of 19 priests who disputed their suspension and he undertook to have their case brought before the Church judicially. Paul VI gave the Congregation for the Clergy the task of hearing the case and rendering a decision. After drawing together information from interviews with the priests and meeting with proxies (including Byron) and representatives of O'Boyle, the Congregation reached a decision based on their findings. It was determined that O'Boyle had followed the requirements of the Code of Canon Law, and the priests' representatives were able to clarify their position on the authority of the magisterium, conscience, and pastoral practice in a statement that was acceptable by them and the Congregation. Eventually the priests who still sought to resume their duties, by endorsing the findings, were able to do so. In 1972 Byron was made the founding pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Gaithersburg, MD. In 1976 he was asked to write an article about the case of the Washington 19 and it was published in the theology journal Consilium in 1977. He was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac, MD, in 1988, retired in 1992, and died in 1997. This digitized collection consists of correspondence, meeting notes, reports, press releases, newspaper clippings, transcripts of interviews, and a publication file.
Margaret Richards Millar Papers
Margaret Richards Millar was born in 1858 in Vermont to Jonas DeForest Richards and Harriet Bartlett Jarvis. Her father, a New England Congregationalist pastor, decided late in life to move the family to the American South. Immediately following the end of the Civil War in 1865, the family relocated to Alabama, having purchased a cotton plantation in Wilcox County. Margaret was educated at home and ultimately obtained a degree from the Bradford Academy in Massachusetts in 1880. Marrying Stocks Millar, a Scottish immigrant educated at the University of St. Andrews, she spent her married life on the Wyoming plains, where she developed a reputation as a hostess for army personnel stationed in the Territory. When her husband passed away in 1890, she spent the next several years in France and Germany with their three children. In 1896, she converted to Catholicism alongside her son, future Jesuit Morehouse F. X. Millar (later collaborator with John A. Ryan). In 1918, as a representative of the American Bureau of Education, she was sent to France to recruit French women to attend college in the United States. Shortly thereafter, she was sent back to France as a representative of the Committee on Special War Activities of the National Catholic War Council (NCWC), in order to organize and supervise service clubs for American soldiers. She would open the Etoile Service Club in Paris that same year. In 1919, she was sent as the only American Catholic delegate to the Women's Peace Conference in Switzerland, serving alongside Jane Addams. In October 1919, Millar was unexpectedly recalled to the United States by Rev. John Burke, head of the NCWC. She subsequently remained in Texas the following year, helping to organize the first conference of the National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW), held in 1920. An active member of the NCCW and NCWC for the remaining years of her life, Millar passed away in 1947. This digital collection consists of correspondence, clippings, a diary, and photographs, and memorabilia highlighting the work of Mrs. Margaret Millar and the National Catholic War Council "Women Workers" in France immediately following the First World War.
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones Collection
Mary Harris, reportedly born May 1, 1830, but more likely born in 1837, in Cork, Ireland, was an active participant in the labor movement in the United States for nearly sixty years. Before acquiring the name "Mother" Jones and earning the nickname the "Miners' Angel," Mary Harris had taught in Catholic schools in Michigan and Tennessee, had married George Jones and had four children. By 1867, Jones had lost her family to a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee. By the 1870s, "Mother" Jones began her long involvement in the labor struggle, by participating in various strikes such as the Pittsburgh Labor Riots (1877), the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Strike (1902), and the Colorado Coal Field and Arizona Copper Field organization movements. She also led the Children Textile Workers March from Philadelphia to Teddy Roosevelt's home in Oyster Bay, Long Island (1902). Mother Jones was affiliated with the Knights of Labor and a lifelong friend of Terence V. Powderly. She was an official labor organizer for the United Mine Workers. Up to her death on November 30, 1930 in Maryland, Mother Jones spoke out against labor injustice and for the protection of "her boys." The digitized Mother Jones Collection consists of an assortment of letters, articles, newspaper clippings, and pamphlets gathered together from a variety of sources including the John Mitchell and Terence V. Powderly papers.
Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton Diaries
Diaries of Catholic priest Joseph Clifford Fenton during the years of 1948-1966. The Right Reverend Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton (1906-1969) was a priest of Springfield, Massachusetts, Dean of the School of Theology at the Catholic University of America, and editor of the American Ecclesiastical Review. He also served on the Pontifical Theology Commission in preparation for the Second Vatican Council. He retired from Catholic University in 1963 and is probably best remembered as an aggressive opponent of Jesuit John Courtney Murray regarding Church and State. The diaries digitized here cover the years of 1948-1966, with most dealing with his trips to Rome to participate in the Second Vatican Council.
Msgr. Paul Hanly Furfey Papers
Monsignor Furfey (1896-1992) was a provocative Catholic sociologist from Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was educated at Boston College, St. Mary's University, and The Catholic University of America (CUA), where he obtained a doctorate. Ordained in 1922, he taught at Trinity College (DC), the National Catholic School of Social Service (NCSSS), and CUA where he headed the Sociology Department, 1934-1963. He served as Co-Director of CUA's Bureau of Social Research (BSR) and the Center for Child Development; Associate Director of D.C. Catholic Charities and the Juvenile Delinquency Evaluation Project in New York City; president of the American Catholic Sociological Society, and was a co-founder of Fides and Il Poverello settlement houses. His voluminous papers contain correspondence, reference and research material, student notes and papers, photographs and other memorabilia, financial records, and printed material reflecting decades of education, religion, and social activism from a Catholic intellectual and spiritual perspective. Provided here are scanned documentation and correspondence pertaining to Dorothy Day, Catholic Worker, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, and the Madonna Houses.
National Catholic War Council
Responding to the challenge of World War I, American Catholics led by Father John J. Burke created the National Catholic War Council, the forerunner of the National Catholic Welfare Conference that has been known since 2001 as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the secretariat of the American Hierarchy. The War Council of 1917 represented the first coming together of American bishops in voluntary association to address great national issues affecting the Church. The records concentrate on the years 1917 to 1921 and contain files of Bishop Peter J. Muldoon, Chairman of the NCWC Administrative Committee, and those of Father John J. Burke, Chairman of the Committee on Special War Activities (CSWA). They also have office files of the Executive Secretary of the CSWA and individual sub-committees such as Reconstruction, Men, Women, Overseas, and Historical Records. Included in these digital files are administrative, financial, and legal records as well as personal correspondence, photographs, pamphlets, posters, news clippings, and memorabilia. The census of Catholic armed forces preserved on microfilm is of special interest. Digitized here are photographs, selected publications, scrapbooks containing information on burials and deaths of service members, postcards, and selected documents.
National Council of Catholic Men
The NCCM was established in 1920 as part of the Lay Organizations Department of the National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC). Its various functions included the federation of Catholic men's groups, to be a central clearinghouse for information on lay activities, to promote lay cooperation, to help existing Catholic lay organizations on the local level, to contribute to national and international movements with moral questions, and to inculcate appreciation of Catholic principles in society. It operated through a committee system on national, diocesan, and parish levels and published a monthly news organ and other publications as well. It operated a film distribution office and a New York radio and television office, from which it produced The Catholic Hour, 1930-1968. It was briefly merged with NCCW to form the National Council of Catholic Laity, before going defunct in 1975. Records include constitutions, bylaws, and incorporation; minutes of the Board of Directors; reports and convention proceedings; general correspondence including national organizations and diocesan; Catholic Hour radio and television scripts, transcripts, audio tapes, photographs, and phonographs; and miscellaneous publications.
The Papal Autograph Collection
This digital collection is comprised of digitized letters and formal documents signed by several popes from Gregory XIII to Pius IX. Included are the rare signature of Gregory XIV as pope, an office he only held from 1590-1591, and a bull of Clement XII, 1737 (with seal removed). The donor of the collection, John D. Crimmins, a New York contractor and philanthropist, was a noted collector of books and manuscripts and a trustee of The Catholic University of America., This collection contains 23 letters and official documents signed by several popes from Gregory XIII to Pius IX, mostly concerning administration of the Papal States.The collection dates from 1578 to 1865. Included are the rare signature of Gregory XIV as pope, an office he only held from 1590 to 1591, and a bull of Clement XII from 1737 (with seal removed).
Philip Murray Papers
Philip Murray was born in Blantyre, Scotland, on May 25, 1886. He began working in the mines at age 10 and immigrated to the United States with his father, also a miner, in 1902. Murray's long career as a union official began soon after entering the mines in the United States. In 1905 he was elected president of his United Mine Workers of America Union (UMWA) local in Horning, Pennsylvania. Murray subsequently went on to become one of the most important American labor leaders of the twentieth century. As president of the Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC), the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), he played a pivotal role in the creation of industrial unions as well as the utilization of federal government support in the growth of unions in the United States. The Murray materials digitized here include a range of photographs and selected documents related to his labor activities and relationship with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Photographs of theCatholic Educational Exhibit, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago,1893
In May 1890, a group of Catholic educators met with members of clergy and religious orders and decided that a Catholic Educational Exhibit at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago would be an appropriate way to showcase advances in Catholic education as an important aspect of American Christianity. The result was the Catholic Educational Exhibit at the World's Fair in Chicago. This digital collection consists of photographs of fifty 8"x10" images documenting the building, hall, and alcoves where the Catholic educational institutions displayed their objects and printed material. The educational exhibits occupied 115 alcoves, though the photographs document just under than half of these., This series of 50 images shows booths created by numerous Catholic Diocese in the United States that highlight their contributions toCatholic Education. These booths were part of the Catholic Education Educational Exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) in Chicago.
Robert Lincoln O'Connell Papers
The Robert Lincoln O'Connell papers document the service of an Irish-American soldier who served as a combat engineer in the First Division of the American Expeditionary Force (A.E.F.) in World War I, 1917-1919. The digitized papers include correspondence he wrote to his family during his service and include items such as passes, orders, publications, postcards, and photographs. There are also some materials, like copies of federal census forms and his 1972 obituary, gathered recently by family members and Archives staff to supplement the collection.
Shane MacCarthy Humanae Vitae Collection
Shane MacCarthy, a fifth-generation Washingtonian, graduated from the Catholic University Campus School in 1952, Gonzaga High School in 1956, and Holy Cross College in Worchester, Massachusetts, in 1960. His seminary studies were at Saint Vincent's Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 1960-1965. He served as a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington at St. Camillus Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland, 1965-1967, and at Assumption Parish in Southeast Washington, 1967-1975. Following the publication of Humanae Vitae in 1968, he was part of a group of mostly Archdiocesan priests, who signed a Statement of Conscience expressing disagreement with the encyclical's approach to artificial birth control. As a result, he and the other signers were penalized by Patrick O'Boyle, the Cardinal Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. Many, like MacCarthy, were suspended from preaching, teaching, or hearing confessions, with some others expelled from their parish rectories. MacCarthy was one of 19 priests who disputed their suspension and brought their case before the Church judicially, with an eventual decision that Cardinal O'Boyle had followed the requirements for the Code of Canon Law. Eventually, the priests who still wished to resume their duties were able to do so by signing a statement crafted by Cardinal Wright that seemed to mollify the encyclical's original intent. MacCarthy left active ministry with the Roman Catholic Church in 1975, working thereafter with the Peace Corps and the Agency for International Development (AID), retiring in 2009. The digital collection consists of correspondence, clippings, meeting notes, publications, photos, and audio cassettes.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux Collection
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (b.1873) was a French Catholic Discalced Carmelite nun. She is a well known figure around the world and one of the most popular saints in the Roman Catholic Church. She is a patron saint of missions and florists. This collection contains 11 glass positives with mostly portraits of St. Thérèse of Lisieux from the 19th century. These were taken at her convent in France in the years circa 1895, 1896, and 1897. Also included are letters exchanged between a French Jesuit priest, and French church figures regarding the matter of publishing an article about St. Thérèse’s portraits. A 1915 publication about St. Thérèse is also included. Letters and the article are in French.

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