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Ann Kenne

Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Special Collections and Archives

Celebrating the 150th Birthday of G. K. Chesterton!

On May 29th,  the world will celebrate the enduring legacy of the remarkable English author, critic, Catholic apologist, and philosopher, G. K. Chesterton, on what would have been his 150th birthday. Revered as “the apostle of common sense,” Chesterton’s literary repertoire spans across various genres – from prose to poetry, drama to journalism – covering a wide array of topics including history, theology, and current events, all infused with his distinctive wit and irony.

While many know Chesterton for his influential autobiography, Orthodoxy, where he vividly recounts his journey to Christianity, his contributions extend far beyond this seminal work. A convert to Roman Catholicism in 1922, Chesterton is perhaps best remembered for his metaphysical thriller, The Man Who Was Thursday, his noted work of apologetics, The Everlasting Man,  biographies of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas and, of course, the beloved Father Brown mystery series.

At the St. Thomas Libraries’ Special Collections Department, we curate a treasury of over 2,000 first editions, fine printings, and foreign translations of Chesterton’s literary masterpieces. This collection is one of the most comprehensive gatherings of its kind in the United States. For more information see our website.

Libraries, News & Events

Library Hours restored for the Spring Semester

January is traditionally a quiet time on campus with most students away for J-Term.  While on some level we enjoy the slower pace, it can get a little too quiet around here.  That’s why we always look forward to the start of a new semester and the renewed energy of students returning to campus.

The O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library is open seven days a week, most nights until 12:00 am.  Check here for more details and sporadic schedule changes throughout the semester.  And note that OSF Library access will be available by St. Thomas ID card only after 8:00 pm. 

And if it’s a quiet place to study, or a lively environment to meet with a group, the OSF library has space to accommodate everyone; along with the re-opening of Stacks Cafe, our in-library coffee house that offers drinks and light snacks. 

As a reminder, librarians and library staff are here to help students at any point in their research process, either in the library or via online databases that they can access from remote locations 24/7.  We are all here to help students have a successful semester! 

News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Special Collections and Archives

Folio Society Books on Exhibit

Step into the O’Shaughnessy Room, affectionately known as “The Leather Room,” on the main floor of the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by a treasure trove of classic works of history and literature. These gems were generously donated to the library by the late John O’Shaughnessy (grandson of I. A. O’Shaughnessy and a former member of St. Thomas’s Board of Trustees).

This remarkable collection pays homage to the artistry of the book. A significant portion of this collection is the output of the Folio Society, a publisher renowned for producing exquisite, illustrated editions of the world’s greatest books and facsimiles of historically significant manuscripts.

Currently on display within the room’s exhibit cases are:

– a facsimile of “The Royal Choirbook”: a collection of vocal motets which were presented King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon in 1518.

–  a facsimile of the Hereford Mappa Mundi: the largest and most elaborate map of the fifteenth century, offering a captivating glimpse into the geographical and cultural perceptions of the era.

–  limited edition publications of Jonathan Swift’s Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories.

Libraries, News & Events, Special Collections and Archives

Discover Video and Audio Recordings from the University Archives

 

A film of the St. Thomas campus from 1924.   An audio recording of a commencement address given by Hubert Humphrey.   Footage of early television episodes produced by St. Thomas.  These are just a few of the many audio-visual treasures saved as a part of the University Archives’ audio and visual collections. 

Audiovisual materials present unique challenges to archivists to preserve and make available over time.  The devices required for playback for some recordings become obsolete (for example: reel-to-reel audiotape players and VCRs).  Additionally, the chemical composition of the physical media on which theare stored (motion picture film, audio and video tape) may deteriorate resulting in loss of the recording.  The conversion to and maintenance of digital format is the only way to ensure that these recordings can be preserved over time.   The University Archives has undertaken several projects to reformat some of our most at risk materials to a digital format.  But up to now, visitors and researchers have still been required to come to our physical reading room to view/listen to these recordings stored on DVDs and hard drives. 

In 2019, the Libraries began the search to find a solution to make our audio-visual collection more readily available to users and to help ensure their preservation for the future.  Our investigation led us to the Elevator media asset management software (developed by the University of Minnesota).  In addition to making the collections viewable to users via the web, the software automatically allows for the conversion from a digital files original formato the most current standard. 

In the Spring of 2020, a pilot project to describe and ingest a collection of previously reformatted and born-digital recordings into Elevator was initiated.  The results of this project can now be seen in the University Archives Audio Visual Collection ( https://elevator.stthomas.edu/ ). This collection contains over 150 films, speeches and musical recordings from our holdings.  

Currentlywe are working on new projects relating to the Archives holdings from the Athletics Department.   We hope to partner with other departments on campus to bring their media files to a larger audience in the future.  Check back soon to view what is new! 

Database Highlights & Trials, Libraries

Database Trial : Women and Social Movements Library

 

The Libraries are now running a trial of the Women and Social Movements Library .   This database focuses on women’s public activism globally, from 1600 to the present. Created through a collaboration with leading historians, the collection contains nearly 400,000 pages of primary source documents and more than 200 related scholarly essays interpreting these sources.  The materials are organized around three major topic areas:

  1. Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 :  Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, this collection seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding about U.S. women’s history
  2. Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires since 1820 :  Explores prominent themes in world history since 1820: conquest, colonization, settlement, resistance, and post-coloniality, as told through women’s voices.
  3. Women and Social Movements, International: Through the writings of women activists, their personal letters and diaries, and the proceedings of conferences at which pivotal decisions were made, this collection lets you see how women’s social movements shaped much of the events and attitudes that have defined modern life.

This resource is available to preview through Friday, February 28, 2020. Please send any comments you have on this resource to Ann Kenne (amkenne1@stthomas.edu).

 

Database Highlights & Trials, Libraries

Database Trial – Vogue Archive

The UST Libraries is trialing the Vogue Archive now through October 30th.   This database contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition) from 1892 to the present day, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. More than 400,000 pages are included, constituting a treasure trove of the work from the greatest designers, photographers, stylists, and illustrators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Vogue is a unique record of American and international popular culture that extends beyond fashion. The Vogue Archive is an essential primary source for the study of fashion, gender, and modern social history – past, present, and future.

Please send your comments to Ann Kenne at amkenne1@stthomas.edu .

 

 

Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Special Collections and Archives

Tales from the Archives — The Cigar Bowl

Did you know that a St. Thomas football team once played in a New Year’s Day bowl game?   With Frank Deig as their coach, the 1948 football team finished their season with a 7-1-1 record, winning the MIAC championship.   The team’s stellar record led to their selection to compete against Missouri Valley Teacher’s College in the Cigar Bowl in Tampa, Florida on New Years Day, 1949.

Aquin, December 17, 1948

The team boarded a train for Florida at St. Paul’s Union Depot the day after Christmas.  Hundreds of Tommie supporters followed the team to Tampa, most making the 35 hour, 1600 mile trip by car or train.  But a group of 21 students who were members of the Air National Guard took a special military flight Florida and were housed at the McDill Army Air Force base before the game.

Missouri Valley was a heavy favorite to win the contest having lost only one game in their previous 42 games.   That prediction seemed to be coming true with the Tommies heading to the halftime locker room trailing 13 – 0.    But, the team rallied in the second half to end the game in in 13 – 13 tie.   You can view film clips of the game and hear stories from some of the players in this video.

Frank Deig and Jack Salscheider with the Cigar Bowl trophy, 1949.

Several players from the Cigar Bowl team went on to play professional football in the NFL.  Jack Salscheider played for the New York Giants;  Jim “Popcorn” Brandt played with the Pittsburgh Steelers; quarterback Ed Krowka signed with the Detroit Lions; Don Simonson played for the Los Angeles Rams.  Jim White turned down an offer from the New York Giants to attend medical school.

To read more about the 1948 football team and their trip to the Cigar Bowl, search the Historic University Publications database.

 

 

 

 

Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Special Collections and Archives

Tales from the Archives — St. Thomas & the First World War

On this Veteran’s Day, which marks 100 years after the Armistice was declared for the First World War, it is fitting to reflect on the role St. Thomas played in the war.  Nearly 900 students, faculty, staff and alumni of the College of St. Thomas and St. Thomas Military Academy served during the conflict.   Many took up commissions as officers in the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.  Others served in the the fledgling aviation corps, the ambulance corps or as members of Canadian and British military units.   At least 20 men with connections to St. Thomas lost their lives during while serving their country — some on the battlefield and some from the Spanish Influenza outbreak.

kay-1919-a-063 A group of St. Thomas alums who served during WWI, Kaydet, 1918.

During the autumn of 1918, the College of St. Thomas served as a site for one of the United States War Department’s units of the Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.).  The S.A.T.C utilized the facilities, equipment, and faculty of colleges and universities across the country to select and train officer candidates and provide technical and vocational training for recruits.

The St. Thomas Student Army Training Corps, 1918.

A barracks building was built on campus (near the site of the current Anderson Student Center) in the fall of 1918 to house the 250 men in the program.  The building was occupied for only a short time as the S.A.T.C. unit was demobilized in December 1918 after the armistice was declared.

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Armory and S.A.T.C. barracks, 1918.

For more information on the history of St. Thomas during this period, search the Kaydet yearbooks and Purple and Gray magazine in the Historic University Publications database.

 

 

Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Special Collections and Archives

Treasures from the Rare Book Collections – Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the Various Nations of the Known World

Quantecong a Chinese Deity

In the early decades of the 18th century, Bernard Picart and Jean Frederic Bernard collaborated on a project which became a “best-seller” of its time.   Picart, a noted engraver, and  Bernard, a Huguenot bookseller and publisher, created a text which captured the ritual and ceremonial life of all the known religions of the world.   The first volume of this monumental nine volume work was published as Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieues de tous les Peuples du Monde in 1723.

The authors’ aim was to present all religions (including those practiced by “idolatrous peoples”) as objectively as possible — highlighting what common between religions more than how the religions differed from one another.  Marriage and funeral customs, for example, are described in detail for nearly every religion.   Picart’s lavish illustrations accompany many of the most important rituals.

This work  was translated into French, German, English and Dutch and published in numerous editions over the next 100 years. The University of St. Thomas Libraries Rare Book collection holds two early versions of this influential title – one written in English and another written in French.

Adoration of Fire by the Natives of Virginia

For more information on the UST Libraries rare books and manuscripts collections see our website.