Join the Department of Special Collections and the Center for Irish Studies in celebrating 100th Anniversary of the founding of  Celtic Collection.  This celebration will be a part of our annual St. Patrick’s Day Open House to be held Tuesday, March 14th from 11:30 am – 1:00 pm in the Special Collections Department (LL09 O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library).  In addition to a display of some of the treasures from the collection, a short program featuring Irish poetry will be held at 12:15 pm.

(image from The Fair Hills of Ireland by Stephen Gwynn, Maunsel Press, 1906)

The Celtic Collection can trace its origin to a September 1916 vote by the Minnesota chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians to provide funds to establish an Irish Library at the College of St. Thomas.  From this initial gift of $600, the collection has grown to over 14,000 volumes containing significant materials related to Irish local history and antiquities, folklore, art, music, Irish language and literature and modern Irish poetry.

(image from The Irish Fairy Book by Alfred P. Graves, T.F. Unwin, 1909.)

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

The Rare Books collection contains a number of facsimlies of medieval manuscripts.  One of the most unusual is the Lapidario del rey d. Alfonso X , a photo-chromo lithograph of a medieval lapidary.

A lapidary is “treatise on (precious) stones.”  Works such as this were popular in the Middle Ages when many people believed that certain gems held inherent powers and the wealthy accumulated jewels to store and transport capital.

Commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castille and Leon, a group of Jewish scholars translated this work from an Arabic texts into the Castilian language. The content of the manuscript is different from more common lapidaries of the time in that it discusses the relationships between specific stones and the planets and other astrological bodies.  The work is divided by the Signs of the Zodiac with the various medicinal and magical properties of a stone (as it relates to a specific astrological sign) described and illustrated.

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

Another beautiful book found in the UST Library’s Rare Books collection is authorized American edition of The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, & other rites & ceremonies of the church, according to the use of the Church of England published by M. Walter Dunne in 1904.  This edition is a replica of the English edition of this title published in 1903 by the Essex House Press.

The Essex House Press was founded by C R Ashbee (who also ran the Guild of Handicraft).   After William Morris’s death,  Ashbee bought the Kelmscott Press’s Albion printing presses and employed one of the Kelmscott’s compositors to work for him. This private press captured the sentiment of the Arts and Crafts movement that ‘art was for the people’ and that it was created ‘by the people’ to beautify their own lives.

The masterpiece of the Essex House Press was the Book of Common Prayer which was produced to celebrate the coming to the throne of King Edward VII.  Ashbee designed the type used within the volume  and drew the illustrations used throughout the work.  The wood block illustrations were cut by the artists Clemence Housman and W. H. Hooper.

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

You have likely encountered Tommie, the St. Thomas mascot, at various campus events.  But do you know that Tommie is the descendant of a series of St. Thomas mascots?

As early as 1947, students were asking in the college newspaper (The Aquin) why the school didn’t have a mascot when many of our rival schools had one.

It wasn’t until the mid-1950s that the first mascot, Tommy Tiger, appeared on the scene.  Originally managed by the Letterman’s Club, this orange and black cat made appearances to boost school spirit at sporting and social events on campus.  By the early 1970s, interest in keeping up this tradition alive waned and Tommy Tiger disappeared from the campus scene.

Tommy Tiger with the Homecoming Queen, 1957

Msgr. Murphy with Tommy Tiger, 1971.

The St. Thomas mascot was revived by the college the mid-1980s.  Instead of returning as Tommy Tiger, the mascot was renamed Tommie (a feline of undetermined origin).  Since its comeback over 30 years ago, Tommie has changed its appearance several times.   I would guess the purple fur from the 1980s is one look Tommie would like to forget!

Tommie with a future St. Thomas student, 1984

Tommie at a football game, 1997

Today —  Tommie remains an ambassador for St. Thomas and promoter of school pride and spirit at campus events.  Be sure to get a high-five from Tommie next time you meet it!

Tommie at the St. Thomas vs. St. Johns football game, 2005

To find out more about the history of the University of St. Thomas, visit the University Archives webpage.

February is African American History Month.  In honor of this celebration, I want to highlight two early African-American alumni of the University of St. Thomas.

The first African-American student to attend St. Thomas was  John Henry “Harry” Dorsey.  In 1888, Dorsey was invited to attend the (then) St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary by Archbishop John Ireland.  Dorsey studied at the school for only a year before returning to his native Baltimore to attend the newly opened  Epiphany Apostolic College.  Ultimately, he was ordained as a member of Society of St. Joseph in 1902 becoming only the second African American priest to be ordained in the United States.  Fr. Dorsey spent many years serving as a missionary in several Southern States before his death in 1926.

Charles Valmo (later known as Valmo Charles) Bellinger attended the College of St. Thomas from 1917 – 1919.  “Tex”, as he was known to his fellow students, hailed from San Antonio, Texas.  He excelled in the classroom as well as on the football and track teams and was known by his classmates for his willingness to debate on any issue.  After his graduation from St. Thomas’s Junior College in 1919, he completed his education at Lincoln University, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University before returning to his hometown.   In San Antonio, he became active in local politics and founded and published one of the most successful African-American newspapers in the Southwest, the San Antonio Register.

To find out more about the history of the University of St. Thomas, visit the University Archives webpage or search the Historic University Publications database and the Univeristy Archives Photograph Collection.