Students in Dr. Laura Wangerin’s “VIKINGS!” class discuss a replica of the Gundestrup Cauldron from the university’s collections
The Archives & Special Collections Center at Seton Hall University welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with faculty on crafting enriching educational experiences for their students. Class visits to the archives often spark a sense of awe and curiosity, which encourages students to participate in active learning activities, engage in inspired conversations, and connect the past to the present.
Primary sources, which comprise the bulk of our archives, rare books, and gallery collections, are powerful instruction tools. All students benefit from learning how to find, analyze, interrogate, and reference primary sources. Past class visits have included a range of disciplines, including Viking and Early Latin American history, typography, Catholic studies, and women’s studies. If you’re not sure our collections will have materials related to your subject area, try us! We love finding gems from the collections to support your research and instruction needs.
We welcome our faculty to contact our Public Services Archivist, Quinn Christie, to talk about how we can work together. Email quinn.christie@shu.edu, find her on Teams, or call (973)275-2033.
This year, the Archives and Special Collections at Walsh Library has launched a unique initiative for Humanities students to take part in for the 2023-2024 school year. Dubbed the Time Machines Project, this program grants five students the opportunity to research objects, rare books and periodicals, manuscripts, prints, clothing, relics, paintings, pottery, tools, or other artifacts of interest within the Special Collections and create a project that illustrates these materials’ importance, relevance, and interest using contemporary media. To complete this project, students will collaborate with the Special Collections staff as well as a faculty member to refine their research and analytical skills as well as develop basic knowledge of archival practices and procedures. Upon completion of the project, students will receive a $1,000 stipend and be equipped to add this project to their own portfolio to apply to various scholarships, fellowships, and employment opportunities.
This initiative was established in an effort to engage students more with the invaluable artifacts held in the Special Collections center. To apply for this project, students must submit a short proposal, with the assistance of a faculty member. Upon acceptance, students must attend an orientation, submit weekly research progress logs, and present their projects at the Petersheim Academic Exposition. Potential project ideas include, but are not limited to building a website, recording a podcast, designing an infographic, creating a piece of art (visual, a piece of writing, a short film, etc.), or authoring a paper about the object for publication in academic or popular media. “Too often, students do not encounter special collections materials until late in their studies. With this support, students will have the opportunity to encounter rare and historic objects and deploy the skills they are learning in their classes in a way that they can take with them into a variety of careers,” says Sarah Ponichtera, Assistant Dean of Special Collections and the Gallery.
All interested students may attend an information session on October 4th. Proposals are due by October 20th, and the accepted students will be announced on October 31st. Projects will begin November 1st and conclude by April 30th, 2024.
Click the link here to apply now! Applications are due October 20th.
To find materials in special collections to work with, search our online portals:
Archivesspace contains detailed inventories of archival collections
Preservica contains our digitized, or born-digital collections, including archived websites, sound and video recordings
Questions? Please contact archives@shu.edu or visit the Archives and Special Collections on the first floor of Walsh Gallery. The hours of operation are Mon-Fri from 9am-5pm.
This project was heralded by Gallery Director Jeanne Brasile and Assistant Dean of Special Collections and the Gallery, Sarah Ponichtera.
The Monsignor Noe Field Archives and Special Collections Center is pleased to announce the addition of six new archival collections related to the Irish-American experience. Thanks to a generous grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, we were able to process the following collections that are now available to researchers:
In addition to processing these collections, we have digitized roughly 1,200 files, at just over 9GB of data, primarily from the John Concannon and James Comerford collections.
Irish-American Experience in the 20th Century: Collection Highlights
The correspondence, research files, publications, photographs, and audio-visual materials in these collections provide an inside look at how Irish-American fraternal organizations worked together and separately to wield influence and political pressure on issues of importance to their communities — primarily immigration reform and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. These documents demonstrate how many of these organizations, notably the Ancient Order of Hibernians, maintained close ties with local political and religious leaders in New York and New Jersey.
For the first half of the 20th century, in the absence of larger governmental programs, membership organizations collected dues and shared out their funds to members in need of assistance. The AOH New Jersey and Knights of Columbus collections include ledgers and membership registers that record in granular detail how these organizations provided health insurance and sick benefits to their members.
In addition to serving as advocacy groups, Irish-American organizations provided a sense of community and maintained a full calendar of social events. The New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade is widely documented in the John Concannon collection, as members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians helmed its operation for many decades. The collection includes internal documents, lines of march, invitations, correspondence, and hundreds of photographs.
Digital Exhibits
For an overview of these collections, we invite you to explore two digital exhibits:
Professor David Bonner visits the Walsh Gallery with his graduate level class, “Object Care.”
Undergraduate students in Professor Christine Lhowe’s course “Typography I” and graduate students in Professor David Bonner’s “Object Care” recently visited the exhibition Matter + Spirit at the Walsh Gallery. Both visits enabled students in two distinct disciplines to apply their knowledge of graphic design and museum collections care using the exhibition as a case study. Students conversed with gallery staff, asking questions, making observations and connecting theory with experience. Prior to their engagement with staff, students viewed the exhibit independently. The variety of materials employed by the artists range from pieces with AR (augmented reality) components that immerse viewers in additional layers of experience, LED light sculptures powered by Arduino microcontrollers and kinetic installation art in addition to other media.
Visiting on February 21, students in Professor Lhowe’s “Typography I” were briefed on the overall theme of the exhibition with a discussion of some highlights. The conversation articulated the main points
Professor Christine Lhowe (far right) visiting with her “Typography I” students
of the exhibition, enabling students to critique the branding, typography, layout and overall design components chosen by the organizers and designers of this traveling exhibit from Taylor University of Indiana. In this manner, Matter + Spirit became an immersive backdrop through which to review how graphic design contributes to the function, communication and aesthetics of the exhibition, preparing students to produce similar projects for clients when they enter the field.
Students in David Bonner’s Museum Professions graduate course, “Object Care” similarly used Matter + Spirit to apply to their knowledge of caring for museum objects, exhibition planning and installation techniques. Conversations centered on the challenges of traveling exhibitions and the necessity of planning, flexibility, good communication and coordination among gallery staff, contractors and exhibition organizers. Other challenges discussed included the care of unusual and delicate materials, troubleshooting hardware components and planning for the unexpected while staying on deadline.
After the gallery conversation, students were then given a behind-the-scenes tour by Collections Manager Laura Hapke who showed students the preservation lab where staff actively work on collections prior to exhibitions, preservation or cataloguing tasks. A variety of objects were on view so that students could see first-hand the way materials age and how the aging process is abated by specific collections care strategies. This conversation was followed by a visit to the storage areas where students saw how objects were stored for long-term care when not on view to the public. Students saw painting racks, rolled and hanging textile storage, compact shelving and map cases, among other storage furniture options
Collections Manager Laura Hapke shows students the object storage vault
for museum art and artifacts. The different types of storage allow the Walsh Gallery to care for objects in the best manner possible to meet both professional and ethical standards for care.
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Since 1994, the Walsh Gallery has enhanced classroom learning for a variety of graduate and undergraduate students using exhibitions as an interdisciplinary educational tool. If you would like to visit Spirit + Matter with your group or you’d like to know more about how experiential learning can enhance your classes, contact us at 973-275-2033or walshgallery@shu.edu to make a research appointment. The gallery is located on the 1st floor of the Walsh Library and is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. Groups of 8 or more must make an appointment prior to visiting.
On Monday, January 23rd, the Walsh Gallery opened its first exhibition of 2023, “Matter + Spirit.” The show features Seton Hall University’s Lauren Schiller, Professor of Fine Arts, whose finely detailed oil paintings grace the entry to this group show. Curated by Rachel Taylor of Calvin University, the exhibition stems from a residency that brought together a cohort of artists from North America that traveled to China in 2018 to engage with colleagues in that country. The show is a sort of visual dialogue resulting from this two week program which acquainted participants with the current art scene in China while focusing their attention to the place of spirituality in contemporary life. On the afternoon of the opening reception, Professor Schiller discussed her experiences in China in a presentation attended by students in her Painting I class, faculty and retired faculty. This was followed by a visit to the gallery to view the exhibition and Schiller’s paintings. Schiller also made remarks at the opening reception to the larger group of attendees later that afternoon.
Lauren Schiller discusses her time in China with students in Painting I
After Professor Schiller’s remarks at the opening reception, which coincided with the Lunar New Year, students studying Chinese Language (Mandarin) with Dongdong Chen, Asian Studies, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures welcomed the Year of the Rabbit with a chorale performance of songs in Mandarin to an enthusiastic crowd.
“Matter + Spirit” was later visited by Professor Nathan Oates’ creative writing class. Students were given a brief talk on the formation and theme of the exhibition before exploring the show independently. They then settled in to write an assignment based on an object they selected from the 44 artworks on display. Some students were attracted to traditional forms of art such as painted scrolls featuring panoramic landscape imagery, while others were drawn to a multi-media installation featuring LED lights, kinetic elements, and drawing, while other students preferred to investigate AR (augmented reality) artworks that are activated with a mobile phone app they can download to their cellphone.
Students in the Chinese Program perform at the opening receptionProfessor Nathan Oates discusses the exhibit with students in Creative Writing I
The Walsh Gallery welcomes visits for personal enjoyment and enrichment. We also welcome scheduled group visits with that use the exhibitions or university’s collections for pedagogy and research. If you would like to inquire about how the gallery and special collections can support your teaching and learning experience with objects and/or exhibitions, please contact us at walshgallery@shu.edu
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The Walsh Gallery has a considerable collection of fine art, artifacts and archeological specimens for use by faculty, students and researchers. For access to this or other objects in our collections, contact us at 973-275-2033 or walshgallery@shu.edu to make a research appointment. Now on view in the Walsh Gallery: “Matter + Spirit” through Friday, May 12th. The gallery is located on the 1st floor of the Walsh Library and is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. Groups of 8 or more must make an appointment prior to visiting.
Walsh Library has acquired signed first editions of books by some of the biggest names in African American literature: James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks.
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) was one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century, the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize and the first Black woman to serve as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress. She was also the Poet Laureate of the State of Illinois, where she lived for most of her life in Chicago. Her poetry documents her experience and community even while being in conversation with the roots of the Western tradition, mobilizing forms such as the sonnet and reinterpreting classics such as the Aeneid to buttress her own powerful authorial voice.
The Library also acquired a signed first edition of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. This powerful work which recounts Baldwin’s personal experience of racism in America as well as his critique of Christianity, is part of the Core Curriculum at Seton Hall. It is a key cultural touchstone.
Seton Hall’s edition is inscribed by Baldwin to a person named Reliana and says “Keep the faith.” This inspiring message is an especially appropriate one for Seton Hall, given that this work plays a role in the conversations about life’s purpose and meaning that take place in the Core Curriculum’s classes.
Students in Dr. Laura Wangerin's "VIKINGS!" class discuss a replica of the Gundestrup Cauldron from the university's collections
This semester, students experienced history first-hand through object-based learning (OBL), an approach that adds value to classroom studies. In OBL, students learn via engaging in conversation and discourse using artworks, artifacts, archival materials, or digital representations of unique objects as catalysts to foster a sense of wonder, awe and curiosity. Object-based learning prioritizes critical thinking inspired by close observation to connect objects to concepts learned in the classroom.
Dr. Laura Wangerin’s “VIKINGS!” class visited the Archives and Special Collections recently to view the university’s replicas of the Gundestrup Cauldron and Book of Kells in a conversation guided by the student’s thoughts, questions and observations – relating the imagery back to what was learned through readings and coursework. Students were taken by the scale of the work, the construction of the cauldron, and the high relief imagery which is visible 360 degrees around. Engaging objects via the senses connects students to the past while making connections to the present. Objects are powerful tools for learning, especially when students realize they are standing in the presence of an object made by people or cultures from long ago. In this sense, objects can become almost like time machines, bringing us back to pivotal moments in human or natural history.
Noticias Summarias das Perseguições da missam de Cochinchina, principiada, & continuada pelos Padres da Companhia de Jesu. (OCLC #: 16077971)
In Dr. Kirsten Schultz’s course “Religion and Society in Early Latin America” students visited to see rare books published around the time of the Counter-Reformation to enhance their understanding and appreciation of the issues at stake as they discussed the role of the Church in colonial society. Conversation centered on the adventencia pages of the “Noticias Summarias,” which served as an agreement that the book could be published. The volume is an important account of the Portuguese mission in Cochinchina and Tonkin, today’s Vietnam.
The Walsh Gallery and Archives and Special Collections care for the university’s various collections and make them available for study, research, exhibitions and related programs. Objects include materials from world cultures and span from the neolithic era to the present. Highlights of the collection include Byzantine and Greco-Roman coins and artifacts; Native American basketry, ceramics and beaded crafts along with tools and leather goods; Japanese toys and 19th century woodblock prints; 3,000-year-old Chinese ceramics and metalwork; contemporary Chinese art; 17th and 18th century European engravings; and documents dating to the founding of the Newark Diocese and Seton Hall College. There are also significant collections from New Jersey politicians such as Brendan Byrne – the state’s 47th governor and Donald M. Payne, New Jersey’s U.S. representative who served the 10th congressional district from 1989 until his death in 2012.
A portion of the university’s collections can be viewed on Google Arts and Culture and you can view scholar Dr. Caterina Agostini’s recent digital exhibition, “Currency Culture” which uses coins from the Ron D’Argenio Collection of Coins and Antiquities to discuss notions of power and politics as conveyed on minted coins from the Byzantine and Roman Empires.
Dr. Caterina Agostini, D’Argenio Fellow at Seton Hall University presents her research on the university’s collection of coins to students in the Italian Studies Program.
Those interested in viewing the Gundestrup Cauldron can view it through the end of the semester on the first floor of the Walsh Library in the display windows outside the Archives and Special Collections. If you would like to make an appointment to use the collections for research, class visits or other scholarly pursuits, please contact us. We would love to hear about your projects and how we can work together to illustrate your ideas!
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The Walsh Gallery has a considerable collection of fine art, artifacts and archeological specimens for use by faculty, students and researchers. For access to this or other objects in our collections, contact us at 973-275-2033 or walshgallery@shu.edu to make a research appointment. Now on view in the Walsh Gallery: Seton Hall Re/Collects through Friday, December 9th. The gallery is located on the 1st floor of the Walsh Library and is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. Groups of 8 or more must make an appointment prior to visiting.
Get into the Halloween spirit with these spooky tales from Seton Hall’s rare book collections! They come from the book Ancient Legends of Ireland, written by Lady Wilde (mother of Oscar Wilde!), which we hold in our collections, and is currently on display in Walsh Gallery. You can read the entire book online at the Internet Archive.
Happy Halloween!
With thanks to the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center for filming and editing.
One year ago, Seton Hall’s Monsignor William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center received two grants: one to process the papers of New Jersey politicians, and one to process the papers of Irish fraternal organizations. Apprentice archivists were hired and trained by Seton Hall staff, and they got to work organizing boxes of material, deciphering handwriting, and creating custom archival boxes for obsolete media such as LPs and Super-8 videos.
MSS 0148 James Comerford Papers, papers of a New York City judge who spent time as a volunteer in the IRA
MSS 0150 Gloria Schneider Papers, papers which document the donor’s involvement in numerous Catholic organizations in Northern New Jersey
The archives encourage those interested in these newly available materials to make an appointment to see them in the reading room. We look forward to seeing scholars use these collections to enrich our understanding of history!
On the second floor of the Walsh Library is a rare petroglyph – a prehistoric rock carving – made between 3000-1000 B.C.E. The petroglyph generates numerous research requests each year due to its unique nature. One of those requests was made by the National Scenic Visitors Center/Earthwalk USA of Zionsville, Pennsylvania for their Earthwalk Explorer multi-media interactive exhibition. They requested a visit to the petroglyph to do a 3D scan which was written about in a previous blog post roughly two years ago.
the petroglyph being 3D scanned in preparation of the replica
This traveling exhibit pairs maps, topography, history, culture, written and spoken language and storytelling in an immersive experience that projects videos onto a topographical map of the East Coast of the United States. The looped video begins by revealing the original Lenni Lenape trails that eventually became the highways and busy roads we use today; facets of Lenape history and culture, and other fascinating information about the region’s forests, parks and borders. The National Scenic Visitors Center worked closely with Chief Demund of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania who offered this blessing which opens the video program:
“Grandfather, sacred and holy father, you whose breath we hear in the four winds. I say thank you for the wingeds, the four leggeds, the fish people, the creepy crawlers, the plants, the trees, the grandfathers. I say thank you for the breath of life and for all my relations.”
– Chief Demund, Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania
Adjacent to the exhibit is an activity area featuring a reproduction of the petroglyph. Visitors learn about the glyphs – their conjectured meaning, what they depict and how the words are pronounced in Lenape. The project relied on the Lenape Talking Dictionary for some of the interpretations. Professor Sean Harvey of Seton Hall University discussed the petroglyph’s significance in a video produced last year for Native American Heritage Month.
The petroglyph was located on Rudyard Jennings’ property along the Delaware River in Walpack Township, New Jersey until 1968 when it was moved to Seton Hall University by Herbert Kraft, a field archaeologist specializing in Lenni Lenape people and culture. Kraft was also a renowned professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at the university. At the time of the move, Kraft sought to preserve the petroglyph which was at risk due to a plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to dam the river which would have flooded the area: submerging the petroglyph. Plans to build the Tocks Island Dam were never realized, but the petroglyph had already been moved by the time the project was abandoned. The petroglyph is the only one discovered along the Delaware River, making it a unique resource that offers tantalizing glimpses into the life and values of the Lenni Lenape people.
Jeanne Brasile, Gallery Director poses with staff from Earthwalk Explorer
Gallery Director Jeanne Brasile recently visited the Earthwalk Explorer which is on view at Northampton Community College in Easton, Pennsylvania to see how the petroglyph was integrated into the exhibit and interpreted for visitors. Brasile met with Mary Ellen Snyder, Executive Director of the National Scenic Visitors Center and Amy Hollander, Strategic Consultant at Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor who developed the educational programs and much of the content. Joining them were two student docents, Alexander Almonte and Alejandro Zuniga who enthusiastically and expertly guided the experience for visitors. Almonte described how his interest in GIS (a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface) and geography drew him to this work but the exhibit also stirred more of a connection to his own lineage which is partly indigenous Peruvian on his mother’s side. The exhibition uses the concept of geography and topography as a jumping off point for discourse on issues such as colonialism, land stewardship, respect and migratory patterns.
walking the 3D map
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Activity area features Lenape glyphs and language
The Walsh Gallery has a considerable collection of fine art, artifacts and archeological specimens for use by faculty, students and researchers. For access to this or other objects in our collections, contact us at 973-275-2033 or walshgallery@shu.edu to make a research appointment.
