Exhibits – Page 4 – Special Collections & The Gallery

Online exhibit from the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA)

The Archives and Special Collections Center at Seton Hall University is proud to be a part of the new web exhibit Treasures from the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA): Women Religious. This exhibit, conceived of by SHU Librarian Marta Deyrup, highlights archival and special collections materials related to women’s religious orders held by a variety of institutions, both by members of the CRRA and non-members. Thirteen institutions contributed images on a variety of topics and in a variety of formats, making for a diverse and fascinating exhibit.

Each contributing institution gave information about the collection from which they included images. Some collections focus on a particular school, highlighting the academic and service contributions of the sisters and educators, while other collections focus on a particular order, documenting the missionary, nursing, or other work performed by the sisters of that order. Some collections belonged to an individual, highlighting the range of activities of one remarkable woman. All of the materials provide insight into the depth and breadth of women religious, and the many accomplishments or contributions they have made to their orders, schools, families, and communities.

The exhibit can be browsed or searched in several ways. Images can be viewed by contributing institution, geographic region, time period, format, or subject, or browsed through from the home page. There is also a search box available. Each image allows commenting, and viewers are invited to comment, or to share information about additional resources not included in the exhibit. Information about several institutions not included in the exhibit is provided on the Additional Resources page, but the exhibit creators would welcome further suggestions. Information about the exhibit and links to the CRRA and the home institutions are also provided. The exhibit will be live through the end of October 2013, and will be available online after that, but comments and questions will no longer be answered.

Marta Deyrup of Seton Hall Libraries was the main motivator behind this exhibit, and Tracy Jackson (that’s me!) of Seton Hall Archives helped deal with the images, as did Tom McGee (who created the site) and Mike Soupios of Seton Hall’s Teaching Learning and Technology Center (TLTC). Jennifer Younger and Pat Lawton of the CRRA were very helpful and supportive as well, as were all of the institutions who contributed, and the hardworking archivists, librarians, and special collections folks at each who selected and scanned the images, wrote the description, and sent them along.

Check out the exhibit, and then explore the related resources via the CRRA’s Catholic Portal!

Literature as Art exhibit in Special Collections Center, Walsh Library

A new exhibit in the Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center, Literature as Art, will be available through September 15th. Volumes of world literature published by the Limited Editions Club founded in 1929 by George Macy were beautifully bound and illustrated by artists of the day, in limited number to subscribers.
Attention was paid to the covers, the dust covers as well as to the works and their illustrations. Some are leather bound with embossed designs related to the content. For instance, Daphnis and Chloe by Longus has a golden boss very like a Greek coin with the profiles of the title characters. The Man without a Country by Edward Everett Hale sports an embossed outline of the map of North America while Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage depicts a Union and a Confederate soldier contending over a flag. Other interesting cover concepts include the water silk cover of Samuel Butler’s Erewohn and the bold red and black theme exemplifying Stendhal’s The Red and the Black. The Coverley Papers taken from Addison and Steele’s The Spectator of 1711-1712 is clothed in flowered chintz while Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights wears illustrations of her famous characters, Heathcliff and Cathy, and her own portrait.
Sometimes themes from the book have been used in the cover and dust cover designs as the running penguin motif imprinted on Anatole France’s Penguin Island. In the case of Gargantua & Pantagruel by Rabelais, a mural takes shape across the bindings of the five volumes when they are beside each other in the dust cover. Another period binding technique is the use of marbleized paper. Often used to line the inside cover of a volume, it was used on the dust cover for William Makespeace Thackeray’s The Rose and the Ring and on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables.
Illustrations take the form of pen and ink drawings, wood cut block prints, lithographs or watercolor paintings. Not only do these limited editions provide the subscriber with hours of reading from the canon of Western Literature, they preserve work of regional, period artists and craftsmanship in the production of books rarely seen today in an age when books are often published electronically without any physical form at all. These sumptuous volumes can be seen on the ground floor of Walsh Library, opposite Walsh Gallery whenever the Library is open.

New Exhibit at Archives, Walsh Library

The Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center has installed a new exhibit in the cases facing the Walsh Gallery. Comprising recent acquisitions of objects in the Archdiocese of Newark collections, varied pieces related to bishops, priests and parishes illustrate the rich and varied history of the Catholic Archdiocese for which Seton Hall is the University.

Cardinal McCarrick box — Glass box with Cardinal McCarrick’s coat of arms

In the bishops’ case there are pogs commemorating Pope John Paul II’s visit to New York and New Jersey in 1995 along with a scarf and medals for the Jubilee year 2000 under Archbishop, now Theodore Cardinal McCarrick. There is also a glass box celebrating his 25th anniversary of episcopal ordination when he became a bishop. Archbishop Emeritus Peter Leo Gerety who this past summer celebrated his 100th birthday making him the oldest bishop in the Western Hemisphere received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Sr. Rose Thering Endowment in 2000 which can be seen along with several pins and buttons from St. Patrick’s Day parades, Cathedral masses and related to the Holy Name Society and the World Trade Center.

The second case contains materials related more to priests and parishes from Rev. J. A. McHale’s police chaplain’s badge and identification to playing cards observing the Sesquicentennial [150th Anniversary] of Holy Trinity Parish, Hackensack and a T-shirt honoring the annual Feast of St. Gerard celebrated by the parish of St. Lucy, Newark.

The exhibit can be seen any time the Walsh Library is open from the hallway between the Walsh Gallery and the Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center on the ground floor of the Walsh Library. For hours please visit the Library’s home page.