Black History Month – Special Collections Objects

Walsh Libraries Special Collections & Archives Center houses many books and objects related to Black History Month. See some of the highlights below. The collections are available for viewing and for research by appointment.

1-Dr. Frances Hammond’s Qur’an

Special Collections has a a Qur’an previously owned by Dr. Francis Hammond, the first African American professor at Seton Hall University, who worked on interfaith and interracial matters both locally and internationally. This Qur’an comes from his collection and is believed to have been handwritten in France. Rewriting and copying text, such as sacred scripture, was one way to learn language, how to write, and most importantly the scripture itself. Read more about Dr. Hammond.

You can see Dr. Hammond’s Qur’an on display now in Walsh Gallery’s latest exhibition, The Beauty of Sacred Texts, open Monday-Friday 10am-4pm all semester

2-Bishop John A. Francis pastoral letter on racism, 1979

See a portion of the first draft of Bishop Joseph A. Francis’s pastoral letter on racism, published in 1979. Joseph Francis was ordained as a priest in 1950 and became the fourth African American Roman Catholic bishop in the country, and the first ordained in the Northeast. Bishop Francis was a pioneering figure in the discussion of race and religion, and one of the first in the Catholic church to openly speak out against racism. Though these words were written ~45 years ago, one could argue they are as relevant and integral as ever.

The Joseph A. Francis papers are held in the Archives. The materials in this collection includes Bishop Francis’ own writings for his speeches and sermons. Book a research appointment to explore this collection yourself!

3-The Thomas and Margaret Melady papers

The Thomas and Margaret Melady papers primarily consist of correspondence related to African political leaders and movements during the 1960s and 1970s. Ambassador Melady has held multiple diplomatic posts for the United States, including Ambassador to Burundi, Ambassador to Uganda, and Ambassador to the Holy See, and the couple have written multiple books on politics in Africa.

4-Donald M. Payne Papers

This photograph from the Donald M. Payne Papers, held in the Archives, features NJ Congressman Donald M. Payne (3rd from left), Congressman Gregory Meeks (NY), Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangarĩ Muta Maathai, and Ambassador Leonard Ngaithe (Kenya).

Donald M. Payne (1934-2012) was New Jersey’s first African American congressional representative and served as New Jersey’s 10th district representative from 1989-2012. During his time in Congress, Congressman Payne served on many important committees and was a leading advocate for education, democracy, and human rights. The collection includes materials related to Congressman Payne’s legislative work, particularly for the House Committee on Education and Labor and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, as well as on behalf of his district and state.

5-Photos of Judith “Judy” Miller

Julia “Judy” Miller was the founding Associate Director of Seton Hall’s Black Studies Center (now since evolved into the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences) in 1970. Prior to the Black Studies Center, Miller worked as a research associate member in 1967 under Governor Hughes’ commission to study the urban disorder and rebellions that occurred in New Jersey of that year. The center was a semi-autonomous academic and research center devoted to the liberation of people of African descent and awarded honorary doctorates to several notable world and national leaders including Michael Manley, the prime minister of Jamaica and Alex Haley, author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Roots.

Additional information about the African American experience in terms of background and unique information leads found within the University Libraries can be referenced through the following leads.

We welcome you to our information center in the near future, but in the meantime if you need detailed help through the University Libraries. You can book a research appointment here – Research Appointment Site

 

Africana Studies – Introductory Resources Provided By The University Libraries

In honor of African American History Month and the value of discovery all year long, the University Libraries feature several different resources that serve to aid our research community. When learning more about the African American experience there are various specialized sites to discover including the following examples . . .

We welcome you to our information center in the near future, but in the meantime if you need detailed help through the University Libraries. You can book a research appointment here: Research Appointment Site.

SHUShelf: A Textbook Exchange For Students, By Students

Submitted By: Adreanna B. Dones, Samantha R. Gizzi, and Edward T. Vela

Tired of Buying Expensive Textbooks?    We’ve Got You Covered!

Ever find yourself buying a textbook for just one class, only to have it collect dust on your shelf forever? We get it. Textbooks are expensive, and sometimes you only need them for a semester. That’s why we created SHUShelf, a student-led, Buccino-supported initiative that makes textbooks more accessible for the entire Seton Hall community.

What is SHUShelf?

SHUShelf is a textbook exchange program designed to help students access the books they need—without breaking the bank. Whether you’re taking a CORE class, in the Honors Program, or any other specified course, we accept and exchange textbooks across all disciplines. Through student and alumni donations, we’ve built a growing collection of over 300 books (and counting!).

How It Works

Getting a textbook through SHUShelf is easy! Just fill out a simple form here with:

Your Name
SHU ID Number
The Book(s) You Need

If we have the textbook in our system, we’ll get it to you!

Additionally, we maintain a real-time inventory of available books to ensure a seamless experience. You can view the live list here.

Where to Find Us

Location: 2nd Floor, Walsh Library
Book Exchange: By Appointment

We operate at the beginning and end of each semester for open hours. During the semester, students can access drop boxes for book donations and schedule pick-ups by appointment.

Why SHUShelf?

Despite having no official marketing campaign or funding, we’ve already made a big impact:

300+ books available
✅ 25+ students directly helped so far
✅ Official partnership with Walsh Library

Join the Movement

SHUShelf isn’t just about books—it’s about students helping students. By donating, exchanging, or spreading the word, you’re making academic resources more accessible for your peers. Whether you need a textbook or want to give one a new home, SHUShelf is here for you.

Looking for a textbook or interested in donating one?

Visit us at Walsh Library or contact our founding members for more information:

Adreanna Dones – adreanna.dones@student.shu.edu

Samantha Gizzi – samantha.gizzi@student.shu.edu

Edward Vela – edward.vela@student.shu.edu

 

Douglass Day & University Libraries Event

Contributed by Professor Natalie Lau and Dr. Samah Faris K Alshrief

Happy Birthday, Fredrick Douglass! Please cordially accept this invitation to celebrate Fredrick Douglass’ birthday this Valentine’s Day. Although Douglass never knew his birth date, he chose to celebrate every year on February 14th. We celebrate this date as a moment for creating Black history together. Seton Hall University Libraries and Research Data Services is hosting the Douglass Day transcribe-a-thon as part of collective action to recognize Douglass’ contributions and activism. For more information about this event please consult the Seton Hall University Libraries Douglass Day Site and further details on additional celebrations can also be found via the official National Douglass Day Website.

We welcome you to our information center in the near future, but in the meantime if you need detailed help through the University Libraries. You can book a research appointment here: Research Appointment Site.

Women’s Network of Seton Hall – “Galentine’s Day” Event

Happy Valentine’s Day—or should we say, Galentine’s Day! ✨ Join the Women’s Network of Seton Hall THIS Thursday, February 13th at 5:30 p.m., in Jubilee Room 211 for a fun-filled celebration of friendship and self-love. Those in attendance will be writing love letters to themselves and their amazing friends, plus making the cutest keychains to take home!

It will be an event full of love, laughter, and creativity—you won’t want to miss it! Bring your besties (or just your fabulous self), and let’s make some memories together. We can’t wait to see you there! ❤️

Starting Your Research – Introductory & Interdisciplinary Databases

The Spring Semester has started and with the beginning of new information seeking adventures, the University Libraries offers several electronic-based tools to aid all of students and faculty with their respective research assignments. The Databases Page found under the “Find” links and icon located within the center toolbar.

Included among the most popular individual multi-disciplinary sites are: Academic Search Premier, Credo Reference, Global Issues in Context, LexisNexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic), Opposing Viewpoints in Context (Gale), ProQuest Databases, and Statista: Insights and Facts Across 170 Industries and 150+ Countries.

We welcome you to our information center in the near future, but in the meantime if you need detailed help through the University Libraries. You can book a research appointment here: Research Appointment Site.

Book Launch – Roger Newman’s “Boys” & University Libraries

The University Libraries will host a book launch for Roger Newman, M.D., a specialist and member of the faculty at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is also a prolific novelist and distinguished alumnus of Seton Hall University.

His latest tome is entitled: “The Boys” which is a work of historical fiction that explores the relationship between two brothers from North Carolina who were raised on a dairy farm during the Great Depression era. They both join the military to fight in WWII but become estranged before reuniting in 1969 when unexpected circumstances bring them back together. Their respective lives are explored along with the bonds of fraternity and racial relations as one brother is White and the other is African American.

In addition to Boys, Roger Newman is the author of a series of medical thrillers: Occam’s RazorTwo Drifters, and What Becomes; and the historical fiction novel Will O’ the Wisp: Madness, War, and Recompense.

For more information on Roger Newman please consult his homepage for more information on his life and works.

This event will be co-sponsored by the University Libraries and the College of Human Development, Culture & Media will take place on Wednesday, February 5th from 1:00-2:30 p.m. in the Common Area located on the second floor of Walsh Library. Refreshments will be served.

We welcome you to our information center in the near future, but in the meantime if you need detailed help through the University Libraries. You can book a research appointment here: Research Appointment Site.

Banned & Censored Artists – An Exhibit

By Guest Author, Mairin Plant

As with books and other text-based materials, visual art has long been a popular target for censorship. Historically, both private groups and public leaders have leveraged their power to ban works of art from public view, alter their contents, or brand them as somehow harmful to spectators for political, social or religious reasons.

Some acts of censorship are directed at individual artworks by otherwise renowned artists. Michelangelo, to name one famous example, grappled with heavy restrictions and post hoc alterations while painting the Sistine Chapel, which inspired him to paint himself into the Last Judgement as St. Bartholomew’s flayed skin. Artists such as Franscisco de Goya, Gustav Klimt, and Pablo Picasso also encountered proscriptions during their careers and after their deaths.

Other censorship campaigns involve the elision of certain viewpoints altogether. In the 20th century, prohibition of abstract, expressionistic, or otherwise experimental art in favor of realistic painting and sculpture emerged as a prominent form of social control in the authoritarian regimes of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Each of these regimes framed nonrepresentational art as a corrupting influence over the public and offensive to the presumed sensibilities of model citizens. The Nazi party specifically pointed to modernist art as evidence of a Jewish assault on German values.

In the 21st century, bans and censorship still proliferate. David Wojnarowicz, an artist who initially faced suppression in the 1980s when the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) opted to pull funding from an exhibition focused on the ongoing AIDS epidemic, more recently censored when Smithsonian opted to remove several minutes of footage from a film installation in 2010—nearly 2 decades after the artist’s passing.

While art censorship can take on many different forms, discrete instances share themes. Art censorship is inherently elitest: it betrays a lack trust in the public to be able to contend with works of art responsibly or correctly on the part of authorities who seek to restrict what people are allowed to see and absorb.

Explore SHU Libraries through books on banned and censored artists on the second floor of the Walsh Library to learn more!

We welcome you to our information center in the near future, but in the meantime if you need detailed help through the University Libraries. You can book a research appointment here: Research Appointment Site.

Happy New Year & Technology Resource Information

As we move into 2025 our information professionals are looking to provide the best possible service and resources available to the Seton Hall community. The University Libraries also joins the rest of the United States in observing National Technology Day on January 6th. Equally, the embrace of technological advance is an everyday occurrence.

Counted among the numerous resources that we provide that go beyond traditional print resources includes our specialized homepage site entitled Accessibility Information for Major Library Databases.

We welcome you to our information center in the near future, but in the meantime if you need detailed help through the University Libraries. You can book a research appointment here: Research Appointment Site.

Multi-Language Education & The University Libraries

December is “Learn a Foreign Language” month within the United States and this provides our research community with the prime opportunity to explore different ways to connect more closely with the world at large. Popular dialects from Afrikaans to Zulu and others in-between are available for your discovery.

The University Libraries has various links to different language resources in order to aid your research efforts. This includes general  Books on Language, SHU Search – Introduction to Languages, along with Languages & Library Guides found on our homepage.

We welcome you to our information center in the near future, but in the meantime if you need detailed help through the University Libraries. You can book a research appointment here: Research Appointment Site.