Have you ever walked past that large "cape" near the O’Neil reading room on the third floor of the Richardson Library? Have you ever wondered what it was? Well, in fact, it is an example of priestly vestments. It was woven by hand with gold and silk brocade on silk in Lyon, France in 1925.  Why do we have it? After being purchased for the 50th Anniversary of St. Vincent de Paul parish, it was worn by a priest who represented the Vincentian order at the 1926 Eucharistic Congress in Chicago.  

Eucharistic Congress? On the wall near the vestment is a poster in a Celtic/art deco style in gold, maroons, blues, and oranges; it shows the symbols of the four evangelists above the Chicago skyline. This poster was for the 1926 Eucharistic Congress.  A Eucharistic Congress is like an Olympics or a World’s Fair for Catholics.  It is an opportunity for Catholics from all around the world, holy men and women and the faithful alike, to come together to share in the celebration of their faith and the Eucharist.  In June 1926, more than a million people came to Chicago for the first Eucharistic Congress in the United States for sacred services and conferences. Services were celebrated in Holy Name Cathedral and Soldier Field as well as on the campus of St. Mary’s Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois. A reported ten tons of hot dogs were consumed during the Congress.
    
The Congress was important for elevating the image and spirit of the city of Chicago, which at the time, was riddled with gangster activity, tension produced by Prohibition, and questions about the place for immigrants (specifically Catholic immigrants) in the city’s social structure.  The congress put Chicago on the map for millions of Catholics around the world as a city that was powerful, determined, spiritual, and capable.

For more information on the Eucharistic Congress come visit Special Collections and ask to browse our Chicago collection.  Also, stop by and check out the vestment on the 3rd floor of the John T. Richardson Library near Special Collections, room 314!

Ex Libris: Stuyvesant Peabody

Fourth in a series highlighting the book collectors whose subject expertise, passion, and resources have contributed to DePaul’s Special Collections

As the quarter ends and summer approaches, we are all thinking about how to spend time outside, get some sun, and spend time with our friends. We will play frisbee, swim, play volleyball, basketball, and tennis...How about foxhunting? Any plans? Perhaps we are a few hundred years too late – foxhunting was an important sport for the English aristocracy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This sport was so important in fact that prized books and periodicals were written about it.  Stuyvesant Peabody collected such things.  

Chicagoan Stuyvesant Peabody was a wealthy man who headed several coal firms such as the Peabody Coal Company, founded by his father. Although his work was in the coal industry, his passion was for sports. He owned his own horse stable and was active in many riding clubs and associations in the Chicago area. In addition to being an athlete himself, Stuyvesant Peabody collected materials from the nineteenth century on a range of sports.  His extensive assembly included periodicals, novels, and books on the history of a variety of sports and competitive leisure activities such as foxhunting, horseracing, and gambling.  

After his death in 1946, Mr. Peabody’s widow, Anita, donated the Stuyvesant Peabody Sports Collection to DePaul University. This collection of more than 900 items includes books and periodicals printed in England in the nineteenth century on a variety of sports-related topics, and specifically caters to those interested in materials on foxhunting and horseracing – activities that were representative of the daily lives of the upper classes. Many of the materials are richly illustrated by Victorian artists such as Robert Seymour and H.K. Browne (“Phiz”), whose work are also featured in DePaul’s Dicken’s Collection. Currently, a selection of these illustrations are on exhibit in Special Collections and Archives through August 2009.

___________________________________________________________

Many book collectors paste bookplates inside the front covers of their books and the Latin words ex libris, meaning “from the library of,” were often used.

Ex Libris: The American Irish Historical Society (Illinois Chapter)

Third in a series highlighting the book collectors whose subject expertise, passion, and resources have contributed to DePaul’s Special Collections

In 1927, a collection of books and documents was transferred to DePaul University’s Library from the American Irish Historical Society Illinois Chapter.  This small donation of less than 50 items peaked DePaul’s interest in Irish Studies which eventually resulted in the Irish Studies Minor begun in 2006.

This collection of books has expanded in these eighty years, mirroring faculty and student interest in and enthusiasm for Ireland and the Irish.  In the 1940’s, a separate Irish Library was created to hold the books added to this collection.  When the Schmitt Academic Center (SAC) was built in 1967, space was set aside for the newly formed Special Collections Department and rare books from the Irish collection were placed here, while many others remained in the circulating collection.  Even today, you can find books with the Irish Library book plate out in the circulating stacks.

The collection that remains in Special Collections contains more than 200 volumes on topics ranging from history to literature to art history.  Authors from the Irish Renaissance (mid nineteenth century), such as Yeats and Lady Gregory, are represented, as are the works of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. 

 

The collection also contains histories of Ireland and important historical texts such as the first edition of Michael Collins’ The Path to Freedom, published in 1922.  You will also find anthologies of Irish poetry, works of literature and facsimiles and materials regarding the famous early medieval manuscript, The Book of Kells.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Many book collectors paste bookplates inside the front covers of their books and the Latin words ex libris, meaning “from the library of,” were often used.
      

Ex Libris: Gilbert Sims Derr

Second in a series highlighting the book collectors whose subject expertise, passion, and resources have contributed to DePaul’s Special Collections

Starting in the 1960s, DePaul Professor and Alumnus Gilbert Sims Derr strove to inspire mutual understanding between African-Americans and whites by providing resources for African-American studies at DePaul.  In his words, “When the whites get a better idea of what the blacks have contributed to our mutual culture, many of the problems of race relations will be eased.”

Gilbert Sims Derr (1917-1989) grew up in Durham, North Carolina. He completed his undergraduate work at Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia in 1939 and received a Masters Degree from DePaul University in 1948.  While researching his thesis on interracial education, he discovered that DePaul University’s library lacked materials on African Americans.  He vowed to provide these materials by creating a research center for African-American studies at DePaul.  Then, while teaching part time at DePaul in the School of Education and serving as a human relations coordinator in the Chicago public school system, Derr contributed his DePaul salary to the Verona Williams Derr Fund.  The money from this fund went towards a scholarship fund, lecture series and the Verona Williams Derr Collection (named for Derr's wife) now housed in DePaul University’s Special Collections and Archives. 

The Collection contains books relating to African-American culture, Negro Life and History, Black-White Experience, and the Area of Black Studies. The publication dates for the books range from the 1790’s through to the 1960’s.  Professor Derr collected books that presented both sides of the race issue.  The collection contains pro-slavery book titles such as An Enquiry Concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties, and Literature of Negroes, 1810 by H. Gregoire and Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments; Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartwright, 1860.  On the other side, the collection also includes anti-slavery publications such as Lydia Maria Francis Child’s 1833 An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans and texts by Abolitionists and African American authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Check out some selections from the Derr Collection on exhibit on the third floor of the library through February 28, 2009.

------------------------------------------------------------

Many book collectors paste bookplates inside the front covers of their books and the Latin words ex libris, meaning “from the library of,” were often used.

 

 

 

 

Ex Libris: Estelle Doheny

First in a series highlighting the book collectors whose subject expertise, passion, and resources have contributed to DePaul’s Special Collections

One of the earliest female book collectors in the United States, Estelle Doheny, purchased her first rare book in 1931 and continued buying books and manuscripts until her death in 1958.  She is the only woman collector who developed a library notable for both its scope and quality. 

Estelle Doheny (1875-1958) married the wealthy oil man and philanthropist Edward Doheny (1856-1935) in 1900.  Her great collection was for many years housed at the Vincentian Seminary of St. John’s in California.  She also gave parts of her collection to the Vincentian Seminary of St. Mary’s of the Barrens in Perryville, Missouri as gifts and some of these came to DePaul University through a sale at Christie’s Auction House in New York.

In 2001, over 400 pieces of art in the form of rare books and objects d’art from St. Mary’s of the Barrens, were sold at Christie’s.  DePaul University bought seventeen books in this auction.  One of these books was an 18th century book of poetry.  

 

 

This work is significant because it is the first book of poetry written by a slave, published by her owner.  It is a first edition of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, 1773, written by Phyllis Wheatley, who was brought as a slave from Senegal in 1761 to Boston. 

-------------------------------------------------

  Many book collectors paste bookplates inside the front covers of their books, and the Latin words ex libris (meaning “from the library of”) are often used.