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Archives & Distinctive Collections

This guide outlines the collections and services of the College's Archives & Distinctive Collections.

Collections

The Holy Cross Archives collection includes administrative records from the offices of the president, deans and other college officials, as well as records of the college staff, faculty, student organizations, athletics and alumni. It also contains complete runs of all college publications including yearbooks, the college catalog, The Crusader, its predecessor The Tomahawk, The Purple, newsletters, pamphlets, and similar material. An extensive photograph collection documents administrators, staff, faculty, students, alumni, athletic teams, student activities, the built environment and college life in general. There is also an extensive collection of audio visual material documenting theatrical plays, lectures, and sporting and other events.

The Archives actively collects records of enduring value in the following areas

  1. Official College Records

  • Of the governing bodies of the college, such as the Board of Trustee
  • Of the administrative offices of the college
  • Of the academic departments and programs of the college
  • Of the faculty as a body, in committee or individually
  • Of student organizations, clubs and activities
  • Of the athletics, intercollegiate and intramural sports programs

  1. Supporting materials to the official college records

  • About the alumni, individually or in groups
  • All college publications including student publications
  • Honors Theses, Fenwick Scholar projects and prize-winning works
  • Faculty and alumni authored books and artistic performances
  • Publications about college history
  • Works produced as a result of the use of archival material
  • Objects relevant to the collection focus of the Archives

The materials types and formats collected by the Archives are broad and include books, journals, newspapers, yearbooks, manuscripts, architectural drawings, paper documents, photographs, slides, film, electronic files, sound recordings and objects. Some examples are

  • Departmental newsletters
  • Correspondence, memorandums, meeting minutes and other office files
  • Typewritten copies of speeches given at College events or external events in support of the College's mission
  • Pamphlets and flyers advertising the College as well as the College's programs and events
  • Annual reports and other major reports such as space studies and program review
  • Programs of events held on campus
  • Photographs of people, campus and College events
  • Committee files
  • Sport media guides, schedules and rosters
  • Student and departmental publications
  • Reunion records
  • Recordings of College events such as performances, lectures, athletic games and major ceremonies
  • Materials documenting the student experience including records of student organizations

Finding aids to the College Archives may be found here.

Our Distinctive Collections holds the personal papers of individuals and families as well as records of organizations, businesses and other entities. Noted collections include the papers of James Michael Curley, David I. Walsh, Louise Imogen Guiney, Dorothy Wayman and Rev. Joseph J. Williams, S.J.

The subject strengths of this collection are

  • Government Services with a strong emphasis on Catholic Politicans from New England
  • Irish American Experience in New England
  • Jesuits and Catholicism with a strong focus on individual Jesuits, Catholic Organizations, and New England Church History
  • Local Worcester History
  • Military History
  • Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
  • Writers, in particular writers and journalists from New England

Finding aids to Distinctive Collections may be found here.

Currently, our digital collections may be found in CrossWorks via this link http://crossworks.holycross.edu. CrossWorks collects, preserves, and provides access to the intellectual, creative, and scholarly work of the College of the Holy Cross community as well as to the unique materials of the Archives and Distinctive Collections. This open access digital repository is a service of the College of the Holy Cross Libraries.

 

Highlights from our Digital Collections

Front page of an issue of the student newspaper, The Tomahawk

Student Newspapers

The Holy Cross student newspaper was established in February of 1925. Originally called the Tomahawk, the name was changed to the Crusader in January 1955.The name was changed once again to The Spire in 2018. View the collection here.
Front cover of the 2008 edition of the Purple Patcher.

 

Purple Patcher

The Purple Patcher, Holy Cross's student yearbook began in 1907. With a brief hiatus during World War II, The Purple Patcher provides a detailed description of life on campus. View the collection here.
Photographic portrait of Patrick Guiney in military uniform.

Patrick Guiney Letters

Patrick Guiney was born in Ireland in 1835 and immigrated to the United States, settling in Maine. He attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts for one year. In 1859, Guiney married Jeannette "Jennie" Margaret Doyle, with whom he had two children. When the Civil War began he enlisted as a private with the 9th Massachusetts Volunteers.  During the war, Col. Guiney wrote a series of letters to his wife Jennie, dating from June 4, 1861 to April 7, 1864. View the collection here.

 
Photographic portrait of James Michael Curley

James Michael Curley Scrapbooks Collection

The James Michael Curley Scrapbook Collection consists of selected digitized microfilmed copies of scrapbooks kept by Curley from 1914-1937. These scrapbooks contain news clippings that were assembled primarily from Boston newspapers. The entire collection consists of 649 volumes of which 222 were microfilmed in 1962. These were digitized in 2013. The original scrapbooks are located in the Archives and Distinctive Collections. View the collection here.

 

Deaf Catholic Archives

Digitization of key components of the Deaf Catholic Archives is underway. This project is supported by a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. View the collection here.

 

Book collections housed in Archives and Distinctive Collections may be found using the Holy Cross Libraries catalog. These collections include

  • Archives (Location Name in Catalog: Archives) contains publications by members of the Holy Cross community including faculty and alumni. Additionally, it holds publications about the College. 
  • Rare Books (Location Name in Catalog: Special Collections, Spec. Coll. Oversize) primarily contains books published prior to 1860, artists’ sketchbooks, autographed volumes, monetarily valuable books and works with limited availability. While there is a broad range of subjects represented, the strengths of the collection are bibles, Catholicism, American literary first editions and Americana. Books given to the College by Georgetown University in 1843 also may be found.
  • Guiney (Location Name in Catalog: Spec. Coll. Guiney) contains publications by and about Louise Imogen Guiney as well as volumes from the personal libraries of Guiney and her father, Patrick Guiney.
  • Deaf Catholic Archives (Location Name in Catalog: Sec. Coll. DCA) holds publications providing insight into the history of Deaf culture as well as an understanding of how Deaf Catholics practice their faith (culturally) in new ways, when traditional methods are insufficient.
  • Jesuitana (Location Name in Catalog: Spec. Coll. Jesuitana) contains materials by and about the Jesuits from their founding in 1540 to the present. Many were published before the Suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. In addition to documenting the history of the society, materials also highlight the Jesuits’ contributions to life, thought and culture.

These materials may only be used in the Reading Room on the third floor of Dinand Library.

Related Databases and Digital Archives

The Holy Cross Libraries maintains subscriptions to a variety of databases that complements the holdings of Archives & Distinctive Collections. The following databases may be helpful in your research. Please note, access to these databases may be limited to current members of the Holy Cross community. Contact Archives staff for further information.

The following sites contain digitized archival material that may provide further insight into the material found in our holdings. Access to these sites are open to all.