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
Official College Records
Supporting materials to the official college records
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
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
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.
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. |
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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. |
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.
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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.
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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
These materials may only be used in the Reading Room on the third floor of Dinand Library.
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.
Date(s): 1980-present
Text-only articles from the Boston Globe.
Date(s): 1831-2024
Articles from Catholic news sources, browsable by year, title and diocese, or keyword search.
Date(s): 1960-1999
Clips from multiple Boston-area TV news stations.
Date(s): 1872-1993
Articles from the Boston Globe including all pictures and advertisements.
Date(s):1989-present
Articles from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette; all pictures and advertisements are included 2018-present.
Date(s):1866-1988
Articles from the Worcester Evening Gazette and the Worcester Telegram, including all pictures and advertisements.
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.