Library Incorporates University Collection

During the 1999-2000 academic year Lauinger Library's Special Collections Division will take charge of the previously independent University Collection of fine art, antiques, and various other items of historical significance. Part of the University Collection is displayed on a regular basis in the Carroll Parlor of the Healy Building, and items from it are on loan to various university offices on all three campuses, but the bulk of the collection, which totals more than 1,500 items, is stored in the old University Archives suite in the basement of the Healy Building. The library already manages virtually all of the university's collections of fine prints and other graphic arts, collections which extend at present to more than 16,000 items and portions of which are regularly exhibited in the library's Fairchild Memorial Gallery.

The best-known items in the University Collection are undoubtedly the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Archbishop John Carroll, which hangs in the president's office, and the seated statue of Carroll which stands in front of the Healy Building. In the Carroll Parlor are paintings of the university in the 1820s and 30s done by its first art instructor, James Simpson, as well as a number of significant oils by earlier European masters. And, though they are rarely displayed, the collection includes a number of fine examples of English and American church silver from the colonial period as well as a fine collection of prize medals in gold and silver awarded by the university throughout the 191h century, several examples of which are currently displayed in Carroll Parlor.

One of the library's goals is to increase the visibility (and ultimately the scholarly utility) of the collection as well as to facilitate its growth along carefully defined lines. Among the first activities to be undertaken in pursuit of this goal will be to stage an open house in Carroll Parlor for Library Associates and friends towards the end of the millennial year.