This digital collection includes photographic collections from the American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Included are images and prints of Catholic University's buildings and grounds, faculty, students, and University community from different periods of its history. So far, this collection contains images from the 1890's and 1917-1921; additional images are continually added to this collection. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 Thomas Bouquillon was born at Warenton, Belgium on May 16, 1842. He studied philosophy and theology at Roulers and Bruges. Two years after his ordination as a priest in Rome in 1865, Bouquillon received his doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University. That year he was appointed Professor of Moral Theology in the Seminary of Bruges. Bouquillon was appointed to the Catholic University of Lille, France in 1877 and remained there for the next decade. He came to The Catholic University of America as one of the original faculty members. From 1889 until 1902, the year of his death, he served as Professor of Moral Theology. Click here for the collection.

 The Brooks-Queen Family Papers document the activities of members of two Washington families of the nineteenth century. The Brooks and Queen families united in 1828, when Jehiel Brooks and Margaret Queen, the daughter of Nicholas Louis Queen, married. The papers of Jehiel Brooks and Nicholas Queen constitute the bulk of the collection. Brooks came to the District to secure political appointment, but with the exception of an appointment in the Red River Indian Agency in Louisiana during the administration of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), he had little luck. Instead, he assumed the role of the gentleman farmer on a tract of land adjacent to property that later became part of The Catholic University of America. One of the largest holders of real estate in the District, Nicholas Queen ran the Queen's Hotel near the Capitol until his death in 1850. The collection also includes the papers of Brooks' and Queen's descendants, including John Henry Brooks, who sold his parents' real estate to early twentieth century developers of the Brookland neighborhood. These digitized papers offer a view into the agrarian past of the District of Columbia, the lives of nineteenth century property holders, political patronage during the mid-nineteenth century, and the work of federal agents among Native Americans as well as slavery and the Civil War. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 Born in Albany, NY, in 1924, Joseph Byron attended parochial schools and Siena College for two years. After serving as an infantryman in World War II, he attended the seminary of Theological College in Washington in 1946 and was ordained in 1953 as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, serving in the Washington area through the 1960s.

Following the promulgation of Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae, on July 26, 1968, Byron was among 40 signers of the Statement of Conscience, which expressed concern over issues surrounding artificial birth control. As a result of the Statement of Conscience, Byron and the other signers were suspended from priestly ministry to varying degrees by Cardinal O'Boyle. Byron was one of 19 priests who disputed their suspension and he undertook to have their case brought before the Church judicially.

Paul VI gave the Congregation for the Clergy the task of hearing the case and rendering a decision. After drawing together information from interviews with the priests and meeting with proxies (including Byron) and representatives of O'Boyle, the Congregation reached a decision based on their findings. It was determined that O'Boyle had followed the requirements of the Code of Canon Law, and the priests' representatives were able to clarify their position on the authority of the magisterium, conscience, and pastoral practice in a statement that was acceptable by them and the Congregation. Eventually the priests who still sought to resume their duties, by endorsing the findings, were able to do so.

In 1972 Byron was made the founding pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Gaithersburg, MD. In 1976 he was asked to write an article about the case of the Washington 19 and it was published in the theology journal Consilium in 1977. He was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac, MD, in 1988, retired in 1992, and died in 1997.

This digitized collection consists of correspondence, meeting notes, reports, press releases, newspaper clippings, transcripts of interviews, and a publication file. Click here for the collection.

 The Catholic University of America is a private and coeducational university with about seven thousand students almost equally divided between graduate and undergraduate. There are twelve schools: architecture and planning, arts and sciences, canon law, engineering, law, library and information science, Metropolitan College, music, nursing, philosophy, social service, and theology and religious studies with about seventy bachelor's programs, one hundred master's programs, and about 60 doctoral programs. Catholic University added undergraduate education in 1904 and the first yearbook, known as The Cardinal Yearbook, was created in 1916. It has been published ever since though it was on hiatus for a few years, 1918-1919 and 1944-1947, due to the world wars. It has also changed size and shape a few times though it has on average been about nine by eleven inches and two hundred fifty pages.

Digitized here are The Cardinal yearbooks of The Catholic University of America, 1916-2011. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 In May 1890, a group of Catholic educators met with members of clergy and religious orders and decided that a Catholic Educational Exhibit at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago would be an appropriate way to showcase advances in Catholic education as an important aspect of American Christianity. The result was the Catholic Educational Exhibit at the World's Fair in Chicago.

This digital collection consists of photographs of fifty 8"x10" images documenting the building, hall, and alcoves where the Catholic educational institutions displayed their objects and printed material. The educational exhibits occupied 115 alcoves, though the photographs document just under than half of these. Click here for the collection.

 Digitized here are the contents of a scrapbook detailing the weekly newspaper column, “Catholic Heroes of the World War,” 1928-1933, written by Daniel J. Ryan. The scrapbook highlights Catholics who had won medals for service in World War I. Ryan began in December 1928 to write and supply to the feature service of the National Catholic News Service a weekly column profiling men, and some women, who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor (CMH), the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), and/or the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM). There are about 250 stories in all, covering persons from all 48 states and the majority of American Catholic dioceses. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 The Changing Spirituality of Emerging Adults (Changing SEA) Project Collection was the final project initiated by Catholic University of America sociologist Dr. Dean R. Hoge (1937-2008). It was conceived as a project to study the "spiritual hunger" of young adult Americans, with the purpose of providing information to religious leaders on how to better minister to the needs of this age group. The project consisted of a series of 15 essays written by scholars on different aspects in the lives of emerging adults, including finances, spirituality, and politics; case studies conducted at various religious institutions that have successfully maintained and added to their emerging adult membership; and surveys of emerging adults on social influences that have molded their attitudes and practice. This collection consists of the fifteen original essays, written circa 2008; four commentaries written by religious and secular authors on the essays and their possible effects on the programs with which they are involved; and nine case studies of religious institutions that have been successful in the area of emerging adult ministry.

This early twenty-first century project focuses on emerging adults and offers researchers information on the spirituality of this age group. The digital collection includes essays, commentaries, and case studies. Click here for the collection.

 The records of the Commission of American Citizenship of the Catholic University of America spans 1938 to 1970, consists of manuscripts (mostly correspondence) and the publications by the Commission, including guides for social teaching and textbooks for grade schools as well as periodicals for the youths and children.

Digitized here are the textbooks produced by the Commission of American Citizenship of the Catholic University of America spanning 1938 to 1970. The collection spans to 1970 but the textbooks to 1960. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 John Montgomery Cooper, priest, theologian, anthropologist and sociologist, served as professor and administrator at the Catholic University of America from 1909 until his death in 1949. Regina Flannery Herzfeld trained under Cooper in the Catholic University Department of Anthropology, then joined the faculty herself.

This digital collection contains the field notes of Cooper and Regina Flannery Herzfeld taken primarily during their ethnographic studies of the James Bay Cree of Ontario, Canada in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. These voluminous notes, both handwritten and typed, are comprised of a series of 3 x 5 index cards and depict observations on the traditions, culture, language, and territories of the Cree and additional tribes. The collection also contains museum objects, teaching notes, student-faculty correspondence, published material, and chapter and article drafts by both Cooper and Herzfeld. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 Established in Ireland in 1858 as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, their American branch was known by 1859 as the 'Fenians,' with the avowed purpose of overthrowing British rule in Ireland and establishing an Irish Republic. The Fenians in the United States grew to include over 50,000 members and hundreds of thousands of sympathizers by the end of the Civil War, but, rocked by internal factionalism and opposed by the formidable military power of the British Empire, they never came close to achieving their aims. The American wing mounted two short-lived invasions of Canada in 1866 and 1870 and the Irish Fenians launched a small rebellion in Ireland in 1867. The American Fenians faded out of prominence after the last unsuccessful assault on Canada. Many Irish and Irish American nationalists, first recruited to the cause as Fenians, continued to fight for Ireland's independence after the order's decline.

The digital collection consists of letters to and from John O'Mahony, James Stephens, John Mitchel, O'Donovan Rossa, and other Fenian leaders; ledgers of accounts; rosters of Fenian soldiers in New York; speeches; pamphlets; newspapers; chromolithographs; cartes de visit photographs; tickets; and legal records. Letters between O'Mahony and Stephens and between Mitchel and O'Mahony touch upon major conflicts and points of debate within the Fenians in the 1860s. Roster books, ledgers, subscription lists to the United Irishmen and Proceedings of Fenian Conventions document the membership and the general activities of the movement. The bulk of the collection is concentrated in the 1860s through 1880s, but it also includes assorted newspapers and pamphlets from the 1850s to the early 1900s that address a wide range of topics in Irish history and nationalism. Click here for the collection. See also related blog posts one, two and three.

 The Right Reverend Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton (1906-1969) was a priest of Springfield, Massachusetts, Dean of the School of Theology at the Catholic University of America, and editor of the American Ecclesiastical Review. He also served on the Pontifical Theology Commission in preparation for the Second Vatican Council. He retired from Catholic University in 1963 and is probably best remembered as an aggressive opponent of Jesuit John Courtney Murray regarding Church and State. The diaries digitized here cover the years of 1948-1966, with most dealing with his trips to Rome to participate in the Second Vatican Council. Click here for the collection.

 This digitized album consists of a leather-bound album containing 30 pages of carte de visite albumen prints. The album features prints of Pope Pius IX, and 730 cardinals, patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, and abbots who attended the Vatican Council I from 1869-1870. Click here for the collection.

 The Higgins Papers document his life and work from the 1940s when he was in school at The Catholic University of America to the early 2000s when he assisted the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) with organization efforts in Catholic hospitals. The bulk of the collection consists of paper records in the correspondence, subject, writing, and labor series. Much of the material overlaps into other series, reflecting Higgins' busy life as a labor supporter, writer, and self-described church bureaucrat.

Papers digitized here relate particularly to his correspondence with Catholic intellectual Richard John Neuhaus. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 This digital collection consists of 19th century political cartoons addressing Irish political issues of the time, including the Irish Repeal Movement, Irish Home Rule, Irish Nationalism and the Land War. While the majority of the collection consists of chromolithographs published in the 1880s by Irish newspapers, there are a few examples of political cartoons published in the 1840s by the British satire magazine Punch.Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 The cartoons digitized here Illustrate opposing attitudes to the 1801 Act of Union that legislatively joined Britain and Ireland. Three anti-union cartoons published in Dublin flatteringly portray Irish statesman Daniel O'Connell in his struggle against English. In contrast, a fourth cartoon, by English caricaturist, George Cruikshank, represents O'Connell as an ax-wielding bully attempting to sever the hands of England and Ireland united in friendship. The final item, a damaged election flier entitled, "Under the British Flag," depicts Liberal policies favorably in comparison to those of the conservative Tories. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 Throughout his life, Agustin de Iturbide III (1863-1925) regarded himself the rightful heir of the Mexican empire, first established by Agustin de Iturbide I in the 1820s. Born in Mexico City, the son of a longtime Washington resident and a Mexican diplomat, he became ensnared in the political machinations of Mexico. In 1865, Emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlotta claimed guardianship over two-year-old Agustin Iturbide III to provide an heir to the throne. Two years later, Maximilian's regime fell. Subsequently, Maximilian, Carlotta, and Agustin Iturbide III lived as exiles in Cuba. Shortly afterwards, Agustin Iturbide III was re-united with his birth parents and lived in Washington until, at the age of twelve, he began his education in Brussels. Illness interrupted his stay in Europe, and he finished his education at Georgetown University. In 1887, he moved back to Mexico and enrolled in a military academy. Retaining his dreams of becoming emperor, Agustin Iturbide III engaged in a dispute with President Porfirio Diaz, was court-martialed in 1890, and subsequently exiled. He returned to Washington, became a professor at Georgetown University, and married Mary Louise Kearney, a descendant of James Kearney who emigrated from Ireland during the French Revolution and settled in Fairfax County.

The bulk of the digital collection consists of papers and memorabilia from both the Iturbide and Kearney families, including correspondence, Mexican governmental documents, military medals and coins, newspapers, magazines, and portraits. Click here for the collection.

 Mary Harris, reportedly born May 1, 1830, but more likely born in 1837, in Cork, Ireland, was an active participant in the labor movement in the United States for nearly sixty years. Before acquiring the name "Mother" Jones and earning the nickname the "Miners' Angel," Mary Harris had taught in Catholic schools in Michigan and Tennessee, had married George Jones and had four children. By 1867, Jones had lost her family to a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee. By the 1870s, "Mother" Jones began her long involvement in the labor struggle, by participating in various strikes such as the Pittsburgh Labor Riots (1877), the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Strike (1902), and the Colorado Coal Field and Arizona Copper Field organization movements. She also led the Children Textile Workers March from Philadelphia to Teddy Roosevelt's home in Oyster Bay, Long Island (1902). Mother Jones was affiliated with the Knights of Labor and a lifelong friend of Terence V. Powderly. She was an official labor organizer for the United Mine Workers. Up to her death on November 30, 1930 in Maryland, Mother Jones spoke out against labor injustice and for the protection of "her boys."

The digitized Mother Jones Collection consists of an assortment of letters, articles, newspaper clippings, and pamphlets gathered together from a variety of sources including the John Mitchell and Terence V. Powderly papers. Click here for the collection.

 John Luddy was born in County Limerick, Ireland in 1830. A farmer, he married Honora Barlow in 1854 in the Parish of Galbally, County of Limerick. Between 1867 and 1869, Luddy completed three notebooks of Fenian prose tales and poetry while living in the parish of Ballylanders, Limerick, Ireland. John Luddy died in 1877 at the age of 47 from pneumonia in Mitchelstown, Ireland, after which his wife immigrated to the United States with their children. The Luddy family settled in Waterbury, Connecticut. Michael G. Luddy, the grandson of John Luddy, received a LL.B. degree (1916) and a LL.D. degree (1964) from The Catholic University of America and bequeathed the notebooks of his grandfather to the University's Department of Celtic Languages in 1968.

Written in Gaelic, the three notebooks digitized here largely contain copied fragments of Fenian prose tales and poetry. Fine examples of Irish calligraphy, they were the work of Luddy while living in the parish of Ballylanders in Limerick, Ireland. Click here for the collection.

 Shane MacCarthy, a fifth-generation Washingtonian, graduated from the Catholic University Campus School in 1952, Gonzaga High School in 1956, and Holy Cross College in Worchester, Massachusetts, in 1960. His seminary studies were at Saint Vincent's Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 1960-1965. He served as a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington at St. Camillus Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland, 1965-1967, and at Assumption Parish in Southeast Washington, 1967-1975. Following the publication of Humanae Vitae in 1968, he was part of a group of mostly Archdiocesan priests, who signed a Statement of Conscience expressing disagreement with the encyclical's approach to artificial birth control. As a result, he and the other signers were penalized by Patrick O'Boyle, the Cardinal Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. Many, like MacCarthy, were suspended from preaching, teaching, or hearing confessions, with some others expelled from their parish rectories. MacCarthy was one of 19 priests who disputed their suspension and brought their case before the Church judicially, with an eventual decision that Cardinal O'Boyle had followed the requirements for the Code of Canon Law. Eventually, the priests who still wished to resume their duties were able to do so by signing a statement crafted by Cardinal Wright that seemed to mollify the encyclical's original intent. MacCarthy left active ministry with the Roman Catholic Church in 1975, working thereafter with the Peace Corps and the Agency for International Development (AID), retiring in 2009. The digital collection consists of correspondence, clippings, meeting notes, publications, photos, and audio cassettes. Click here for the collection.

 Margaret Richards Millar was born in 1858 in Vermont to Jonas DeForest Richards and Harriet Bartlett Jarvis. Her father, a New England Congregationalist pastor, decided late in life to move the family to the American South. Immediately following the end of the Civil War in 1865, the family relocated to Alabama, having purchased a cotton plantation in Wilcox County. Margaret was educated at home and ultimately obtained a degree from the Bradford Academy in Massachusetts in 1880. Marrying Stocks Millar, a Scottish immigrant educated at the University of St. Andrews, she spent her married life on the Wyoming plains, where she developed a reputation as a hostess for army personnel stationed in the Territory. When her husband passed away in 1890, she spent the next several years in France and Germany with their three children. In 1896, she converted to Catholicism alongside her son, future Jesuit Morehouse F. X. Millar (later collaborator with John A. Ryan). In 1918, as a representative of the American Bureau of Education, she was sent to France to recruit French women to attend college in the United States. Shortly thereafter, she was sent back to France as a representative of the Committee on Special War Activities of the National Catholic War Council (NCWC), in order to organize and supervise service clubs for American soldiers. She would open the Etoile Service Club in Paris that same year. In 1919, she was sent as the only American Catholic delegate to the Women's Peace Conference in Switzerland, serving alongside Jane Addams.

In October 1919, Millar was unexpectedly recalled to the United States by Rev. John Burke, head of the NCWC. She subsequently remained in Texas the following year, helping to organize the first conference of the National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW), held in 1920. An active member of the NCCW and NCWC for the remaining years of her life, Millar passed away in 1947.

This digital collection consists of correspondence, clippings, a diary, and photographs, and memorabilia highlighting the work of Mrs. Margaret Millar and the National Catholic War Council "Women Workers" in France immediately following the First World War. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 Mitchell, a legendary leader of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), was born 4 February 1870 in Braidwood, Illinois, to Robert Mitchell and Martha Halley. Though mostly working in Illinois, he also worked in both Colorado and New Mexico. Mitchell was first a member of the Knights of Labor and then, successively, legislative agent, organizer, vice president and president of the fledgling UMWA. He was also vice president of the American Federal of Labor (AFL) and member of the National Child Labor Committee, the National Civic Federation, Federal Milk Commission, Federal Food Board for New York City, New York State Labor Industrial Commission, New York State Food Administration, and the New York State Council of Farms and Markets. It was, however, as president of the UMWA, 1899-1908, that Mitchell would have his greatest impact. His leadership in the momentous Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 resulted in significant gains for coal miners and greater recognition for the UMWA. Often in poor health, Mitchell stepped down as UMWA president in 1908 and died in 1919. He is buried in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His published works include Organized Labor: Its Problems, Purposes, and Ideals (1903) and The Wage Earner (1912).

The photographs digitized here, 1898-1924, entail many portraits of important people, such as Clarence Darrow and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as significant events like the 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike. There are also photographs illustrating mining techniques of the time. Click here for the collection. See related blog posts one and two.

 Philip Murray was born in Blantyre, Scotland, on May 25, 1886. He began working in the mines at age 10 and immigrated to the United States with his father, also a miner, in 1902. Murray's long career as a union official began soon after entering the mines in the United States. In 1905 he was elected president of his United Mine Workers of America Union (UMWA) local in Horning, Pennsylvania. Murray subsequently went on to become one of the most important American labor leaders of the twentieth century. As president of the Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC), the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), he played a pivotal role in the creation of industrial unions as well as the utilization of federal government support in the growth of unions in the United States.

The Murray materials digitized here include a range of photographs and selected documents related to his labor activities and relationship with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 Responding to the challenge of World War I, American Catholics led by Father John J. Burke created the National Catholic War Council, the forerunner of the National Catholic Welfare Conference that has been known since 2001 as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the secretariat of the American Hierarchy. The War Council of 1917 represented the first coming together of American bishops in voluntary association to address great national issues affecting the Church. The records concentrate on the years 1917 to 1921 and contain files of Bishop Peter J. Muldoon, Chairman of the NCWC Administrative Committee, and those of Father John J. Burke, Chairman of the Committee on Special War Activities (CSWA). They also have office files of the Executive Secretary of the CSWA and individual sub-committees such as Reconstruction, Men, Women, Overseas, and Historical Records. Included in these digital files are administrative, financial, and legal records as well as personal correspondence, photographs, pamphlets, posters, news clippings, and memorabilia. The census of Catholic armed forces preserved on microfilm is of special interest.

Digitized here are photographs, selected publications, scrapbooks containing information on burials and deaths of service members, postcards, and selected documents. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 The National Council of Catholic Men (NCCM) was established in 1920 as part of the Lay Organizations Department of the National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC). Its various functions included the federation of Catholic men's groups, which served as a central clearinghouse for information on lay activities, promoted lay cooperation, helped existing Catholic lay organizations on the local level, and inculcated appreciation of Catholic principles in society. It operated through a committee system on national, diocesan, and parish levels and published a monthly news organ and other publications as well. It operated a film distribution office and a New York radio and television office, from which it produced The Catholic Hour, 1930-1968.

Thirty-eight published transcripts of the Catholic Hour broadcasts delivered by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen from 1930 to 1956 are reproduced here, as well as correspondence and materials related to the general administration of the Catholic Hour, ca. 1929-1943. Click here for the collection.

 The Robert Lincoln O'Connell papers document the service of an Irish-American soldier who served as a combat engineer in the First Division of the American Expeditionary Force (A.E.F.) in World War I, 1917-1919. The digitized papers include correspondence he wrote to his family during his service and include items such as passes, orders, publications, postcards, and photographs. There are also some materials, like copies of federal census forms and his 1972 obituary, gathered recently by family members and Archives staff to supplement the collection. Click here for the collection. See also related 2017 blog post and 2018 blog post.

 This digital collection is comprised of digitized letters and formal documents signed by several popes from Gregory XIII to Pius IX. Included are the rare signature of Gregory XIV as pope, an office he only held from 1590-1591, and a bull of Clement XII, 1737 (with seal removed). The donor of the collection, John D. Crimmins, a New York contractor and philanthropist, was a noted collector of books and manuscripts and a trustee of The Catholic University of America. Click here for the collection.

 Terence Vincent Powderly, the son of Irish immigrants, was born in 1849 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. Employed at a young age as a railroad switchman, he later apprenticed as a machinist. Powderly joined the International Union of Machinists and Blacksmiths in 1871, eventually becoming local president, then joined a local Scranton, Pennsylvania, Knights of Labor in 1876 and rose steadily until assuming the national leadership from 1879-1893. In addition to his labor connections, Powderly served as a progressive mayor of Scranton from 1878-1884, practiced law, and became a political operative with the Republican Party. From 1897-1901, he served as Commissioner General of Immigration, following these duties with a position as Chief of the Immigration Division of Information, 1907-1921, then Labor Department Commissioner of Conciliation, 1921-1924. Beyond these professional positions, Powderly was a world traveler, photographer, and author of Thirty Years Of Labor (1889) and his memoirs, The Path I Trod (1921). In 1999, Powderly was honored as the newest inductee into the U.S. Department of Labor's Hall of Fame, joining figures such as Samuel Gompers, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, and Philip Murray.

Powderly, a photography enthusiast, took and collected thousands of photographs, nearly 1300 of which are reproduced in this digital collection. Click here for the collection. See also related blog posts one, two, and three.

 From the first decade of the twentieth century to his death in 1945, John Augustine Ryan was the Catholic Church in America's leading expert on social and economic questions and one of its strongest advocates for improving the living and working conditions of American workers. Ryan was born in Minnesota in 1869, was educated and ordained there in the 1890s, and earned a doctorate in Sacred Theology from Catholic University in 1906. He taught in the seminary at St. Paul, Minnesota from 1902 until 1913 and then at Catholic University and Trinity College in Washington until his death. Ryan helped found the Catholic Association for International Peace in 1927 and served in a number of federal government posts during the New Deal era of the 1930s. From 1920 until 1945, he headed the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. Ryan wrote sixteen books and hundreds of articles and spoke frequently to audiences around the nation and on radio. His books include: Living Wage (1906), Distributive Justice (1916), and A Better Economic Order (1935). In 1919, he wrote the advanced draft of the Bishop's Program for Social Reconstruction, which advocated national health and old age insurance, a minimum wage, factory safety legislation, and labor's right to organize. His papers consist of personal diaries and journals from Ryan's seminary days; correspondence from 1925 to 1945, including letters written to him after his attack on Coughlin; drafts and copies of many of his writings; outlines and lecture notes from his courses; reference files; and scrapbooks.

The papers digitized here focus heavily on the last twenty years of his life, 1925 to 1945. Ryan's correspondence is the largest portion of materials, occupying over half of the collection. There are also articles, sermons, clippings, reports, pamphlets, lecture notes, scrapbooks, a personal journal, a small number of photos, and some audio recordings. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 Born in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895, Fulton Sheen attended St. Viator College and was ordained in 1919. He taught at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., from 1926 to 1950. In 1930, he began his radio program on "The Catholic Hour" which ran until 1952. He also hosted a weekly television series called "Life is Worth Living" from 1951 to 1957. He served as Bishop of Rochester, New York, from 1966 to 1969 and died in 1979.

The digitized Fulton J. Sheen Collection consists of his philosophy notes taken while a student at the University of Louvain, several published booklets, press clippings, and many published and non-published material and personal notes related to his work for the Commission on Missions at the Second Vatican Council.

See also for the full run of transcripts of Sheen's Catholic Hour talks from the National Council of Catholic Men records. Click here for the collection.See also related blog post.

 This digital collection displays an eclectic mix of etchings, paintings, and wood block prints acquired through collecting clubs and subscription groups and purchased by Daniel and Joan M. Strishock. The Strishocks donated this collection to The Catholic University of American in 1968 and it features a variety of subjects, themes, and artists. Click here for the collection.

 The Student Army Training Corps (SATC) was the World War I incarnation of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), whose college campus training programs included The Catholic University of America. Records include correspondence, memoranda, announcements, pamphlets, surveys, syllabi, a certificate of appreciation from the War Department to Catholic University, and a mix of 4 x 6 and 8.5 x 9.5 inch index cards related to student courses and grades. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 The Tower has served as the student newspaper at The Catholic University of America since the Fall of 1922. In an effort to preserve the newspaper, and to make it easily accessible to researchers, alumni, and the general public, the microfilm versions of the newspaper have been digitized and put online. Digitized here are The Tower, 1922 to 2013. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.

 The Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact was an American Catholic comic book that began publication by George Pflaum of Dayton, Ohio, with a cover date of March 12, 1946. It was a response to the undesirable comic books of that time with the intent to use the comic book format to teach tenets of both Catholic faith and American patriotism. It was generally not available for sale at newsstands but rather via distribution through the Catholic parochial school system. Publisher George Pflaum was a well-known Catholic publisher. As head of the company founded by his father in 1885, he was in charge of such titles as The Young Catholic Messenger, The Junior Catholic Messenger, and Our Little Messenger, each addressed to different age groups in the Catholic school system. Pflaum, who died in 1963, was active in the Catholic Press Association and was a founder of the Catholic Civics Clubs of America, a joint project with the Commission on American Citizenship of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. The Treasure Chest had a run of 508 issues between 1946 and 1972, almost all of which are digitized here. Contributors included Frank Borth, Bob Powell, and Reed Crandall. In the 1960s the comic began to fade and by the time it ceased publication with Volume 27, No. 8, July (Fall) 1972. Click here for the collection. See related blog posts one, two, and three.

 The National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC), consisting of the American bishops and its working secretariat, was established in 1919, and eventually evolved into the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), as it is known today. The Archives houses the papers of the USCCB from its inception to the present day. Among the many records deposited from the organization to the Archives are the glass lantern slides that were donated in 1996. Glass lantern slides were a popular format used for both educational and entertainment purposes throughout the beginning of the twentieth century. More than 100 lantern slides are digitized here, focusing largely on USCCB activities involving service in the Second World War. Click here for the collection.

 From 1919-1953, the USCCB/NCWC published The NCWC Bulletin, changing its name to The NCWC Review and then to Catholic Action in the 1930s. The publication served as the official publication of the conference for the duration of the years it was issued. The full run is digitized here.Click here for the collection.

 This digital collection includes scrapbook history, correspondence, a notebook, a novelle, journals, pamphlets, clippings, a photograph, and a sketch concerning the Ursuline Convent on Mount Benedict in Charlestown, Massachusetts, established in 1817. The collection documents the history and work of the Ursuline Community in the Boston area, the Convent's foundation, its destruction by an anti-Catholic mob in 1834, and the subsequent prosecution and acquittal of the rioters. Material within the collection shows the strong anti-Catholic sentiment existing in New England in the 1800s. Click here for the collection.

 Thomas J. Whelan, Sr. was born in 1911 to Irish immigrant parents in New York City. An excellent athlete, Whelan arrived at Catholic University in August 1929 on a football scholarship, playing on the team all four years. Whelan partnered first with Dutch Bergman and then Ben Zola in operating taverns in Brookland, near Catholic University. In 1960, Whelan, who was active in the Democratic National Committee, became an advance man for John F. Kennedy in his campaign for President of the United States. In 1963, he was assigned to the Congressional Liaison Office of the Department of Commerce, and retired from the Federal Government in 1972. The collection contains an oversize photograph and digitized images from two scrapbooks. The images from these scrapbooks are from Whelan's high school, college, post-college career, showcasing his accomplishments in athletics, especially football. Click here for the collection.

 The Young Catholic Messenger Collection digitized here was the inaugural publication of the Pflaum Publishing Company, founded in 1885 in Dayton, Ohio, by George Pflaum, Sr. Pflaum produced religious and civic themed reading materials distributed to students in the Catholic parochial schools that later included the Junior Catholic Messenger, Our Little Messenger, and the Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact. In the early years the YCM issues tended to be shorter and more literary in focus, while later on the number of pages per issue increased as more news and current events were included. The YCM ceased publication in 1970. Click here for the collection. See also related blog post.