Special Collections

Weinberg Library recently expanded its Jesuit Rare Book Collection with an attractive 18th-century Italian book, Excursus Litterii Per Italiam Ab Anno MDCCXLII. Ad Annum MDCCLII by Francesco Antonio Zaccari, S.J. and published in Venice in 1754 by the Remondini. Zaccari served as head of the ducal library in Milan. But before becoming library director he undertook a tour of public and private museums, libraries, archives, churches and collections of coins and inscriptions throughout central and northern Italy In 1754 he published this account of his travels and discoveries. The book features five folding engraved plates and dozens of woodcuts and inscriptions featuring coins, inscriptions, and relief sculptures. This is the only edition and is of considerable art historical and bibliographic interest because he documents collections as they were during the mid-18th-century. The book also features a contemporary gilt red morocco binding decorated with an exuberant flower and foliage outer border and a large central medallion. The book is a fine addition to our growing collection of Jesuit rare books.

 

The Heritage Room will be featuring an exhibit of Father Richard Rousseau's digitally enhanced photographs of the University campus. The exhibit will run during the month of September and feature an exhibit reception from 11AM-2PM on Wednesday, September 21. During the reception Father Rousseau's photographs will be available for purchase.

 

Weinberg Library Special Collections has acquired, on long-term loan, the papers of Father Michael Stack from the Diocese of Scranton. Fathers Stack (1843-1889) was the first pastor of Annunciation Church in Williamsport. In 1871, he challenged Bishop O'Hara's authority to relieve him of his parish after Stack had mismanaged Church finances. The Bishop had to pay $600 to keep church property from being sold by the sheriff for debt. Father Stack sued the Bishop in Pennsylvania courts, arguing that the Bishop did not have the right to remove him. The legal battle took more than 10 years as different courts sided with the different parties. Eventually, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided that the Bishop did indeed have the authority to replace parish priests. Father Stack then sued again arguing that the Bishop's refusal to assign him a new church had deprived him of his livelihood and that he was entitled to compensation for lost earnings. The Court Of Common Pleas in Philadelphia decided against Father Stack in 1886. Father Stack finally accepted the court decisions and went to Rome and did penance in a monastery. He then attempted to find a diocese that would accept him but died unexpectedly in 1889 at the age of 46.

 

The Heritage Room will be hosting a traveling exhibit titled Ravensbrück: Forgotten Women of the Holocaust on loan from the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. The exhibit is being sponsored by the University of Scranton Women's Center and the Holocaust Education Resource Center of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern PA. The exhibit will open on Monday, October 17 and run through Monday, December 12. There will be an opening reception from 2-4PM on Sunday, October 30 in Brennan Hall. Ravensbrück was the only Nazi concentration camp built specifically for women. It was a profit making enterprise located near Berlin. In six years 132,000 women and children passed through its gates and 117,000 perished. Although the Nazis destroyed the official camp records, prisoners created and hid drawings and accounts documenting conditions within the camp. The exhibit features panels and banners featuring the surviving documentation along with artifacts some of the women created to give meaning to life in hell and provide moral support for their sister prisoners. The exhibit is a tribute to the spiritual strength and resilience of the imprisoned women.

 

The Heritage Room will also be hosting an exhibit celebrating the 50 th anniversary of ROTC on campus. The exhibit will begin in November and run until spring 2006.