About
Sesquicentennial Scholars Project
In 2020-2021, Loyola University Chicago will celebrate its 150th anniversary. To prepare for the sesquicentennial, the Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities (CTSDH), the Public History Program, and the University Libraries received a three-year grant to fund four graduate student workers, the Sesquicentennial Scholars. In addition to creating this exhibit, the Scholars have been researching Loyola's and Mundelein's history, digitizing photographs, and writing blog posts.
Loyola University Chicago Archives & Special Collections
The Loyola University Chicago Archives & Special Collections is home to the University Archives and a variety of Special Collections including the Rare Book Collection and the Congressional Archives.
The University Archives serves as the institutional memory of Loyola University Chicago with the mission to collect, preserve, organize, describe, and make available university records of enduring historical value. Special Collections includes archival collections relating to Samuel Insull, Congressmen Dan Rostenkowski and Henry J. Hyde, Catholic history, Jesuit educators, and Chicago entertainment. Special Collections is also the home of Loyola's Rare Book Collection, which is particularly strong in the areas of Jesuitica, American and British history, literature and drama, and religion and theology. Of particular note in the collection are the Edward A. Cudahy Jesuitica collection, the Charles A. Whittingham Chiswick Press collection, the Michalak 19th century British Satire and Caricature collection, the Charles A. Keely Book History collection, and the Edward Gorey collection. Today the Loyola University Chicago Archives & Special Collections holds over 9,000 linear feet of archival collections and 14,000 rare books.
Women & Leadership Archives
Established in 1994, the Women and Leadership Archives (WLA) collects, preserves, and makes available permanently valuable records of women and women’s organizations, which document women’s lives, roles, and contributions. The WLA grew out of the need to care for the records of Mundelein College and expanded to collect papers of women leaders and women’s organizations. Collection strengths include the subject areas of activism and women’s issues; authors; education; environmental issues; public service; social justice; women religious; and the fine, performance, and visual arts.
Organizationally, the WLA is part of the Gannon Center and Loyola University Libraries and serves a wide variety of users ranging from students and scholars to the general public. The WLA makes records available at the Archives in Loyola’s Piper Hall, offers remote reference services, presents programs, and provides online resources. Staff includes a Director, Assistant Archivist, and graduate assistants from Loyola’s Public History Program.