The Ade Bethune Collection has shared space with the St. Catherine University Archives for over 6 years, while remaining a separate division of the Library. This summer the two were combined into one department: Archives and Special Collections.
The change results from the retirement in June of Sr. Margery Smith, CSJ, longtime archivist at St. Kate's. The new archivist is Deborah Kloiber, who has been curator of the Ade Bethune Collection since 2001. Since it's opening in 1984, the Ade Bethune Room (now Ade Bethune Collection) has been a bit of an "orphan": part of the Library, but maintained separately from the Archives and other Special Collections. While Kloiber is now University Archivist, she will also continue to oversee the Ade Bethune Collection, bringing the Archives and Special Collections into a single department under consolidated management.
The merger will provide additional benefits:
Student employees will handle a wider variety of materials. Before, student workers gained experience in working with the institutional records of St. Kate's, or the personal materials created and collected by Ade Bethune. Now, students have the opportunity to work in both areas.
The Archives has traditionally been staffed for more hours than the Ade Bethune Collection. By combining collections, researchers using the Ade Bethune Collection will have greater or quicker access to assistance with their requests.
Tools and resources used in one area are now available to both, providing the potential for increased access to all collections.
It is an exciting time for the newly formed Archives and Special Collections!
Showing posts with label access. Show all posts
Showing posts with label access. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
New Resources Online
We've been busy the past few weeks making more information and resources about the Ade Bethune Collection available online. There are new additions to the Library's Digital Collections of articles written by Ade Bethune and published in Catholic Art Quarterly. Digital versions of 8 typescripts in various forms of draft and one manuscript are now accessible online for viewing. The full text of the articles can also be searched. Take a look!
Titles of the articles are:
Titles of the articles are:
- Font and Altar: Footnotes on Sacred Architecture (1954)
- Revising our Conception of the Communion Rail (1958)
- Some Suggestions on Teaching Design (1947)
- Symbols of the Spirit (1954)
- Version 1
- Version 2
- The Person and the Industrial Counter-Revolution (1940)
- The Raising of Lazarus: a play (1949)
- The Tabernacle and the Altar Facing the People (1959)
- Version 1
- Version 2
The article "The Person and the Industrial Counter-Revolution" may be of particular interest to the St. Catherine University community. It is based on a speech she gave in 1939 at the 3rd meeting of the Catholic Art Association, which was held on the St. Kate's campus.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Finding Aids Available
Finding aids to three series in the Ade Bethune Collection are now on the Collection web site. Work on the remaining processed series is in progress, and we hope to make them available over the summer.
Ade Bethune's Writings
The collection includes about 100 published articles in both manuscript (some typed) and printed forms. There are about 17 booklets or books in various forms of draft and print as well as roughly 44 unpublished articles or notes. There is also correspondence with various editors and publishers about Bethune's work. Materials span the years from 1933 to 1998 with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1940s to 1960s.
Bethune published articles in about 37 different journals, with most being in Orate Fratres, Liturgical Arts, and Catholic Art Quarterly. She also wrote a series of 5 articles for Church Property Administration on the need for church architecture to support the liturgy.
Catholic Worker Materials
These materials cover the Catholic Worker movement, from its beginnings in New York to its international presence. The collection spans most of the 21st century, though the bulk of the materials fall between 1940-2000. It includes correspondence; Catholic Worker publications, such as pamphlets, newspapers, and newsletters; other writings both by and about the Catholic Worker movement; and some of Ade Bethune’s artwork for the paper. This collection contains both personal materials illustrating Bethune’s relationship with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker as well as more generic materials relating to the social movement in general.
Items of particular note include correspondence between Ade Bethune and Dorothy Day, correspondence she held with other Catholic Workers, especially Mary Paulson and Hazen Ordway, and materials relating to the first large Catholic Worker conference held on the 50th anniversary of the movement’s founding.
Personal Correspondence
The collection includes personal correspondence with more than 150 individuals: handwritten and typed letters, photographs, postcards, and greeting cards, also any enclosed materials, such as print samples, informal sketches, or other items, that Bethune kept with the correspondences.
Especially of note is the over 30 years worth of correspondence she had with Arthur Graham Carey. Bethune and Cary discussed matters such as art commissions, personal affairs, and John Stevens Shop or Catholic Art Association business, as well as more general thoughts on the theory and philosophy of art.
It appears from the breadth of this collection that Ade Bethune faithfully saved all the letters that she possibly could. Often times, correspondence was with church community figures (such as Sister Peter Claver Fahy or Rev. Frederick R. McManus) or admirers from all over the world. Topics included informal art and design advice, discussions on liturgy, religion, or other personal matters. Letters to news editors, television hosts, and political leaders are somewhat common. She also corresponded with other successful artists such as Leandro Locsin, Alfonso Ossorio, and Fernando Zobel.
Ade Bethune's Writings
The collection includes about 100 published articles in both manuscript (some typed) and printed forms. There are about 17 booklets or books in various forms of draft and print as well as roughly 44 unpublished articles or notes. There is also correspondence with various editors and publishers about Bethune's work. Materials span the years from 1933 to 1998 with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1940s to 1960s.
Bethune published articles in about 37 different journals, with most being in Orate Fratres, Liturgical Arts, and Catholic Art Quarterly. She also wrote a series of 5 articles for Church Property Administration on the need for church architecture to support the liturgy.
Catholic Worker Materials
These materials cover the Catholic Worker movement, from its beginnings in New York to its international presence. The collection spans most of the 21st century, though the bulk of the materials fall between 1940-2000. It includes correspondence; Catholic Worker publications, such as pamphlets, newspapers, and newsletters; other writings both by and about the Catholic Worker movement; and some of Ade Bethune’s artwork for the paper. This collection contains both personal materials illustrating Bethune’s relationship with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker as well as more generic materials relating to the social movement in general.
Items of particular note include correspondence between Ade Bethune and Dorothy Day, correspondence she held with other Catholic Workers, especially Mary Paulson and Hazen Ordway, and materials relating to the first large Catholic Worker conference held on the 50th anniversary of the movement’s founding.
Personal Correspondence
The collection includes personal correspondence with more than 150 individuals: handwritten and typed letters, photographs, postcards, and greeting cards, also any enclosed materials, such as print samples, informal sketches, or other items, that Bethune kept with the correspondences.
Especially of note is the over 30 years worth of correspondence she had with Arthur Graham Carey. Bethune and Cary discussed matters such as art commissions, personal affairs, and John Stevens Shop or Catholic Art Association business, as well as more general thoughts on the theory and philosophy of art.
It appears from the breadth of this collection that Ade Bethune faithfully saved all the letters that she possibly could. Often times, correspondence was with church community figures (such as Sister Peter Claver Fahy or Rev. Frederick R. McManus) or admirers from all over the world. Topics included informal art and design advice, discussions on liturgy, religion, or other personal matters. Letters to news editors, television hosts, and political leaders are somewhat common. She also corresponded with other successful artists such as Leandro Locsin, Alfonso Ossorio, and Fernando Zobel.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Catholic Research Resources Alliance meeting
The Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA) had an All-Members Meeting on March 30 at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Ade Bethune Collection curator, Deborah Kloiber, was one of approximately 30 people attending--it was the largest CRRA meeting to date. The morning session was devoted to two aspects of growing the "Catholic Portal" to make it more useful to researchers.
In the afternoon, focus was given to how the Portal works. Several member libraries will be doing usability studies between now and the end of the year, testing the functions and ease of use of the Portal. There should be time after each study to make recommended improvements before the next study is done. This allows for continuous improvement.
No items from the Ade Bethune Collection are in the Portal yet--the first finding aids should be added later this year or early in the summer. But the Portal does contain materials related to Bethune and her work from other libraries. And approximately 74 other items from the St. Kate's Library have been added.
- The "recipe" for adding records of rare, unique, and uncommon materials to the Portal, and for updating them as necessary
- Discussion about digitization so researchers could find, read, and use the materials online directly in the Portal
In the afternoon, focus was given to how the Portal works. Several member libraries will be doing usability studies between now and the end of the year, testing the functions and ease of use of the Portal. There should be time after each study to make recommended improvements before the next study is done. This allows for continuous improvement.
No items from the Ade Bethune Collection are in the Portal yet--the first finding aids should be added later this year or early in the summer. But the Portal does contain materials related to Bethune and her work from other libraries. And approximately 74 other items from the St. Kate's Library have been added.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
First Finding Aid Entered into CLICnet
Finding aids for the Ade Bethune Collection will be placed online as part of the CLIR grant project. But other ways to improve access to the Collection are being implemented too, including the addition of records into CLICnet, the Library's catalog. Several books in the Collection have already been cataloged and added to CLICnet. Records for finding aids are being created as well. The first one, for the St. Leo Shop and St. Leo League Records, is now in CLICnet.
Bethune originally created a mail-order business because Catholic Worker readers were asking for cards using designs of hers they had seen in the newspaper. Eventually she formed the St. Leo Shop as a means of selling her religious artwork and other religious goods. It also carried publications on liturgical and social justice topics, as well as becoming the main North American outlet for Maria Montessori's books on education. The St. Leo League developed from the shop as an organization that met monthly to discuss sacred and liturgical arts. Both articles in the Shop's catalog and the League's quarterly journal, Sacred Signs, provided Ade Bethune with a forum for her ideas on Catholicism, iconography, and religious art and design.
Bethune originally created a mail-order business because Catholic Worker readers were asking for cards using designs of hers they had seen in the newspaper. Eventually she formed the St. Leo Shop as a means of selling her religious artwork and other religious goods. It also carried publications on liturgical and social justice topics, as well as becoming the main North American outlet for Maria Montessori's books on education. The St. Leo League developed from the shop as an organization that met monthly to discuss sacred and liturgical arts. Both articles in the Shop's catalog and the League's quarterly journal, Sacred Signs, provided Ade Bethune with a forum for her ideas on Catholicism, iconography, and religious art and design.
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