The "Celtic Collection" (7,000 titles, 9,200
volumes), the largest component of the department's rare and scarce book holdings, came to
the library primarily in three major donations, described briefly below.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians of Minnesota gave 500
titles on then-contemporary Irish politics and on 19th century Irish history to the
library in 1917, evidently to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland.
In 1936, Srs. Mary Agnes and Mary Fidelis O'Connor, nuns
of the Visitation Convent of St. Paul, donated the splendid miscellaneous rare book
collection of their father, Peter O'Connor (d. 1916), a prominent businessman in the
Minneapolis-St. Paul area and San Francisco, to the college library. This collection, of
more than 2,000 titles, focuses on the history (particularly the local history), church
history, religion, antiquities, folk-lore, art, and music of the Celtic nations,
emphasizing Ireland and Scotland.
Dr. James P. Shannon, President of the (then) College of
St. Thomas (1956-1966), arranged for the purchase of the scholarly library of Eamonn
O'Toole, formerly professor of Irish at Trinity College, Dublin, when the latter died in
1956. This collection, also of over 2,000 titles, primarily reflects O'Toole's interest in
the Irish and Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Manx, Cornish, and Breton languages and national
literatures.
The department also houses a splendid small collection --
some 700 titles -- of rare and first editions of twentieth-century Irish poetry. Prominent
among these texts is the greater portion of the output of the Dolmen Press (a collection
of over 200 titles acquired from the estate of the late Liam Miller, the founder of the
Dolmen Press); works by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney (some 180 titles) and Nobel nominee
Austin Clarke (70 titles); and a collection of early-twentieth century nationalist poetry.
Approximately eighty-five percent of the "Celtic
Collection" focuses on Ireland, ten percent on Scotland, and five percent on the
other Celtic nations (Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany). Nearly thirty
percent of the "Celtic Collection" consists of titles written in a
"foreign" language, most often Irish.
For more information or research assistance, please contact
the Special Collections Department by electronic mail
(amkenne1@stthomas.edu), regular post (Mail 5004,
University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave. St, Paul, MN 55105-1096), or phone
(651-962-5467).
The Celtic Collection
