Kayla Harris, Associate Dean for Special Collections and Executive Director of the Marian Library

Three areas for archives, art, rare books, and special collections in the Libraries contain uniquely UD materials connecting UD history and Catholic, Marianist identity to current scholarship and campus life. Frequent collaboration with teaching faculty to host undergraduate and graduate classes, as well as exhibits, programming, and research support make these collections available to the UD community.

Marian Library

The Marian Library houses the world's largest dedicated collection of materials on the Blessed Virgin Mary. It contains information about the Virgin Mary found in works on scripture, doctrine, history, tradition, art, culture, spirituality, and devotion. Though its main offices are on the seventh floor of Roesch Library, its collections are on view all over campus. Since its opening in 1943, the Marian Library’s outreach has taken many forms in order to reach all who wish to know, love, and serve Mary. In January 2026, services and collections included:

• Materials in more than 100 languages
• More than 100,000 circulating volumes
• More than 12,000 rare volumes
• 175 archival collections, including 30,000 Marian postcards
• 3,600 Nativity sets from around the world
• A diverse assortment of digital archival materials available for download

U.S. Catholic Special Collection

The U.S. Catholic Special Collection collects, preserves, and provides access to rare and/or significant research materials on Catholicism in the United States. The collection supports the University’s doctoral program in theology, which offers a distinctive focus on theology in history and culture, with attention to the United States. Although the collection is not exclusively Marian, it is stewarded by the Marian Library's faculty and staff and available to researchers in the seventh-floor reading room. Areas of the collection include:

• Official Church documents
• Theology texts 
• Materials published by religious orders active in the United States
• Catholic school textbooks
• The Pauline A. Money Catholic Sisters International doll collection
• Objects used by American Catholics in their religious practice
• Records created by Catholic individuals and organizations

University Archives and Special Collections

University Archives and Special Collections chronicles UD’s development into a top Catholic and Marianist institution of higher learning from 1850 to the present. Located on the second floor of Albert Emanuel Hall, next door to Roesch Library, University Archives and Special Collections has three main areas of collecting.

University Archives contains: 

• Records of University departments and student organizations
• Alumni and faculty papers
• Student scholarship and creative works
• Student-produced media
• Memorabilia, photographs and audiovisual recordings

Special collections highlight athletics, the arts, politics, and the pursuits of UD alumni through rare prints, drawings, photographs, maps, art objects, and audiovisual recordings. Some examples:

• The papers of Willis “Bing” Davis, an internationally known artist, educator, and community organizer from Dayton
• Congressional papers of Charles W. Whalen Jr. ’42, a six-term U.S. representative and a four-year faculty member in business organization and economics
• The papers of Erma Bombeck ’49, a well-known American humorist

The rare books collection includes manuscripts as well as early and limited-edition books such as:

• Pre-1600 manuscripts including a French prayer book and a Dominican collection of antiphons
• A 1969 edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with 12 illustrations by surrealist Salvador Dalí and signed by Dalí
• Leaf from a 1663 Eliot Indian Bible featuring verses from Jeremiah 40-43

Materials in the Marian Library, the U.S. Catholic Special Collection, and University Archives and Special Collections can be accessed via the University Libraries’ online catalog, UDiscover; some digitized materials are available in the University’s institutional repository, eCommons.