Dominican University

Dominican University’s Rebecca Crown Library is home to the University Archives and Special Collections. The Archives collects, organizes, describes, and preserves institutional records related to Rosary College and Dominican University. Collections of university publications, architectural plans, student organizations, and international programs are representative of the many accessible records documenting the university’s growth and work.

Also located on the Dominican University campus is the Sr. Mary Nona McGreal, OP Center for Dominican Historical Studies (known locally as the McGreal Center). The Center supports the focused research on the history of the Order of Preachers in the United States, also known as Project OPUS, and significant works such as Friar in the Wilderness and Dominicans at Home in a Young Nation: 1786-1865 have been published through Project OPUS and the McGreal Center. The McGreal Center is the official archives for many U.S. Dominican collaborative organizations.  These document the life and history of Dominican Friars, Nuns, Laity and Apostolic Sisters who figured significantly in the history of Catholic religious in the development of the United States.

Notable Collections
The Archives hosts collections of papers from notable Chicagoans as well as our alumnae and their families, including the Civil War papers of the Hart family, the snowflake collection of Wilson A. Bentley, the papers of former Chicago Public Library director Louis Lerner, and a substantial selection of the graphic design works of both Mo Lebowitz and Patricia Riccii.  Dominican University also serves as the depository for several organizations, both living and dead, including the Special Libraries Association, Illinois Chapter (SLA-IL) Records, and the Thomas More Association’s publication The Critic. The Archives also holds approximately 3 terabytes of digital photographic materials.

The McGreal Center’s repository includes several Chicago-based Dominican organization’s collections. These include the Dominican Volunteers USA, a national volunteer organization, as well as the Central Province Lay Dominicans Records, archives pertaining to the governance and history of all lay chapters in the Midwest.  The McGreal Center also houses the Parable Conference for Dominican Life and Mission (1975-2008) archives, the first national collaborative effort by friars, laity, nuns and sisters to address the needs of the contemporary church and world. Also of note are the Richard J. Carbray Vatican II Papers, which contains materials collected by a former Rosary College instructor in attendance.