Explore our curated list of digital collections including scrapbooks, letters, newspapers, yearbooks and other archival materials.
Holy Cross Course Catalogs
This collections includes digitized volumes of the Holy Cross Course Catalog from 1852 to 2017. Physical copies can be found in the Holy Cross Archives. These include information about the College's courses, fee structures, course and concentration descriptions as well as lists on students, faculty, administrators and staff, and members of the Board of Trustees.
The Purple Patcher
This collection includes digitized volumes of The Purple Patcher, Holy Cross's student yearbook. Beginning in 1907, with a brief hiatus during World War II, The Purple Patcher provides a detailed description of life on campus. Physical copies can be found in the Holy Cross Archives. The Holy Cross Archives is in the process of digitizing the Purple Patcher to make it available online.
The Crest
This collection includes digitized volumes of The Crest Yearbook , a yearbook published by the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) during World War II. It replaced the Purple Patcher as the College's yearbook from 1945-1946 because there were few civilian students present on campus. Physical copies can be found in the Holy Cross Archives.
Student Newspapers
This collection includes digitized volumes of the Holy Cross student newspapers, which was established in February of 1925. Originally called the Tomahawk, the name was changed to the Crusader in January of 1955. The name was changed once again in 2018, to The Spire. The College of the Holy Cross Archives and Special Collections is currently digitizing the Crusader in order to make it available online.
The James Michael Curley Scrapbook Collection
The James Michael Curley Scrapbook Collection consists of selected digitized microfilmed copies of scrapbooks kept by Curley from 1914-1937. These scrapbooks contain news clippings that were assembled primarily from Boston newspapers. The entire collection consists of 649 volumes of which 222 were microfilmed in 1962. These were digitized in 2013. The original scrapbooks are located in the Archives and Special Collection department of the College of the Holy Cross.
Patrick Guiney Letters
Patrick Guiney was born in Ireland in 1835 and immigrated to the United States, settling in Maine. He attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts for one year. In 1859, Guiney married Jeannette "Jennie" Margaret Doyle, with whom he had two children.
When the Civil War began he enlisted as a private with the 9th Massachusetts Volunteers. During the war, Col. Guiney wrote a series of letters to his wife Jennie, dating from June 4, 1861 to April 7, 1864. The original letters are currently located in the Distinctive Collections of Dinand Library at the College of the Holy Cross and are available to researchers.
Project Q+
Established in 2016, Project Q+ serves as a digital repository for all LGBTQIA+ Holy Cross related materials. Digital images of artifacts range from newspaper articles to t-shirts to stickers.
The Ninth Infantry Division Association Records
The 9th Infantry Division is an inactive infantry division of the United States Army. It was formed as the 9th Division during World War I and was primarily active during World War II and Vietnam.
The records of the Ninth Infantry Division Association, an association formed by members of the 9th Infantry and their families are housed in the College of the Holy Cross Archives. Their newsletter, The Ocofoil, has been digitized and can be accessed through Crossworks. Physical copies can be accessed in the College Archives.
Deaf Catholic Archives
The Deaf Catholic Archives (DCA) provides insight into the history of Deaf culture as well as an understanding of how Deaf Catholics practice their faith (culturally) in new ways, when traditional methods are insufficient.
Digitization of key components of the Deaf Catholic Archives was completed in 2024 and was supported by a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.