About Us
About USM De Paul Library
The University of Saint Mary is a Catholic liberal arts institution. The De Paul Library serves a community of over 1,000 students in face-to-face environments in Leavenworth and Overland Park, Kansas as well as distance students. Librarians offer virtual and face-to-face instruction sessions in all disciplines and partner with departments to provide excellent resources for student and faculty needs through digital resources and outreach projects.
About Special Collections
De Paul Library Special Collections is an extension of the main library, serving as a place of research, outreach, and instruction to provide access to unique, rare, and primary source materials. Special Collections in its self is a discovery tool for the university and surrounding community. Our digital initiatives are to expand and provide open access nationally and internationally.
Special Collections includes two core collections:
The Sir John and Mary Craig Scripture Collection consists of more than 2,000 items, including a collection of Bibles (Old and New Testament) and religious texts from Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions, which date from the 12th Century. Spanning the 12th Century up to the 16th Century, the scripture collection includes original illuminated manuscripts, single-leaf antiphonals, and codices as well as original incunables and leaves from early printing processes and prominent printers.
The Bernard H. Hall Abraham Lincoln Collection contains more than 10,000 items, ephemera, and artwork. Among them are a parchment copy of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, signed by Abraham Lincoln, H. Hamlin, S. Colfax, and thirty-six US Senators (including the first two Kansas Senators, Samuel C. Pomeroy and James H. Lane), original manuscripts written and signed by Abraham Lincoln, and artwork commemorating the 16th president.
Special Collections Mission Statement
The University of Saint Mary’s De Paul Library Special Collections is in accordance with the mission statement of the University of Saint Mary and serves as the De Paul Library Special Collections unit for the university, local community, and society at large by collecting, preserving, disseminating, providing access to research, instructional use, and interpret the primary source historical material donated, selected, and held within our collections.