Autographs in Special Collection Materials

The Hesburgh Collection

The Theodore M. Hesburgh Collection includes more than 1600 books presented to University President Emeritus Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. over the course of his long career and continues to receive new volumes on a monthly basis. Nearly all of the items in the collection contain personal inscriptions from the authors to Fr. Hesburgh.

Included in this collection are works by many notable politicians, writers and celebrities such as Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Ann Landers, Studs Terkel and Carl Sagan. See the collection description for instructions on how to search our online catalog for these and other names.

Return to top of page.

The Autograph Collection

Collection description coming soon...

Return to top of page.

How to Search for Autographs in Aleph

For many years signatures and other manuscript notations that appeared in pre-1800 books were recorded in a card file. The alphabetical index is still available to patrons in our Reading Room but is no longer maintained.

The recording of such notations and other provenance information are included in the electronic catalog record for the item. Following are some instructions on how to search for names and other such information in our onling catalog:

• Start a catalog session by clicking on the following link or typing it into a new browser window: http://libcat.nd.edu

• Select the option labeled "Command Language" (under "Advanced") in the left-hand menu.

• In the search box, type in the following terms: wcl=spec and wno=name, replacing "name" in the preceding with a particular name that you wish to search for.  For example, to search fo r the signature of William Tecumseh Sherman, type wcl=spec and wno=William Tecumseh Sherman (see additional instructions on the search page for explanations of these codes).

• Press the search button to execute the search.

Return to top of page.