In the April 26, 1976 edition of The Heights, Rob Howie, a senior, and John Rosser, a professor in the History Department, penned a sharp critique of Boston College’s handling of “endangered” cultural resources. Printed amid an era of uncertainty for the University, in both its Catholic identity and financial solubility, the editorial decried the potentially damaging conditions in which University collections of art and manuscripts were stored and maintained.
Much of what today comprises the rare books collection at Burns Library was cramped in a 12’x15’ bank-style vault adjoining the library’s heating plant. Included in these manuscript collections at the time were extensive letters and reports from Jesuit missionaries in the Far East from as early as the 16th century, as well as typescripts of Thomas Merton’s writings, gifted to the University by the author himself. Most of the paintings that today comprise the McMullen Museum’s permanent collection were hung, often with incorrect attribution, in either Bapst Library or Connolly House, the sprawling mansion on Hammond Avenue that is home to the Irish Studies Department. Gasson Hall’s statue of St. Michael the Archangel had lost the white sheen not only of its Carrara marble, but also of its sword and a few of its knuckles.
Although the article sparked enough outcry for an emergency evaluation of the collection, appreciation of the art and archives of the campus was slow to build throughout the next decade. Just a few months before the inauguration of the Burns Library in 1986, Special Collections Librarian Ralph Coffman was arrested by the FBI. He was sentenced to three years in prison for interstate transport of stolen property after he attempted to consign stolen items at a New York auction house.
Coffman affected a permanent disruption on University collections, and some artifacts have never been returned. Likewise, due to incomplete and inaccurate archival directories of campus art collections, it remains impossible to tell whether all of the artworks known to have hung on the walls of University buildings now reside in collections depositories. By the late 1980s, these paintings and sculptures had been scattered around campus and in improvised storage rooms, before centralizing under a single entity at the initiative of then University President Rev. J. Donald Monan, S.J.
Thus began a series of iterations of art galleries featuring University collections, beginning in Barry Pavilion of Newton Campus, then occupying a more prominent location in Devlin Hall, before finally relocating to the current location on Brighton Campus. Today, both the McMullen Museum and Burns Library employ professional staffs of archivists and art historians to safeguard the same cultural heritage Howie and Rosser had pronounced endangered decades ago.
But Boston College should not simply stop at preservation of its historical resources. The primary purpose for the accumulation of art and artifacts—especially those related to the school’s Catholic heritage—should be for use in the formation of students. A Boston College undergraduate enrolling this year might have only a small chance at touring Burns Library, and students are even less likely to engage with the rare manuscripts collection in their schoolwork. Even the habitual visitor to the McMullen Museum’s rotating exhibitions remains ignorant of its vast collections of Catholic art, spanning from the Italian Renaissance to contemporary Ireland, from Late Antique Egypt to the colonial Americas. While admittedly many of these Christian artworks are later copies, fakes, or crafted by the “school of” a given artist’s style, not even inconclusive authorship can completely undermine the potential of any artwork to prove in some way edifying in a university setting. Without an acquisition budget or adequate permanent collection display space, most of this artwork is received through donations of outside patrons, and the pieces are fated only to live among the other Madonnas and angels of the museum storage.
The resultant question, as is so often the case on Catholic college campuses, is to what degree outward and external religious identification should have a role in the daily lessons, actions, and surroundings of students. Boston College President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. initiated the Committee on Christian Art in the early 2000s, precipitating the installation of the St. Ignatius and St. Thomas More statues, the Tree of Life fountain, and the murals of the foyer of Lyons. The University has effectively harnessed newly-commissioned artwork to project its message of faith as central to educational formation. Our Catholic identity is further underscored by the increased presence of crucifixes around campus, with many installed in classrooms after 2009. Boston College has clearly taken great strides in cementing its Catholic identity through the visual experience of its campus, but what of the Catholic artwork that has been missing from campus display for four decades?
It is time that the university develop a cohesive plan for utilizing its existing cultural and artistic resources to further its mission of student formation in the Catholic tradition. Student interaction with such artifacts can act as a powerful force of evangelization in an environment of intellectual curiosity. Students of all faiths would benefit from greater immersion in the Catholic faith through material and historical means. St. Michael still guards the rotunda in Gasson Hall, restored in its details and bearing a replacement sword. This eldest cultural landmark of the Chestnut Hill campus has been given a second life as a message of the enduring strength of the Faith, and is seen by many as a fixture of campus life. Why would we deny the same possibilities for the rest of our collection?
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