Digital Collections

Boston College Digital Collections provide access to rare and unique collections in digitized form. If you have an idea for a project that involves digitization and management of materials for inclusion in the Libraries' permanent digital collections, please submit the Project Submission Form.

The Collections

From the BCdia Collection BCdia
BCdia (Boston College Digital Images of Art) contains high-quality images of art objects and monuments that support the curriculum of Boston College’s Fine Arts Department. Access to full-sized images is limited to members of the Boston College community. (BC Community Only)

From the Becker Collection Becker Collection
Approximately 650 first-hand drawings by Joseph Becker and his colleagues depicting numerous aspects of nineteenth-century American culture including the Civil War, the construction of the railroads, the Chinese in the West, and the Chicago fire. Companion website also available.

Sam McAughtry, writer and journalist, 1990s. Bobbie Hanvey Photographic Archives
Over 19,000 photographs from award-winning photographer Bobbie Hanvey documenting the people and life in the North of Ireland since the 1970s. The collection contains portraits and candid images as well as journalistic images covering public, paramilitary, and political activity.

Brooker Collection
Approximately 2,500 legal documents and manuscripts focused primarily on Boston and the New England area and spanning two centuries, regarding land use and transfers, law and legal systems, town governance, family matters and daily life. Companion website also available.

From the Boston Gas Collection Boston Gas Company Photographs
Almost 400 images from the Boston Gas Company Records are available for viewing. These photographs date from 1882 to 1972, with the majority between 1885 and 1910. Overall, the photographs are an intriguing look at turn-of-the century Boston life.

eScholarship@BC
eScholarship@BC, a Digital Library Initiative, provides the university community with a publishing platform for the dissemination of scholarly materials.

Histories of Boston College

Rev. Charles F. Donovan's Occasional Papers
(eScholarship@BC, Rev. Charles F. Donovan's Occasional Papers)
Rev. Charles F. Donovan's Occasional Papers are a series of booklets which drew upon historical sources to document little-known aspects of Boston College's history. Digital versions of these papers are available in eScholarship@BC, the Boston College institutional repository.

Stephanie Kermes. Boston College Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: Continuity and Change at the Heart of Boston College
(eScholarship@BC, Histories of Boston College)
A brief history recording growth and maturation of graduate education at Boston College during the last 80 years.

Mary Kinnane. A Dynamic Era in the History of Boston College: The Higher Education of Undergraduate Women, the School of Education, 1952-1965 (2002)
(eScholarship@BC, Histories of Boston College)
Professor Mary Kinnane’s personal account of the early years of coeducation in the Lynch School of Education—the first school at BC to admit women. It covers the years 1952-65 and includes profiles of faculty members and administrators.

Kraus Digitized Music Pamphlets
A selection of about 40 pamphlets from the Kraus Music Pamphlet collection were digitized and made available as PDF files. Access the entire Kraus Collection via bibliographic records in Quest Library Catalog.

Liturgy and Life Artifacts Series
Almost 1200 objects from the Burns Library's Liturgy and Life Collection are available for viewing. Dating from the late 19th through the 20th centuries, they include chalices, statuary, medals, crucifixes, ecclesiastical dress and other objects.

Ratio Studiorum
The historic Ratio Studiorum, called "the Magna Carta of Jesuit education," lays out the educational method and system of the Jesuits. The Libraries created an electronic version of The Jesuit Ratio Studiorum of 1599 translated into English by Allan P. Farrell.

Sacred Heart Review
Published 1888-1918, a Catholic newspaper devoted to local, national, and international news. Includes articles reporting on the Church in the Archdiocese of Boston and New England, with pieces explicating and defending Catholicism. (Digitization in process.)

Streamed Film Collection
The Boston College Libraries are actively building a film-on-demand collection. Links to educational full-length films from the O'Neill Media Center collection are being integrated into course syllabi via Blackboard courseware. (BC Community Only)

Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Photographs
Images from the 1930s to the 1980s documenting the life and career of O'Neill, Speaker of the House of Representatives, from his days at Boston College through his terms in Congress as a member of the Democratic leadership. Finding aid for the O'Neill collection also available.

XUL: Signo viejo y Nuevo
XUL: Signo viejo y nuevo is a 20th century Argentine poetry journal published between 1980 and 1997, during a crucial time in Argentina's history. The companion website, XULdigital, is a collaborative project with BC's Instructional Design and eTeaching Services group.