Collection highlights, news about acquisitions, events and exhibits, and behind-the-scenes looks at the work and services of Rare Books & Special Collections (RBSC) at Notre Dame.
In honor of Asian / Pacific American Heritage Month, we are pleased to highlight the recently acquired bookHawai hōjin yakyūshi : yakyū ippyakunensai kinen—titled in English, The Japanese Baseballdom of Hawaii. Written by Rev. Chinpei P. Goto in 1940, this prolifically illustrated 772-page book chronicles the history of baseball played by Japanese and Japanese-American athletes in Hawaii. Featuring nearly 100 pages of photographs and engravings, the book exhaustively documents the history of Japanese-Hawaiian baseball.
Chinpei P. Goto was born in Iwate-Ken, Japan in 1887, and he immigrated to Hawaii with his parents in 1899. Soon after arriving, Goto attracted attention as a talented baseball player, particularly with the Asahi club, one of the earliest successful Japanese teams in Hawaii. He would remain associated with the game in his adopted home for the rest of his life, and, after his playing days, he became a tireless baseball booster and historian.
Asahi Baseball team in about 1906. Chinpei Goto sits in the front row on the left.
He first published a history of the sport in 1919 in his book Hawai hōjin yakyūshi—English title Japanese Balldom of Hawaii. He wrote this updated second edition, Japanese Baseballdom of Hawaii, in conjunction with the reputed 1939 centennial of the invention of baseball. Renowned for his knowledge of the sport on the islands, his obituary on the front page of the March 13, 1954 Honolulu Star Bulletin called him simply “the father of Japanese Baseball in Hawaii.”
Oversize foldout picture, depicting “scenes at initial game of Honolulu Japanese Baseball League, March 4, 1923.”
In his Introduction to Japanese Baseballdom of Hawaii, Goto wrote that on the ball field there was no “distinction… between a millionaire or an ordinary worker,” and, he argued, “in this commonality lies the ideal of true democracy.” He emphasized the importance of the sport to both American and Japanese societies. He explained that he hoped his book would “raise awareness of the nation’s culture” and wanted to see “Hawaiian baseball… continue to flourish.”
Inter-Island Japanese Baseball Championship, c. 1920.
In the book’s foreword, Tadaoki Yamamoto, a Japanese Olympic Team official and a leader in the YMCA movement, praised baseball as “a wonderful and eternal bridge” that “connects the hearts of the people of our nation to the people of the United States with Hawaii as its base.” [All approximate translations provided by the author and any mistakes are mine].
Kaneohe Japanese YMA Baseball Team, Jan. 29, 1939.
Goto’s two remarkable history books are responsible for much of our knowledge of Japanese baseball in Hawaii, and they are still essential reading for any student of this topic. Japanese Baseballdom of Hawaii features plentiful images of important and noteworthy baseball teams, players, and administrators dating back to the nineteenth century.
Honolulu Professional Baseball Team, c. 1916.Two-page spread featuring images of prominent Japanese baseball players in Hawaii.
These publications were funded in part by patrons who purchased advertisements to support Goto’s historical writing. As a testament to the importance of baseball to the Japanese-American community in Hawaii, a wide range of business bought advertisements, including daily newspapers, beauty salons, and service stations.
Examples of advertisements that supported the publication of Japanese Baseballdom of Hawaii.
Chinpei Goto (standing left) and family in 1939.
Goto converted to Christianity as a young man, and he was eventually ordained as a Methodist minister. He founded and led several churches in Hawaii during the inter-war period. Throughout his life he was known on the islands both for his encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and for his compassionate ministries. If you would like to learn more about the long history of Japanese baseball in Hawaii, Rev. Chinpei P. Goto’s Japanese Baseballdom of Hawaii is available to all researchers.
With the passing of the Holy Father, Franciscus PP I, the Church has entered a state of transition in which there is currently no pope (sede uacante). With the interment of Francis on April 26, 2025, the Novendiales (nine-day mourning period) began. After the Novendiales conclude on May 4, the process by which the next pope is elected will begin. The cardinals will enter into the Conclave on May 7, and all officials and attendants will swear the prescribed oaths and the appropriate attendees will enter the Sistine Chapel. The term ‘conclave’, from the Latin cum claue (lit. ‘with a key’), refers to an area that can be locked up, since no one may enter or leave until the new pope has been elected.
The May spotlight exhibit features a depiction of the Papal Conclave of 1700 by Domenico de Rossi. The Conclave began on October 9, after the death of Innocentius PP XII, and ended on November 23, when Giovanni Francesco Albani was elected pope. Albani had been ordained to the priesthood in September of the same year, though he had been a cardinal for the previous ten years. He celebrated his first Mass only three days before he was elected. Albani then became Clemens PP XI when he was consecrated as bishop on November 30, and his papal coronation took place on December 8.
The cycle of illustrations around the edges shows the events and processes of electing a new pope. Since the Conclave is not public, the images depict its activities. The large illustration in the center shows St. Peter’s and the sixty-six cells for the cardinal electors during the Conclave. Their names are listed in the bottom of the print. Some interesting vignettes are the following:
The Pope’s Death and Destruction of the Fisherman’s Ring
The pope’s seal (bulla) and Fisherman’s Ring (Anulus piscatoris) are broken by the Camerlengo in the presence of the cardinals. This signifies the end of his pontificate and prevents the creation of fraudulent documents.
Processions
Three separate processions are depicted: (1) the Cardinal Camerlengo into the conclave; (2) the pope’s body to the Sistine Chapel from the Quirinal Palace (if he died there); (3) the body of the deceased pope to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Peter’s.
The Pope’s Body Lying in State
The pope’s body lies in state publicly for three days in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
Requiem Masses and the Novendiales
Requiem Masses were celebrated for nine days in the Choir Chapel of St. Peter’s during the Novendiales (nine-day mourning period). The body was usually buried before this period and thus not present. The Conclave can be convened only after the interment. This vignette depicts the four cardinals who come to the altar to change into black pluvials and mitres for the ritual of absolution, after candles are distributed to all cardinals and the funeral oration is completed.
Mass of the Holy Spirit
The cardinals celebrate the Mass of the Holy Spirit before the beginning of the Conclave. This vignette depicts the traditional celebration of the Mass where the celebrant faces ad orientem (literally, “to the east”). The Holy Spirit is depicted in the form of the radiate dove.
Cardinals Entering the Conclave
The cardinals enter the Conclave to elect the new pope after the Novendiales were finished. The term ‘conclave’ originates from the Latin phrase cum clave (with a key), since the cardinal electors are locked in seclusion until a new pope is elected.
Voting Sessions
The cardinal electors cast their votes, the votes are tallied, then the ballots are burned. If no election is made, straw is added to blacken the smoke. If a new pope is elected, the smoke will be white. The stove with a chimney can be seen to the right.
Food Brought to the cardinals
Since the cardinal electors cannot leave the Conclave, food is brought to them twice per day. The victuals in these vignettes are transported in baskets specifically marked for each cardinal with their coats of arms. The meals are delivered to the cardinal electors through rotating hatches
First Homage to the New Pope
The newly elected pope accepts his canonical election and chooses his name. The cardinal electors pay homage and pledge obedience in the Sistine Chapel. The Holy Father usually then appoints or confirms the Cardinal Camerlengo, who places the Fisherman’s Ring on his finger.
Transportation from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s
The new pope is then transported from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s to give the apostolic blessing, Vrbi et orbi.
Subsequent Homage to the New Pope
This vignette depicts subsequent homage (adoratio) to the new pope in St. Peter’s above the Papal Altar (l’altare maggiore).
Please join us for the following public events and exhibits being hosted in Rare Books and Special Collections:
Tuesday, May 13 at 1:30pm | “Potawatomi in Un/Expected Places: Archives, Stories, and the Native American Initiative of Notre Dame” by Zada Ballew.
Last year, Ballew spent nine months at Hesburgh Library researching on behalf of the Native American Initiative (NAI) of Notre Dame. Her goal was to better understand the role that Indigenous peoples have played in the founding and shaping of Notre Dame’s history. What she found surprised her in ways that she didn’t expect. In this talk, she will share some of the most important findings with the people who helped make this work possible.
Presented by the Professional Development Committee (PDC) of Hesburgh Libraries.
Thursday, May 15 at 3:00pm | Hesburgh Libraries’ 2024-2025 Rare Books and Special Collections Postdoctoral Fellow Anne Elise Crafton (MI PhD ‘24) will discuss the major research and collections project they completed during their postdoc year. Crafton catalogued over 270 previously undescribed medieval and early modern documents in the Hesburgh Libraries’ collection. They will discuss the challenges and discoveries which emerged from the project and reflect on the intensive work of making the hitherto unknown documents accessible for scholars, students, and faculty at Notre Dame and beyond.
There are currently no events scheduled to be hosted in June or July.
The exhibition Tragedies of War: Images of WWII in Print Visual Culture runs through the summer and closes in late July. Learn more about the exhibit in this video, and plan your visit this summer.
The current spotlight exhibit is Building a Campus Boycott to Support Midwestern Farmworkers (January – May 2025). In May, we will install spotlights highlighting Medieval charters (May – August 2025) and Medieval homiletics (May – July 2025) from our collections.
Rare Books and Special Collections is open regular hours during the summer.
RBSC will be closed Monday, May 26, for Memorial Day and Friday, July 4th, for Independence Day.
Although I am trained primarily as a scholar of the medieval world, much of my time as the 2024-2025 Rare Books and Special Collections Postdoctoral Research Fellow has been preoccupied by the early modern documents within the Hesburgh Library’s collection. Among this material is the White Rock Copper Works Shares Collection, which consists of several “assignments of shares”—documents which recorded the transfer of shares or capital—for an eighteenth-century copper cooperative in Bristol and Swansea, UK. Under various names—including the Thomas Coster and Co. (1736/7-1739), the Joseph Percivall and Copper Co. (1739-1764), and the John Freeman and Copper Co. (1764-)—the merchant cooperative operated the White Rock Copper Works, a copper smelting firm in Pentrechwyth (near Swansea). On the surface, the items in this collection simply record the finances of a copper collective during the first 45 years of its existence. When appropriately contextualized, however, this collection testifies to the ubiquity of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in contemporary British markets.
The nineteen items in this collection document the notable growth of the copper cooperative from its creation under Thomas Coster in 1737 until 1781, at which point the controlling interest was held by John Freeman Sr. The financial success of the copper cooperative cannot be understated. In its first year of operation a single share in the cooperative was worth £297 (£56,563 today), but by 1781 a single share was worth £2000 (£266,208, or $345,055 today)!
Assignment of Shares, Thomas Power to Joseph Percivall and Copper Co., 1746-03-08 (MSE/EM 3700-2)
As physical objects, these items are both imposing and underwhelming. They are quite large—most of the parchment documents are approximately 680 x 825 mm (around 2 ¼ x 2 ⅔ ft)—but textually simple. Each document lists the parties involved individually and multiple times (including each member of the copper cooperative at the time of sale), the exact nature of the sale, and the binding nature of the sale in exhaustive and dull legal language.
MSE/EM 3700-2, beginning of document with list the parties involved in the collective
Nowhere in this exhaustive language, however, is there any mention of the primary force behind the collective’s financial success: the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
In the eighteenth century, Bristol was “the slave capital” of Britain’s triangular trade. The port, which in 1755 had 237 slave traders, sent thousands of ships full of manufactured goods to Africa, which brought enslaved Africans (purchased with said goods) to the Americas and returned to the city with the products of slave labor. Every Bristol industry profited from this trade, but the copper industry especially so. Copper products—many of which were produced by the copper collective and the White Rock Copper Works—were favored in nearly every theater of the global slave trade. Copper rods were used to purchase enslaved Africans in West Africa, copper products were used to refine sugar in West Indies plantations, slave and merchant ships had copper-plated bottoms to withstand tropical waves, and copper luxury goods were sold around the world to fund Britain’s colonial control. In other words, it is no coincidence that a copper cooperative in Bristol would see such financial success.
MSE/EM 3700-2, detail of Isaac Hobhouse’s name
Through the data made available by the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery and the collaborative database Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery, I was able to identify several partners in the copper cooperative named in this collection as active participants in the triangular trade. For instance, the document, “Assignment of Shares, Thomas Power to Joseph Percivall and Copper Co., 1746-03-08 (MSE/EM 3700-2)” (seen above) lists an Isaac Hobhouse (d. 1763) as a member of the Bristol copper cooperative. Like many of his fellows, his occupation is listed innocently as “merchant.” More accurately, though, Hobhouse’s primary occupation was “slave trader”, with 68 recorded voyages on the Transatlantic Slave Trade between 1722 and 1747.
Assignment of Shares, Sibylla Dymock to John Freeman and Copper Co., 1772-01-24 (MSE/EM 3700-8); full document and detail of Samuel Munckley’s name
Another member of the cooperative, Samuel Munckley (1720-1801) (highlighted above in MSE/EM 3700-8), is listed on twelve documents. Like Hobhouse, the designation of “merchant” obscures Munckley’s role as a slave trader and profiteer in the West Indies. Munckley’s own ships were used to bring enslaved peoples from Africa to the West Indies, where many were sold as laborers on sugar plantations—an industry in which Munckley was also heavily invested. (See also “Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery”, which has compiled dozens of Munckley’s papers and correspondence as they relate to the slave trade.)
As I have said: nowhere in the White Rock Copper Works Shares is the slave trade explicitly mentioned. The collection is, at first glance, innocuous to the point of boredom. Yet this does not negate the fact that the wealth described in this collection was gained through an industry which itself relied on the trade of enslaved peoples. For this reason, when creating the finding aid for this collection, I deliberately included the names of each individual listed on the documents (parties involved, partners in the cooperative, and witnesses). No matter the degree to which these historical figures actively participated in the Bristol slave trade, each individual named in this collection profited from the enslavement of others and for this reason, their legacy—as a part of this archive—must be made explicit.
MSE/EM 3700-8, detail of Sibylla Dymock’s signature
Several of the documents in this collection name women as economic actors—whether as sellers of shares, buyers, or witnesses. Although most of these transactions concern widows selling shares formerly owned by their deceased husbands back to the copper cooperative (like the above Sibylla Dymock of MSE/EM 3700-8, who sold her husband’s share back to the cooperative in 1772), their presence in these documents necessarily complicates our reading. Simultaneously, these documents testify to the names and economic force of women whose lives, in many cases, have otherwise gone undocumented and, they also tangibly record the ways in which these women profited from the slave trade and colluded with prominent slave traders.
Thursday, April 22 at 4:30pm | Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Program commemorating the victims of Holocaust and featuring a live performance of “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by Lori Laitman, performed by Anne Slovin (Soprano, University of Notre Dame) and Jason Gresl (Clarinet, Saint Mary’s College).
The Spring 2025 Exhibition — Tragedies of War: Images of World War II in Print Visual Culture — is now open and runs through the end of July. Based predominantly on recently acquired Rare Books and Special Collections European holdings, the exhibition commemorates the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) and will explore a diverse assortment of themes including Fascist Racial Ideology, the Holocaust, Children in War, Resistance, Liberation, and Memories of War.
Curated by Natasha Lyandres (Curator, Rare Books & Special Collections), Jean McManus (Catholic Studies Librarian, University Archives) and Julia Schneider (German Language and Literature and Italian Studies Librarian, Hesburgh Libraries).
The current spotlight exhibit is Building a Campus Boycott to Support Midwestern Farmworkers (January–April 2025). In 1980, the University of Notre Dame became the first major university to boycott Campbell Soup products in support of Midwestern farmworkers represented by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (Toledo, OH). In a few short months, a small and dedicated cohort of students tapped into a growing movement and convinced the campus to act in solidarity.
Curated by Emiliano Aguilar (Assistant Professor of History, University of Notre Dame, and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Latino Studies).
Rare Books and Special Collections will be closed April 18 in observance of Good Friday.
This spotlight exhibit and blog post were created in conjunction with Somos ND, a campus-wide initiative to honor the history and legacy of Latino and Hispanic contributions to the University.
In 1979, a small cadre of University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College students organized to push a boycott of Campbell Soup and Libby Manufacturing goods on their campuses. The group formed the Notre Dame–Saint Mary’s College Farm Worker Project in February to support the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), a Midwest-based labor union and advocacy group that supported the rights of migrant farm workers. FLOC had initiated a nation-wide boycott campaign earlier that year to convince these major food manufacturers to pressure their suppliers to negotiate with FLOC to improve migrant farm workers’ salaries and labor conditions.
The immediate goal of the Notre Dame–Saint Mary’s College Farm Worker Project was to convince the undergraduate student bodies to pass a campus-wide referendum to join the boycott of both Campbell and Libby on their campuses. To do so, the organizers needed to convince most students to not only vote in favor of the boycott but to also participate in the election at all. While the vote favored the boycott, not enough students chose to vote—bringing the ballot initiative short of the university’s guidelines.
However, the organizers were not dismayed. When the students reconvened for a new semester, they stressed the need to make their classmates aware of both the issue and the impending ballot initiative. Members of the committee plastered the campus with impromptu posters urging their peers to boycott Campbell and Libby products. Donning small buttons urging a boycott of the companies and handing out business cards that listed all the goods included in the boycott, organizers initiated an awareness campaign and voter drive.
The calls for a boycott placed the university at the center of a moral battle between the company and Midwestern farmworkers. With a successful vote, Notre Dame would become the first major university to boycott Campbell and Libby goods in solidarity with FLOC. This potential shift would lead the company to engage in an extensive public relations campaign, including publishing editorials and letters in the campus newspaper, The Observer.
A chief piece of ephemera passed around by campus protesters was “The Farmworker Struggle: A Debate By Letter.” This eight-page pamphlet featured FLOC leader Baldemar Velasquez’s response to letters written by the Director of Customer Service at Campbell Soup, D.Y. Robinson. Within his letter, Robinson stressed that the company did not directly employ farmworkers and was not responsible for the demands leveled by FLOC. Robinson asserted Campbell’s policy that the company “should not and will not inject itself into the labor negotiations between our suppliers and organizations representing the employees of their suppliers.”
While Robinson argued that it would be “impractical” for the company to get involved, Velasquez’s response noted that the company was directly responsible for creating the conditions the migrants labored in – whether it was the field or a canning facility. Velasquez retorted that when the company dictated prices, that “the wages were automatically set for the farmworker, because the growers can afford only a limited amount of overheard.”
As a tool to educate and mobilize, the pamphlet offered not only multiple perspectives in direct conversation with each other but a partial list of supporters and a reprinted card, listing the goods included in the boycott. This pamphlet became one of many entry-ways for campus organizers to educate their peers and the broader community.
Campbell Soup also crafted materials to dissuade the boycott. A contemporary advertisement, for example, invoked the company’s popular “Labels for Education” school fundraising promotional program—as well as its support for Catholic education across the United States—to leverage Campbell’s Catholic identity against FLOC and the increasing support the farmworkers found within the Church. Featuring two young children, the ad hoped to emphasize that the pictured students were both the recipients of the company’s corporate philanthropy and victims of the boycott.
On Monday, February 25, 1980, the Notre Dame–Saint Mary’s referendum passed by a close margin, with exactly half of the campus voting. With 2,012 students in support and 1,321 opposed, Notre Dame began a boycott of Campbell and Libby. As one student organizer proclaimed, “We are not stopping. We are moving into South Bend and across the nation through the Catholic Church and the universities” (“FLOC Referendum Takes Voter Majority,” The Observer Feb. 26, 1980, pp 1, 6). Despite students graduating, the campus maintained the boycott for six years.
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee and its boycott against Campbell Soup, a quintessentially American company, even led to a line in Jesse Jackson’s famous speech to the Democratic National Convention in 1984, “The Rainbow Coalition.” FLOC organizers and activists were on hand with fliers that invoked the company’s iconic can image, relabeling the soup as “Cream of Exploitation.” The reverse side implored delegates to partake in a floor action during Jackson’s speech, holding signs in support for the nearly 2,000 farmworkers on strike in Campbell’s tomato fields.
On February 19, 1986, after seven years of protest, FLOC, the Campbell Soup Company, and their growers, entered into a historic three-way labor contract in Ohio and Michigan—recognizing the union, establishing farmworkers as paid employees, and guaranteeing minimum earnings and benefits.
This exhibition commemorates the end of the Second World War (1939-1945). It showcases over forty works on paper, including posters, maps, propaganda ephemera, illustrated books, photographs, and first-hand accounts. Based predominantly on recently acquired Rare Books & Special Collections European holdings, the exhibition explores a diverse assortment of themes ranging from Fascist Racial Ideology, the Holocaust, Children in War, Resistance, Liberation, and Memories of War.
By examining these topics through images created by both ordinary people for personal use and for state-sponsored propaganda purposes, the exhibition presents a visual narrative of the war’s profound impact on individuals and societies, offering deeper insight into how war was experienced and remembered.
Robert M. Citino (American military historian and the Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian at the National WWII Museum) will present his lecture “The Fascist Lair: the Battle of Berlin.”
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 – 4:30 pm
Curator-led tour will be offered at 3:30 pm
Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Program commemorating the victims of Holocaust and featuring a live performance of “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by Lori Laitman, performed by Anne Slovin (Soprano, University of Notre Dame) and Jason Gresl (Clarinet, Saint Mary’s College). This piece features musical settings of texts by children living in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
Following the performance, a discussion on the spiritual resistance of the arts during the Shoah will be led by Philip B. Bohlman (Ludwig Rosenberger Distinguished Service Professor in Jewish History, Music and Humanities, University of Chicago) and Nicolette van den Bogerd (Postdoctoral scholar in Jewish Studies, Indiana University).
The exhibition is open in the Rare Books & Special Collections exhibit room, Hesburgh Library, Monday-Friday 9:30am-5:00pm. All events will take place in the main Reading Room.
Curator-led tours and all events are free and no reservations are required.
Exhibition tours may also be arranged for classes and other groups by contacting rarebook@nd.edu.
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Rare Books and Special Collections is pleased to showcase this recently-catalogued item, Fianna: The Voice of Young Ireland. This journal was published sporadically between 1935-36 by an organization called Na Fianna Éireann—also known as the Boy Scouts of Ireland. The goal of the publication was to rekindle a spirit of patriotism in a new generation of Irish youth. It featured songs, poetry, and prose in English and Irish; biographical sketches of republican heroes and martyrs; patriotic editorials that focused on the glorious past; essays on the joys and benefits of camping; and updates on the various sluaite (troops) across the country. Hesburgh Libraries houses the only complete run of this extremely scarce publication in which, among other things, 13-year-old Brendan Behan saw his first articles in print.
Background
Legendary member of the Fianna, Oisín, tells St. Patrick about the deeds of his father, Fionn Mac Cumhaill. Ua Concheanainn, Tomás. Fianna Éireann. Brún agus Ó Nólláin, n.d.
Na Fianna Éireann was founded in 1909 by Countess Constance Markievicz and Bulmer Hobson to create an Irish nationalist alternative to British uniformed youth groups like the Baden-Powell Boy Scouts (from which the Boy Scouts of America would later be formed). Taking its name from the Fianna, the legendary band of warriors in ancient Irish mythology, the young members of Na Fianna Éireann were provided with both military training and a nationalist education, emphasizing the importance of Irish language, history, and cultural traditions.1 Although generally aged between eight and seventeen years, these boys were prepared, mentally and physically, to make the ultimate sacrifice for Ireland.2
Due to the military nature of Na Fianna Éireann, however, controversies regarding the role of girls in the organization quickly arose. Even though Countess Markievicz, one of Ireland’s most famous woman activists, was a founding member of the Fianna, the annual Ard-Fheis (National Convention) of 1912 voted to make the organization open to boys only.3
RBSC has a copy of the 1924 Fianna Handbook, revised and expanded from the original 1914 version. Special Collections Rare Books Small DA 954 .F53 192
Members of Na Fianna Éireann were also involved in the production and distribution of Irish nationalist publications, including the 1914 Fianna Handbookand a monthly newspaper, Fianna, which first appeared in February 1915 and ran until Easter 1916. British authorities included this work in a list of publications that they considered to be disseminating “seditious propaganda.” Although the publication contained mostly innocuous fiction, poetry, jokes, historical essays, and a monthly column on folklore written in Irish, it is apparent that British authorities were aware of the nationalist undertones of the contents and likely of Na Fianna Éireann itself.4
Detail from page 29. Drill terms in Irish from Fianna: The Voice of Young Ireland, 1935. These terms were in use from the time of the founding of Na Fianna Éireann.
Current and former Fianna participated in the 1916 Easter Rising, and the organization later worked alongside the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Irish War of Independence (1919-21). As with the broader republican movement, Na Fianna Éireann experienced internal divisions over the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, ultimately taking an anti-Treaty stance (Pro-Treaty members having left the group). The ensuing Irish Civil War (1922-23) nearly destroyed Na Fianna Éireann, as membership numbers collapsed, and many leaders and affiliates were killed or imprisoned. After the Civil War, Countess Markiewicz once again revived her beloved organization, though with a fundamental change in philosophy that disassociated the children’s group from any actual military activity. Instead, they became an independent, non-political, civilian group focused on educating and training young boys to be good Irish citizens.5 Theirs, however, was still to be a republican education.
Revival of Fianna
Revitalizing Na Fianna Éireann proved difficult, as the Free State government did not buy into the notion that the group was truly non-political; thus, in 1931, the IRA and the Fianna were declared illegal organizations. Na Fianna Éireann also faced competition from other youth organizations, especially the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland founded in 1927, but membership did continue to increase each year. When Éamon de Valera and his Fianna Fáil party gained power in 1932, and freed republican prisoners and suspended the Act proscribing Na Fianna Éireann, membership exploded across the country.
Fianna: The Voice of Young Ireland, vol 1., no. 1 (October 1935)
High-ranking officials in the organization decided to revive the Fianna journal for a new generation of youth. With the help of poet Norah O’Kane of Derry, they published the first issue of Fianna: The Voice of Young Ireland in October 1935.6 Serving and former members of Na Fianna Éireann who died in the Easter Rising were praised and promoted as role models in historical essays, and contributors like young Brendan Behan provided wonder tales and heroic biographies of their own.
Fianna: The Voice of Young Ireland June 1936, page 130; and Fianna: The Voice of Young Ireland, July-August 1936, page 148
Interestingly, despite its continued existence as a boys-only organization, this incarnation of Fianna devoted as much space in its columns to the past and present contributions of women to the nationalist cause, reprinting the works of—and offering tributes to—Rose Kavanagh, Alice Milligan, Countess Markievicz, Anna Johnston (AKA Ethne Carbery) and several others, while issuing regular reports on the activities of Cumann na mBan, Cumann na gCailíní, Cumann na Gael, and Mná na Poblachta. Since one of the leading editors was Norah O’Kane, one might perceive her guidance, and potentially even the primacy of her input, in these choices.7
Detail from Fianna: The Voice of Young Ireland, July-August, 1936, page 137.
Na Fianna Éireann was made illegal in the Free State in the summer of 1936, along with other Republican organizations, and Fianna was shuttered after the July-August issue. The proscription of this journal and its sponsoring organization, along with its association with a children’s cause, may have led to its scarcity in the historical record. Yet, it offers much to researchers interested in the under-studied topics of women’s and children’s contributions to Irish independence. Notre Dame is excited to house this rare publication, and we hope that you will visit Rare Books and Special Collections to see more of this fascinating periodical, and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and Women’s History Month at the same time.
2. At age eighteen the Fianna would ‘graduate’ into the Irish Volunteers military group or, after 1919, the IRA.
3. Some girls joined the Clann na Gael Girl Scouts, an auxiliary to the Hibernian Rifles. When Cumann na mBan (League of Women) was formed in 1914 as an auxiliary to the Irish Volunteers, many of the young women who joined were former Fianna. It was not until 1930 that Cumann na mBan established their own republican scouting organization for girls, Cumann na gCailíní, or the Irish National Girl Scouts. See: Hay, Na Fianna Éireann, 11-12.
4. The organization later revived the journal Fianna—in 1921 and 1926—but it shuttered after one issue each time.
5. See John R. Watts, “Na Fianna Éireann: A Case Study of a Political Youth Organization,” PhD Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1981. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/1907/
6. Many boys had fathers who served in the British army during WWI, so it was necessary to indoctrinate them into the republican cause. For more on the editors of Fianna see: S.G. O’Kelly, “I Knew the Real Brendan Behan,” in Irish Digest, vol. 78, No. 12, 1964, 67-70.
7. Note the masthead, unlike previous iterations of the journal, depicts a girl opposite a young boy scout. Also, the inclusion of all women’s groups is especially interesting, as Mná na Poblachta had recently split from Cumann na mBan on political lines. This lack of an editorial preference for which group to highlight in its pages is telling. The Fianna were still referring to Cumann na gCailíní as their female counterpart in 1964 and finally began to accept girls as members in 1968–69.
We join the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history by celebrating Women’s History Month.
Rare Books and Special Collections recently acquired a small collection of mostly printed materials of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) and its short-lived precursor, the Congressional Union (CU). Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, CU’s founders, believed the mainstream National American Woman Suffrage Association’s methods were neither effective nor aggressive enough. Paul and Burns engaged in militant (non-violent) protest—like picketing the White House—to bring attention to women’s suffrage. By 1916 the NWP had formed in states where women had won the right to vote. It was the first women’s political party and had a single plank: immediate passage of a suffrage amendment to the Constitution.
After passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, the NWP turned to campaigns for women’s full and equal rights at home and abroad. The party championed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the US Constitution and opposed any legislation that constrained women’s choices in the labor market.
“The Woman’s Party and the Minimum Wage for Women” flyer, circa 1923.
Protective labor legislation, put into place beginning in the first decade of the twentieth century, safeguarded women from exploitative working conditions. The NWP argued that by restricting the number of hours a woman could work, for example, these laws kept women from competing for the better-paying positions held by men, whose hours were not restricted. Although these arguments did not make much headway during the 1920s, by the 1930s and after World War II, as the job market and women’s place in it changed, the NWP’s campaigns helped dismantle gender-based restrictions on women’s labor.
“Feminist Leaders From Other Lands Conferring At Woman’s Party Headquarters,” Equal Rights, 1924.Equal Rights, 1937.The NWP’s international focus.
The NWP also stressed the importance of creating international ties among women and raising the status of women everywhere. The party formed an international organization and worked for gender equality in the League of Nations and later, the United Nations. The 1937 issue shown here, for example, included news and reports on women from Ireland, the Philippines, Mexico, and in the legal codes of Hinduism and Vedicism, in addition to the United States.
The NWP gained some political traction for the ERA in the immediate postwar period, bringing the amendment to a vote in the Senate in 1946. Ultimately, however, the party was unable to secure the measure’s passage. In a notable political success, the NWP helped ensure that the wording of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin) included women in its purview. The NWP operated as a political action committee until 1997.
“Equal Rights Amendment Reaches Vote In Senate, July 19, 1946,” Equal Rights, 1946.
Always a small vanguard of feminist women, the NWP’s forceful tactics and focus on women’s equality in the United States and around the world made it one of the most important political and social organizations of the twentieth century.
This collection holds a variety of printed formats: flyers, pamphlets, brochures, programs, a publicity photograph, and a long, although incomplete, run of the NWP’s magazine, Equal Rights—from 1924 to 1951. While the magazine is partially available online (see the Hathi Trust catalog record), access to physical copies in RBSC enhances researchers’ experience of these records.
Friday, March 28 at 5:00pm | Faith in Action: Solidarity with Regional Migrant Farmworkers — view the RBSC Spotlight Exhibit, “Building a Campus Boycott to Support Midwestern Farmworkers,” and join a robust conversation afterward with curator Dr. Emiliano Aguilar (Assistant Professor in the Department of History). After viewing the exhibit, visitors will gather in room 125 for refreshments and discussion.
The Spring 2025 Exhibition — Tragedies of War: Images of World War II in Print Visual Culture — will open shortly and runs through the end of July 2025. Based predominantly on recently acquired Rare Books and Special Collections European holdings, the exhibition commemorates the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) and will explore a diverse assortment of themes including Fascist Racial Ideology, the Holocaust, Children in War, Resistance, Liberation, and Memories of War.
Curated by Natasha Lyandres (Curator, Rare Books & Special Collections), Jean McManus (Catholic Studies Librarian, University Archives) and Julia Schneider (German Language and Literature and Italian Studies Librarian, Hesburgh Libraries).
The current spotlight exhibit is Building a Campus Boycott to Support Midwestern Farmworkers (January–April 2025). In 1980, the University of Notre Dame became the first major university to boycott Campbell Soup products in support of Midwestern farmworkers represented by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (Toledo, OH). In a few short months, a small and dedicated cohort of students tapped into a growing movement and convinced the campus to act in solidarity.
Curated by Emiliano Aguilar (Assistant Professor of History, University of Notre Dame, and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Latino Studies).
Special Collections is open regular hours during Notre Dame’s Spring Break (March 10-14).
