Notes and Comments

Research Tools and Archives

The cultural association Reti Medievali, an online initiative for medieval studies begun in 1998 and composed of scholars from various universities and institutes of learning from within and outside of Italy, makes available reliable scholarly information free of charge. Among its offerings are 1,500 texts by more than 800 authors, teaching materials, and a schedule of conferences on medieval topics from around the world. To maintain this network, the Reti seeks financial contributions. For more information, visit its Web site, http://www.retimedievali.it , or emailredazione@retimedievali.it.

The Press and Information Office of the Society of Jesus in Rome has announced that incorrect information has been disseminated regarding the papers (more than 25,000 documents related to Pope Pius XII and World War II) in the archive of Father Robert Graham, S.J. While Graham’s papers are being catalogued, they will not be published until the archives of Pius XII are opened in the Secret Vatican Archives.

The American Catholic History Research Center and the University Archives of The Catholic University of America (CUA) has announced the creation of a finding aid, using Encoded Archival Description (EAD), for the papers of the “labor priest” Monsignor George Gilmary Higgins. Born in 1916 in Chicago, Higgins earned a Master’s degree in Economics in 1942 and a PhD in 1944 from CUA. He served the American bishops’ conference from 1944 to 2001 in various capacities relating to Catholic social thought, labor relations, and ecumenical affairs. He attended the Second Vatican Council and was a moving force in the Church’s support for César Chávez and the farm workers’ union movement. He also served as chairman of the Public Review Board of the United Auto Workers of America (AFL-CIO) and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Higgins wrote numerous book reviews for Commonweal and America, penned the syndicated column “The Yardstick” (1945–2001), and, in his later years, returned to CUA as a lecturer. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton in 2000 and died on May Day, 2002. He was widely mourned as a tireless champion of the labor movement and a progressive voice in the Roman Catholic Church. The bulk of the collection consists of paper records including correspondence, subject files, and publications.

To use the finding aid, visit http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/higginsfa.html . For further information, contact University Archives, The Catholic University of America, 101 Aquinas Hall, 620 Michigan Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20064, tel: (202) 319-5065, email:archives@mail.lib.cua.edu, WWW: http://libraries.cua.edu/archives.html .

The Huntington Library of San Marino, California, reports that its California Microfilm Project that will bring together microfilm or digital copies of the surviving documentation for the Alta California up to c. 1850 has acquired microfilm from the Archivio General de Indias in Seville, Spain, of sixteen complete and fifty-three selections from legajos, comprising 3,300 items that can be searched by author, addressee, and date. From the Archivio General de la Nación in Mexico City it has received the first installment of microfilms related to California and Marina. This will be enriched by further materials from the Museo Naval in Madrid of ship logs and other maritime materials related to Spanish explorations of the west coast of North America during the eighteenth century.

EBSCO Publishing, which offers a number of databases in religious history, has announced that three new historical digital archive collections will be available soon: (1) American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals, which covers more than 6,500 periodicals published during the period 1693–1877;(2) American Theological Library Association (ATLA) Historical Collection, which features, in a monograph series, more than 29,000 titles focused on religious thought and practice from the thirteenth to early-twentieth centuries and, in a serials collection, 5.4 million pages from more than 1,200 serials from the early-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries; and (3) Arte Público Press Digital Collection—Recovering U.S. Hispanic Literature and Culture, which contains scholarly books, historical newspapers and photographs, and letters...