administrative history

Boston College opened on September 5, 1864, in a building on Harrison Avenue in Boston's South End without a dedicated library. The earliest additions to the collection were donated, and the library's founding patron predated the institution itself. Joseph Coolidge Shaw, SJ, a Boston-born Harvard graduate who converted to Catholicism during his European studies and subsequently entered the Society of Jesus, spent the years 1841 to 1843 traveling through Munich, Heidelberg, Berlin, Vienna, Frankfurt, and Paris, acquiring books throughout. Shaw collected primarily theological works, purchasing recently published volumes rather than antiquarian items, and carefully recording each acquisition. Of the approximately 1,700 volumes he assembled, around 350 eventually came to Boston College following his death in 1851.

Additional early donors substantially enriched the collection. Colonel Daniel S. Lamson of Weston, Massachusetts, donated more than a third of his personal library to the College and in 1865 transferred to the Trustees a proprietor's share of the Boston Athenaeum. In 1875, the Reverend Stanislas Buteux bequeathed his collection of five thousand volumes to Boston College. Further donations followed, including the library of the Manasses P. Dougherty and, in 1882, the books of Robert Morris, Esq.

Until 1876, the library occupied restricted quarters in a small connecting building at the Harrison Avenue campus. When Robert Fulton, SJ enlarged that section, provision was made for adequate housing of the collections then on hand. Nicholas Russo, SJ, who acted as librarian in the years following, and Francis Barnum, SJ subsequently worked to organize and develop the library.

Four parcels of land were acquired in Chestnut Hill in 1907, and ground was broken on June 19, 1909, for the construction of Gasson Hall. A library was established within Gasson Hall following the College's relocation to Chestnut Hill. Construction of a dedicated library building began in September 1924, following a book drive led by librarian William M. Stinson, SJ in anticipation of the new facility. The building was completed in 1928 and dedicated as Bapst Library, named in honor of John Bapst, SJ, the College's first president. Rare books and special collections were housed within Bapst from its opening, growing over subsequent decades into significant holdings in Irish studies, British Catholic authors, Jesuitana, and related areas. Terence L. Connolly, SJ, who served as Director of Libraries until 1959, played a central role in developing these collections, most notably the Francis Thompson Collection. By the early 1980s, as planning for a new central library progressed, the special collections had been relocated to temporary quarters in More Hall. Brendan Connolly, SJ, the first American Jesuit to earn a doctorate in library science, succeeded Connolly as Director of Libraries in 1959 and served until his death in April 1974. Connolly was a forceful advocate for a new library building, and his tenure saw substantial growth in the University's collections. Thomas F. O'Connell, a 1950 alumnus with prior experience at Harvard's Widener and Lamont libraries and as director of libraries at York University in Toronto, was appointed University Librarian in 1975. In a decade of service, O'Connell oversaw the planning and construction of the Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Library.

By the 1970s, the library collections had substantially outgrown the available space. Bapst Library had been designed for an undergraduate student body of approximately one thousand students, and even with satellite libraries in the professional schools, facilities across the institution were inadequate. Groundbreaking for the O'Neill Library took place on October 18, 1981. The O'Neill Library was dedicated on October 14, 1984, at a cost of $28 million, and consolidated the holdings of the Bapst, Management, Science, and Nursing libraries. Today, the O'Neill Library serves as the flagship library of the University.

Following the opening of O'Neill Library, the Bapst building underwent extensive interior renovation. Bapst Library was rededicated and the John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections was dedicated on April 22, 1986. Burns Library, named in memory of the Honorable John J. Burns of the Class of 1921, brought the University's rare books, special collections, and University Archives together in a single, purpose-built facility. Today, under the direction of the University Librarian, the Boston College Libraries comprise eight distinct units: the O'Neill Library, Bapst Library, Burns Library, Educational Resource Center, Law Library, Social Work Library, and the Theology and Ministry Library.

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