Holy Cross Libraries

On this day in …

On June 21, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt attended the College of the Holy Cross Commencement Ceremony. An invitation was extended to him after Father Hanselman, S.J., then College president, discovered that President Roosevelt would be traveling through Worcester. Commencement exercises were held on Fitton Field for the first time, in order to accommodate the great number of visitors expected to be on campus.

The College of the Holy Cross campus has been recognized over the years for its beauty and has earned numerous awards for its landscaping. Paul Rogers, a noted local horticulturalist, served as Superintendent of Grounds from 1958-1974. His successor, Jim Long, held several positions during his 53-year tenure at the College before retiring as Superintendent of Grounds in 2010. In 1977, then College president Rev. John E. Brooks, S.J. presented members of the Grounds crew with a special brass buckle to commemorate Holy Cross being named the best maintained campus of any educational institution in the U.S. by the Professional Grounds Management Society.

Construction on the Dinand Library front stairs will start on Monday, June 15th and end on Sunday, August 15th. The front entrance will be blocked off during this time. Please use the Hogan side entrance. See second image for a map of the closed off areas, and alternate routes to the side entrance. Thank you for your patience and cooperation!

When Christine Sun Kim joined the 2025-26 Prior Presents Visiting Artist Series for a February 19 co-presentation with the Holy Cross Department of Visual Arts, she made a special trip to Archives and Distinctive Collections to view the Deaf Catholic Archives collection. Christine is a Berlin-based artist who works with sound, language, and the complexities of communication. She uses musical notation, infographics and language, both in her native American Sign Language (ASL) and written English, to create drawings, site-specific murals, paintings, video installations, and sculptures. Christine enjoyed her visit and provided this quote about her experience, "I worked as an archivist at a publishing company for years, so you can imagine my excitement when Holy Cross told me about their Deaf Catholic Archives. There are not many well-documented, thoroughly researched, and fully digitized deaf archives in the world, so coming across a deaf archive with such a specific context is like discovering a new path on a well known trail."

📸 Marta Beyer