The Woodstock Theological Library is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the founding of Woodstock College, the first Jesuit seminary in the United States, with an exhibit showcasing various artifacts of the college’s history and legacy. 

The exhibit will be housed in the Woodstock Theological Library, located in the lower level of Lauinger Library, until December, but there may be some exhibits on display in Wolfington Hall, according to Fr. Leon Hooper, S.J., director of the Woodstock Library. The exhibit will include historical documents, photos and theological publications.

The 150th-anniversary exhibit celebrates the Jesuits educated at Woodstock College, which became an important site for Catholic scholarship, according to Adrian Vaagenes, the Woodstock Theological Library’s archivist and librarian. Woodstock College was located in Woodstock, Md., about an hour north of Washington, D.C. 

The exhibit will celebrate the legacy of Woodstock College by displaying selected items from its rare book collection and the Woodstock archives related to the college’s history, according to Vaagenes.

“The aim is to honor the lives of those who called Woodstock College home, and to educate students on the history and influence of the college, an impact which continues to be felt today through the library and the scholarship it fosters,” Vaagenes wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Woodstock College, established in 1869, faced financial trouble and ceased operations in 1974. Its collections, because of their historical and cultural value, were transferred to the lower level of Lau and formed the foundation for the Woodstock Theological Library. Many of the collections were used and expanded by fellows of the Woodstock Theological Center.

The Woodstock Theological Center was a Jesuit-run research institution housed on Georgetown’s campus from 1975 to 2013. Over the several decades it was housed on campus, three priests credibly accused of sexual misconduct worked at Woodstock Theological Center and all three lived in the Woodstock Theological Residence, two blocks away from the university’s front gates.

Woodstock Theological Library, used by both Georgetown students and the Washington Theological Consortium, an organization of regional universities and interfaith institutions, is a valuable resource with a rich history, according to Vaagenes.

“Much of the collection was left intact, though its purposes and collections expanded, as a resource for Georgetown students and faculty, for other theological programs in the Central Atlantic region, and the fellows of the Woodstock Theological Center,” Vaagenes wrote.

Before Woodstock College’s formal closure, the school was the oldest Jesuit seminary in the United States, and its collections were considered invaluable, according to Vaagenes.

“The Library also became a repository for the many rare books and manuscripts that had been scattered throughout the Maryland and New York Provinces since the 17th century,” Vaaganes wrote. 

Jesuit leaders believed Georgetown’s location in D.C. and its relationship with neighboring institutions would allow the library to engage with public policy and religion and serve as a resource for theological scholarship. Today, Woodstock Theological Library maintains a strong relationship with the Washington Theological Consortium. 

“One of the major reasons to bring the collections down here [to D.C.], is to have a workable research collection belonging to the consortium,” Hooper said in an interview with The Hoya. 

The center developed in the lower level of Lau, adopting the name Woodstock Theological Library. The library is owned by the Maryland and New York provinces of the Jesuits and is a resource containing 190,000 circulating volumes, 700 periodicals and a reference collection, according to the library’s website. 

The legacy of the college continues through the resources offered at the current library, according to Vaagenes.

“When the college closed, a number of institutions (Yale, Fordham, and NY Stony Brook) vied for the collection due to its rare and research holdings, with Georgetown finally selected as the new location,” Vaagenes wrote. 

Woodstock College educated many notable theologians, such as John Courtney Murray and Gustave Weigel, and left a lasting legacy in the form of Woodstock Theological Library, according to Vaagenes.

“The library is honoring the 150th anniversary of Woodstock’s educating young Jesuits, and more generally, honoring Jesuit scholarship in America,” Vaagenes wrote. “The influence of Woodstock College continues to be felt today in the lives of its former students and in the scholarship it fostered.”