Catholic Digest Records
Scope and Contents
The collection includes correspondence and subject files relating to the braille and foreign editions of the Catholic Digest, legal and financial information, issues from the Shrines of the World series, as well as oral history interviews with many of the early employees of the magazine.
Dates
- created: 1940-2000
Creator
- Catholic digest (Saint Paul, Minn.) (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on the use of the collection for research purposes.
Conditions Governing Use
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property and libel laws as they apply.
Biographical or Historical Information
The Catholic Digest was first published in November 1936. The magazine was the brainchild of Fr. Louis Gales, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. His goal was to produce a mass-market magazine featuring selections condensed and reprinted from the “world’s leading Catholic magazines” for the general public.
Gales enlisted the assistance of Fr. Paul Bussard as editor and Fr. Edward Jennings as business manager for the fledgling magazine. Under the guidance of these men, the Catholic Digest had modest early success. A Braille version of the magazine was published beginning in the early 1940’s and several foreign editions were founded after WWII.
On May 21, 1964, the Board of Trustees of the College of St. Thomas accepted transfer of ownership of the Catholic Digest from Fr. Gales and Fr. Bussard. The publication operated out of offices on the University of St. Thomas campus until the Catholic Digest was sold in 2001 to Bayard Press.
Extent
27.57 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
English
Method of Acquisition
The records were transferred from the Catholic Digest to the University Archives in several acessions from 1982 - 2002.
Processing Information
The collection was processed in March 2000 with additions to the collection added in July 2001 and September 2005.
Subject
- Catholic Church -- Periodicals (Organization)
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- eng
Repository Details
Part of the University of St. Thomas Archives & Manuscript Collections Repository
Department of Special Collections, LL09 O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library
University of St. Thomas
St. Paul MN 55105-1096 US
651-962-5467
uarchives@stthomas.edu