Special Collections and Rare Books  

Each year the Special Collections creates a variety of displays to highlight the many materials in the collection.  Periodically, we also create a short publication to accompany the display.  These publications, called Topics, are generally a more in-depth discussion of the materials that were used in the display.

The Special Collections of the Loras College Library are housed in Room 302 of the Academic Resource Center. The room is generally open each Tuesday during the academic year. 

The purpose of Special Collections at Loras is to protect and preserve printed and manuscript books, and other manuscript materials of importance that would be difficult or impossible to replace.

While these items are placed under restricted access, they are, nevertheless, intended for use by students and faculty who are encouraged to draw on them for their studies and research projects.

There are over 7,500 items in the collection. Collections of note include:

• 20 manuscript books dating back to the 12th century
  
• 65 incunabula (books printed in the 15th century
  
• The Horace Howard Furness Collection of the Latin poet Horace
  
• The John Caldwell-Irving Windt Collection of Checker Books
  
• The Torch Press Imprints collection
  
• A collection of Bibles in some 225 languages of the world
  
• A collection of the Limited Editions Club books (nearing completion)
  
• The Rev. Karl G. Schroeder T. S. Eliot collection
  
• The Rev. J. K. Downing Collection of Encyclopedias
  
• The Dubuque Authors Collection