First Vatican Council Photograph Album

An inventory of the First Vatican Council Photograph Album at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives

Mailing Address: The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. 20064

Telephone: 202-319-5065

Email: archives@mail.lib.cua.edu

URL: http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/index.html

Historical Note

The First Vatican Council Photograph Album was most likely created sometime during the council sessions, from 1869-1870.

Vatican Council I, the 20th of the general Councils, the first to be held in St. Peter's Basilica, began on December 8, 1869 and ended on September 1, 1870. Approximately 1,050 religious men were eligible to participate, but only 700 attended the first session on December 8, 1869. The participants were primarily European, though the United States was represented by 48 archbishops and bishops, and one abbot. A total of 800 cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and religious superior generals participated in the sessions over the nine months.

Debates took place concerning bishops, vacant sees, the life and morals of the clergy, and the preparation of a universal primary catechism. The first phase of actual debate began December 28, 1869 and ended January 10, 1870, and concerned an 18-chapter document that "condemned materialist, rationalist, and pantheistic errors and enunciated orthodox doctrine on the subjects of revelation, faith, motives of credibility, interrelation of faith and science, the Trinity, creation, the Incarnation, original justice, original sin, eternal punishment, and grace." The second stage of the debate began January 10, 1870 and ended February 22, 1870. The debate considered schemata on "bishops, vacant sees, clerical life, and the primary catechism."

Though there were numerous discussions and disagreements as to the definition of papal infallibility, and the status of the bishops in relation to the pope, several important milestones were reached by the Council. The Council demolished the remnants of Conciliarism and Gallicanism, which were the most important results in the meetings. The Council also disseminated two doctrinal constitutions: Dei Filius (April 24, 1870), a shortened version of the schema on faith and reason, and Pastor aeternus (July 18, 1870), which replaced the schema on the church, and defined the primacy and infallibility of the pope.

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Scope and Contents

The album is bound in red leather with gold leaf detailing on the front and back covers. The front cover has a coat of arms showing two crossed keys, the papal tiara with cross, with vestments looped around and ending in a pendant of a cross. The coat of arms is not of either Pius IX or the Holy See. The spine reads "Councilii Vaticani" and also has gold leaf detailing.

The photograph album consists of 30 pages of cartes de visite albumen prints-730 prints of Vatican Council I participants, and one cabinet card of Pope Pius IX, totaling 731 prints. These prints are identified in English, and are in fair to good condition, with a few very faded prints. Most of the carte de visite prints are live portraits, though some are based on oil or charcoal prints.

The names for the attendees have been deciphered from the hand-written captions below the prints, and compared with a register from the First Vatican Council Meetings. Neither resource has a comprehensive list of names, and the spellings vary somewhat. The spellings used to describe the prints stray from the album where illegible, or known to be misspelled.

The second box in the collection holds the cover for the photograph album, which is housed separately due to preservation concerns.

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Arrangement

The First Vatican Council Photograph Album consists of one series:

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

There are no access restrictions.

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Administrative Information

Alternative Form Available

The First Vatican Council Photograph Album is available as a digital collection via WRLC: http://www.aladin.wrlc.org/dl/collection/hdr?vatican.

Acquisition Information

The First Vatican Council Photograph Album was donated by St. Paul's College to The Catholic University of America in January 2005. At this time, the photograph album was transferred to the Archives.

Processing Information

Processing was started in 2005 by Patrick Cullom and was completed in April 2009 by Robin C. Pike and Rona Razon. The EAD markup was completed in May 2009 by Robin C. Pike, and updated in November 2009.

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Related Material

The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives also holds the register of the First Vatican Council, which contains a list of all of the participants in the First Vatican Council.

First Vatican Council Photograph Album Digital Collection

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Index Terms

This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Organizations:

Places:

Subjects:

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Bibliography

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Detailed Description of the Collection