Download or read book Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 28 (Classic Reprint) written by American Catholic Historic Philadelphia and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-20 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 28 We are forced to see again and again valuable historical material pass forever beyond our grasp because we are too poor to purchase it. Though our library numbers about ten thousand volumes, yet many books which we should possess are not on our shelves because of our poverty. This is especially the case with rare Americana. We are, to quote but one instance, sadly lacking in literature relating to the first of American Catholics, Christopher Columbus, our Columbian collection being outnumbered forty-four to thirty-two by the Philadelphia Free Library. The library of a Catholic Historical Society should be an adequate work-shop for the delver into the history of the Church in America. He should come to our library with assurance of finding there the books which he needs. Not only is our collection of printed books too limited, but the American Catholic Historical Society is not the archive which it should be where the unpublished and, so to speak, raw materials of history are stored. For example, here should be found, at least in manuscript, a detailed history, written by a local investigator, of every parish, every Catholic educational and charitable institution, every Catholic activity in the country. Had we the money with which to conduct it, a nation-wide and coordinated investigation would bring all this priceless material to our society. Some years ago we had the good fortune to be able to pay an archivist at the Vatican to reproduce all documents to be found at that central archive which related to the Church in America. It is surprising how many until then unknown documents were thus brought to light. It is often astonishing how much unpublished and original information remains to be unearthed even on subjects supposed to have been exhaustively investigated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.