Adorning Academic Buildings with Catholic Devotional Art

Thomas and Betsy Farr donated 53 Currier & Ives lithographs of religious saints from their collection to the University’s College of Arts and Sciences. Thomas Farr, president emeritus for the Religious Freedom Institute and Betsy Farr, an artist and art collector, have granddaughters who attend the University. The beautiful collection of lithographs was installed in 2025 in a Caldwell Hall conference room that hosts dissertation defenses.

Developed in 1796, lithography dominated printmaking in the mid-1800s and made religious art available to the general public. The lithographs donated by the Farrs are part of a tradition that helped globalize Catholic art and bring devotional imagery into homes.

“The dissemination of these affordable images supplied the still slow-crawl of a literate public with an opportunity to engage with and experience their religiosity outside of church alone,” wrote Alexis Howlett, special collections technician for Catholic University’s Special Collections, in a blog post on the importance of the lithographs. “Now, artwork was available to the lower-class families to adorn their homes with Mary’s Sacred Heart, powerful biblical images, Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and so on.”