Saint Joseph’s University Archives and Special Collections
Actions
Located in the Drexel Library on campus, SJU’s Archive houses records and materials of enduring administrative, historical and community value focusing on SJU history and related Catholic and Jesuit history. The Archives are now home to the records for Old Saint Joseph’s Church and include papers, books, objects, photographs, and other materials related to the history of the church, the Jesuits and Catholicism in Philadelphia and neighboring areas, including sacramental records dating back to 1758. SJU began as Saint Joseph’s College and was founded by Rev. Felix Joseph Barbelin, S.J., a French Jesuit, who built the present OSJ Church in 1839 and founded Saint Joseph’s College in 1851.
