John Carroll (1735-1815): Founder of Georgetown College

The following resources provide information about the life and career of Archbishop John Carroll. Most of the items listed are available for use in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections. Special Collections items do not circulate; request them for use in the Booth Family Center via the Aeon request system. Some of the items are available in Lauinger Library’s general collection and the call numbers for these are included.

University Archives staff maintain reference files on a variety of subjects related to Georgetown University history, including on Archbishop Carroll. These files contain photocopies of newspaper and magazine articles, brochures, and other documents found in the University Archives collection. They are intended to provide a starting point for research rather than to offer exhaustive coverage of any subject but they can often provide the answers to basic informational questions. 

Available for use in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections; request via the Aeon request system.

References to Archbishop Carroll in the books listed below focus on his efforts to found Georgetown College and on his guidance of the school during its early years.

• Curran, Robert Emmett. A history of Georgetown University.  Washington, D.C. : Georgetown University Press, 2010 

  A three volume set, this is the most comprehensive University history. Volume 1 covers 1789-1889, volume 2 covers 1889-1964, and volume 3 covers 1964-1989. Archbishop Carroll is referenced throughout in volume 1 - use the index to find the references.

  Also available for use in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections; request it via the Aeon request system.

• Shea, John Gilmary. Memorial of the first centenary of Georgetown College, D.C., comprising a history of Georgetown University.  Washington, D.C., New York, Pub. for the College by P.F. Collier, 1891

  This book was published to celebrate Georgetown’s 100th anniversary. It lacks a back-of-the-book index or footnotes. Its contents are arranged chronologically, with each of its chapters covering the term of one Georgetown president. The introduction, pages 1-14, cover Archbishop Carroll’s work to found Georgetown College.  A line drawing of him is included. 

  Also available for use in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections; request it via the Aeon request system.

• Daley, John M. Georgetown University : origin and early years.  Washington, D.C. : Georgetown University Press, 1957

  This book covers the period from Georgetown’s founding in the 1780s through 1833. The work is excellently footnoted and researchers can easily see what materials to request for additional information on a mentioned event, person, building or subject. Use the index to navigate to references to Archbishop Carroll - look under his name and also under the Georgetown College heading.

  Also available for use in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections; request it via the Aeon request system.

A search of the Georgetown University Library catalog for books on the subject of Carroll, John, 1735-1815 brings back these results - note that many of these are older publications and that some of these titles are held by WRLC consortium libraries, not by Georgetown. These can be requested via consortial loan.

Woodstock College, a Jesuit Seminary in Maryland, and the Maryland Province of the Society circulated Woodstock Letters among Jesuits and their institutions between 1872 and 1969. The publication includes articles on events, institutions and people, as well as historical pieces. There is an index and this includes multiple references to Archbishop Carroll. See pages 41 and 42 of the  index to find these references.

Woodstock Letters has been made available online by the Jesuit Archives & Research Center. To access the index online, click on the Index document in the center of the screen - this is the first document shown under the introductory text on the landing page. By clicking on the Index document, you will be able to access the entire index volume. Scroll through the pages or perform a control f search (hold down the control and f keys on your keyboard at the same time and enter a search term in the search box which appears to the top left of your screen) to navigate to relevant references. You can also navigate to specific pages using the page count box at the top left - note that the page numbers given in that box are for the PDF document, include the cover page, and therefore do not exactly sync with the page numbers of the physical volume. You can see the physical page numbers at the top left of each page.

To move from the index to the articles being indexed, take note of the two numbers which appear after each topic in the index. The first number given is the volume number, the second is the page number within that volume. Navigate to a needed volume by selecting it from the list of volumes in blue on the left side of the landing page. You will automatically be taken to the cover page of that volume in the center of the screen - note that it will not necessarily be the top volume on the page but the one you are taken to. Click on the cover page to access the contents. You can use the control f search to navigate within the volume or use the page count box at the top left.

Physical volumes of the Woodstock Letters are available for use in the University Archives; request them via the Aeon request system - start with the index.

References to Archbishop Carroll can be found in the Report of The Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation to the President of Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., summer 2016, see Appendix G.

For further research, relevant documents can be accessed via the Georgetown Slavery Archive. To find them, enter the name Carroll in the search box at the top right. Then click into the results one at a time and do a control f search on the name Carroll (hold down the control and f keys at the same time and use the search box which appears in the top right corner). Note that not all of the results are going to be relevant.