Library exhibit a tribute to Archdiocese of Boston

The bust of Archbishop John Joseph Williams is part of the library exhibit. (Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

Shortly after Protestant rioters torched the Ursuline convent in Charlestown in 1834, the Roman Catholic bishop of Boston, Benedict J. Fenwick, took out his pen and his journal and began to write.

Fenwick's contemporaneous reflections on that most famous incident of anti-Catholicism in Boston's history are among the highlights of a small exhibit now on display at the Boston Public Library, featuring a variety of rarely seen artifacts from the archives of the Archdiocese of Boston, several private collections, and the stacks of the library itself.

Among the most striking objects is a small crucifix that Boston's first bishop, Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus, reportedly gave to a local girl; a black box filled with vials that were used when visiting the sick and dying by a priest in the 19th century; and a collection of dolls showing the habits of nuns at various stages of their profession. There is also the signature of John Hancock, on the wedding certificate for a Spanish diplomat in Boston, and the name of John Adams, then a former president, inscribed at the top of a list of donors for the construction of the Church of the Holy Cross, which became Boston's first cathedral once a Catholic diocese was established here.

"We try not only to educate, but to entertain, so we're always looking for things that will be eye-catchers," said Marta H. Pardee-King, a library staffer who helped curate the exhibit. "Tourists like the dolls and the signature of John Hancock - things they might quickly recognize - while Europeans are looking at church history, and researchers at the original manuscripts and journals. People want to see the wealth of what we have."

The exhibit is more a nostalgic tribute, occasioned by this year's bicentennial of the Archdiocese of Boston, than a critical historical review - there is minimal acknowledgment of the last several decades, including the visit of Pope John Paul II, the tenure of Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the clergy sexual abuse scandal, and the arrival of the current archbishop, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley. The explanatory material is also likely to leave some viewers hungering for more - Fenwick's journal entry, for instance, is difficult to read, and some objects lack dates or detailed descriptions.

But if the exhibit provides a somewhat random look at Catholicism in Boston, it is nonetheless intriguing, with a potpourri of clerical vestments, busts, and paintings of bishops and other church officials, and architectural remnants of key church buildings. There is a baton from 1894 that belonged to the choirmaster of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Jamaica Plain; a relic said to be of Jesus's grandmother, St. Anne; and a variety of books, photographs, hymnals, architectural drawings, newspaper clippings, and parish memorabilia.

Two display cases in a library hallway feature photographs from the morgue of the Boston Herald Traveler, depicting nuns in habits in a helicopter, playing basketball, sledding, and watching a game at Fenway Park. And the bulk of the exhibit is located in the library's Cheverus Room - named for the bishop - which also happens to be the home of a quirky collection of Joan of Arc memorabilia amassed by Cardinal John J. Wright, a Dorchester native who served as bishop of Worcester and Pittsburgh before moving to Rome and becoming a cardinal as a high-ranking Vatican official in 1969.

The archdiocesan archives has two major audiences - genealogists trying to gather information such as baptismal records for their family trees, and academics interested in the history of Catholicism in Boston.

The library will be hosting lectures next month focusing on both themes, with Thomas H. O'Connor of Boston College speaking about the history of Boston's bishops, and archdiocesan archivist Robert Johnson-Lally on using church records for family history research.

The archives has been closed to the public since last fall, in preparation for a move with the church headquarters from Brighton to Braintree; it is scheduled to reopen in January.

"The exhibit is just to promote awareness of the history of the diocese - that the archdiocese has been around for 200 years, and Catholicism for longer," Johnson-Lally said.

The exhibit is scheduled to remain at the library's central branch, in Copley Square, until Sept. 30.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.