VINCENTIAN TREASURES WOULD BE A MAJOR DRAW

Southeast Missouri State University has big plans for its visual and performing arts school at the former St. Vincent's Seminary, and a museum is among them. A rare-book collection housed in the library at St. Mary's of the Barrens in Perryville would be a magnificent addition to the university museum.

Southeast has asked the Congregation of the Mission, or Vincentians, to donate the books and other historic items that include paperweights and art pieces for display in the museum on what will become known as the River Campus overlooking the Mississippi River.

Some of the books in the collection are priceless. Among them are 150 Bibles, including a first-edition King James Bible and part of a 15th century Gutenberg Bible. The collection also has manuscripts dating back to the 12th century and hundreds of first-edition books that include works by Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman and John Greenleaf Whittier.

Southeast also has asked that the Vincentians allow the university to lease the library that houses the books for university classes in Perryville. Southeast and Mineral Area College currently offer classes in a former grade school at Sereno about five miles from Perryville. The university says the library-classroom building, which was built in 1954 and is in excellent condition, would serve it well in its efforts to establish a campus in Perryville adjacent to Interstate 55.

Officials of the Congregation of the Mission plan to meet next month to consider Southeast's requests. They expect to give an answer by the end of next month, and the university's Board of Regents could act on the matter the following month.

St. Vincent's Seminary previously was owned by the Congregation of the Mission, the same organization that owns St. Mary's of the Barrens. The Vincentians' St. Mary's of the Barrens also was a former Catholic seminary that dates to 1818. It is used a retirement community for priests, and a part of the seminary farm is being sold. The Vincentians have not announced any plans for the library or museum but have said they do not intend to sell them.

It would be a nice gesture by the Vincentians to donate the book collection to the university for display at the River Campus. The university envisions tourists to the city visiting the new campus and particularly the museum, and the books would be an attraction, as they are now at the Vincentians' Perryville library.

Both former seminaries and the unique book collection at Perryville are historically significant to the history of Southeast Missouri. Regardless of whether the Vincentians turn the books over to the university or keep them at Perryville, it would be a travesty were they ever to be sent out of the area.