That place would be the library's special collections area, which in addition to protecting more than 27,000 rare books, houses a wide array of other items.
The Joyce Sports Research Collection includes some 18,000 game programs. The 452 bowl games programs are from big bowls like the Orange and Rose but also from some early, lesser known games like the Yam Bowl (Dallas, Texas), the Refrigerator Bowl (Evansville, Illinois), and the Salad Bowl (Phoenix, Arizona). There are autographed baseballs from such greats as Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris, Pete Rose and Cy Young.
The Arnold C. Hackenbruch Newspaper Collection features 2,247 issues dating as far back as 17th-century London, but most are U.S. city papers from between the 18th and mid-20th centuries. The newspapers carry the earliest printed reports about such significant events as the Battle of Lexington, President Lincoln's assassination, and the great Chicago fire. The lead story in the April 16, 1912, New York Tribune appears beneath the headline "1,340 perish as Titanic sinks; Only 886, mostly women and children, rescued."
The Colonial Document Collection includes nearly 100 deeds, treasurer's notes, and other colonial and state documents from 1726 to 1846. Two warrants from March 1770, for example, call for the whipping of one James McCarty Livingston of Norwich, Connecticut, for stealing a horse saddle and bridle, a pair of saddle bags, an ax, and other goods. A receipt from 1828 in Old Bridge, New Jersey, marks $1.50 paid for whiskey and horse shoes — both, according to the receipt, for the horse.
The 564 items in the Harley L. McDevitt Collection on the Spanish Inquisition, one of the newest of the special collections, include actual manuals used by the inquisitors.
Many of the collections of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections can be viewed online at http://www.nd.edu/~rarebook/.