The Thomas and Marcia Blum Family Library Collection for the Study of Christianity: From Rome to Byzantium was established and principally funded in 2012 by the Blum Family. Since its establishment, many friends of the Blum Family have also provided additional funding for the collection. Tom (’68) retired in 2012 after serving Notre Dame’s Department of Development for more than 30 years. He and his wife Marcia (SMC ’70) shared their passion for the Hesburgh Libraries with many benefactors and friends who also support library collections and services. Tom and Marcia are the proud parents of: Andrew (’95, ’98 JD) and his wife, Christine (’98 J.D.), as well as James (’01) and his wife, Joanie (’92). Their older son, Andrew, currently serves on the Hesburgh Libraries Advisory Council.

The Blum Family Collection for the Study of Christianity supports learning, teaching, and research with regard to the Papacy, Roman Catholicism, and Christianity by providing library resources, programs, and services that cover the period from 300 AD to 1453 AD. On a greater scale, the collection serves to advance the study of the humanities, a group of disciplines essential to the liberal arts education cherished and championed by the University of Notre Dame. An education of the human condition is critical in understanding where we have been, who we are now, and what is in store for our future.

The Blum Family has a second library endowment, the Thomas and Marcia Blum Family Library Collection for American Catholic Intellectual Thought, Established by Anne and John ’48 Hoeck.