Rare treasures on display at GU’s Foley Center Library

A perfume bottle from the first century of the Christian Era found at Pompeii.

A baseball signed by Babe Ruth and teammates in 1921.

A Bing Crosby golf tournament decanter that still holds its original Jim Beam whiskey.

All are items that have found their way over the years to the vault of Gonzaga University’s Foley Center Library.

Now they’re part of an exhibit from the school’s University Archives and Special Collections called “UASC’s Believe It or Not: Oddities, Rarities & Treasures from the Foley Vault.”

Items donated to or acquired by the library have been documented when possible. Other items have no accurate provenance of their history or how they were received.

The archives and special collections branch of the library is the repository for the history of the university as well as rare books, photographs, manuscripts and other historical materials.

The collection includes a straw hat worn by Bing Crosby in the 1962 movie “Road to Hong Kong.”

“You don’t see that every day,” said Stephanie Plowman, special collections librarian, who organized the exhibit.

There’s a 1945 light-blue “practice” bomb, given to Larry Crosby, the brother of Bing Crosby, by Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The oldest book in Gonzaga’s collection is there, a 1475 Latin-language psalter, which is a book of psalms containing commentary under a wooden cover. It was printed on one of the first presses to use movable type and was commissioned and used by St. Bruno, bishop of Wurzburg, Germany.

There is another Latin book from 1697 giving advice on exorcism. The exorcist was to be read loudly and firmly: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the crucified, depart from this creature of our God, healing him, never to return again.”

One of the greatest numismatic achievements of all time can be seen in the Franklin Mint’s re-creation of 60 medals showing select Bible scenes with biblical quotations on the reverse sides, according to exhibit notes.

There is also a 1582 to 1610 English translation of St. Jerome’s Latin Bible known as the Douai-Rheims Bible, which was prepared by English Catholic priests in exile, according to exhibit notes.

Closer to modern times, there’s a knife and leather scabbard that belonged to Robert Monaghan, originally from Chewelah, Washington, who died in the 1899 Battle of Samoa and is memorialized in a statue at Riverside Avenue and Monroe Street. He enrolled at Gonzaga in 1887 and graduated in 1891. In 1895, he was the first Washington resident to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.

Also on display is a deflated football commemorating a 1939 game in which Gonzaga defeated Texas Tech 6 to 0.

A pair of lace-up boxing shoes from GU boxing champion Carl Maxey is on display. The civil rights attorney and activist died in 1997.

The music and literary arts are represented as well with a volume of the original installments of Charles Dickens’ novel “Nicholas Nickleby” from 1838 to 1839, and a banjolele that belonged to longtime GU music teacher Lyle W. Moore.

“It is neither a banjo nor a ukulele,” according to the exhibit notes. “These banjoleles were made in the 1920s when ukuleles were popular.”