The Rare Book Room at Saint Mary's College houses a robust collection of more than 4200 items that includes three medieval codices, ten manuscript fragments, thirty-nine pre-1600 documents, eleven incunabula, numerous art house publications, and first editions. With the exception of one purchase in the first half of the twentieth century, this collection was acquired through decades of alumnae and benefactor gifts and donations from Sisters of the Holy Cross and Saint Mary's College faculty and staff. It thus provides serves as a witness to the interests of the Saint Mary's College community and those who have been affiliated with it over the past one hundred and fifty years.

Not all items housed in the Rare Book Room are discoverable in the online catalogue. Nearly 400 items await cataloguing and/or incorporation into standard finding aids, most notably due to recent gifts. As a result, every visit to the Rare Book Room bears with it the potential for discovery, since each item bears its own unique histories of authorship, printing, and ownership. During the spring of 2024, a group of fourteen students explored the stacks and emerged with items that evince Saint Mary's College's deep history of intellectual inquiry and devotion to the pursuit of educational excellence and truth -- and that they perceived as speaking to modern audiences regarding issues (be they pedagogical, ecological, geographic, or linguistic) that continue to resonate in our present moment.