John J. Keane served as the first Rector of the Catholic University of America from 1887 to 1896. Keane was born September 12, 1839 in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland. After emigrating to the United States as a child with his family, he spent his early life in Baltimore, Maryland. He was educated at the Christian Brothers of Calvert Hall. By 1860, Keane had decided to enter the priesthood and began his studies at St. Charles College in Ellicott City. After completing studies at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, he was ordained in 1866. He moved to DC and spent the next twelve years at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Washington, DC.

In 1878, he was named Bishop of Richmond, Virginia. In 1885, he was asked to join a committee charged with examining the feasibility of creating "A Catholic University for America." He eventually was chosen to be the University's first Rector (President) in 1887, at which point he resigned from his ecclesiastical office in Richmond, and remained at the helm of the University until 1896. He served the University during what was to be a rough and crucial first decade of establishment and growth. As rector of the university, Keane successfully faced the challenge of getting the university up and running, which required obtaining a core of reputable European and American professors for the faculty of the young university and adequately enrolling a sufficient student body. He used his skills in public speaking to promote the university on a national level. He also, however, used his position to support the Americanist faction of the Catholic hierarchy. His outspoken personality and defense of university faculty members, who wrote on sensitive topics, pushed him into conflict with some of the more conservative members of the hierarchy, particularly over the educational debate. This became a significant influencing factor in his unexpected dismissal from the rectorship in 1896 by Pope Leo XIII.

After his years of service to the University, Bishop Keane was invited to Rome, where he was appointed Archbishop of Damascus and served as a consultant to the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. In 1899 he returned to the United States where he served as Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa from 1900 - 1911, when poor health forced him to resign. Remaining in Dubuque during the last seven years of his life, Archbishop John J. Keane died on June 22, 1918.

The album in the collection was given to Keane by the "Professors of CUA" as a token of their appreciation for all of his work, upon his leaving the University in 1896. The album is still intact and was professionally bound. The album contains property stamps and cataloging materials which were added by the Columbia College (now Loras College) Library in Dubuque, Iowa, which is where the album resided until being donated to CUA in 1996. Bishop Keane probably donated the album to Columbia College during his tenure as Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa, from 1900 to 1911.