Calumet College of St. Joseph grew from humble origins. In 1951, Saint Joseph's College of
Renssselaer, Indiana opened an extension in Lake County, Indiana known as the Calumet Center,
conducting most of its courses in borrowed classrooms provided by Bishop Noll Institute in
Hammond and St. John the Baptist Church in Whiting. In 1960, the Board of Control authorized the
expansion of this two-year extension into a full four-year college. The College became the first
institution in the Calumet region to offer a baccalaureate degree. In the summer of 1971, the
college was renamed Saint Joseph's Calumet College. It was officially separated from Saint
Joseph's College in 1973, and moved into its present facilities in 1976. The institution was known
as Calumet College from 1973 through 1986. Then, in 1987, it was renamed Calumet College of
Saint Joseph to re-identitfy its Catholic and academic heritage. Throughout all its changes,
Calumet College of Saint Joseph has been sponsored by the Missionaries of the Precious
Blood (C.PP.S.).

Located in the Special-Reserve Collection of the Specker Memorial Library, the Missionaries of the
Precious Blood Collection contains books and periodicals related to the Order. The collection also
contains several editions of the letters, as well as biographies of Saint Gaspar Del Bufalo, the
founder of the Society of the Precious Blood.