Provincial Archives
High-density shelving houses the archival collections from former Daughter of Charity provinces in Emmitsburg, St. Louis, Albany and Evansville (IN)
Mid-Atlantic Archivist Newsletter
Spring 2013
Emmitsburg, MD—In July of 2011, the Daughters of Charity merged four of their provinces into one: the Province of St. Louise. While it was decided that the administrative offices would be in St. Louis, all of the archives would be housed in Emmitsburg, MD., where in 1809 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton founded their order as the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s. A committee comprised of the archivists from the four provinces—Emmitsburg, St. Louis, Albany and Evansville (IN)—was tasked with designing a new repository that would accommodate all of the current collections as well as allow room for growth for the new province’s records and artifacts.
In early November 2012, the staff at Emmitsburg moved their materials into the new repository. Over the next three weeks, Fry Wagner, archives and library movers from St. Louis, brought the other three collections to Maryland. As incredible as it now seems, the first of some 10,000 boxes were put on the new shelves on Nov. 5; the last ones from Indiana were placed in their ranges on Dec. 7.
In addition to 52 ranges of high-density shelves, the repository has ample space for storage of larger artifacts and furniture as well as rooms for processing and storage. There are also two exhibit areas which staff will populate with rotating displays that document the Daughters’ rich history; far beyond the narrative of a women’s religious order, the collections add to American history in the 19th and 20th centuries, women’s history, the study of nursing, parochial education, and hospital administration. Although the Daughters’ work nursing after the Battle of Gettysburg is one of their best-told stories, newly arrived materials document their work with the wounded after the Spanish American War and World War I.
The primary goal of the new Archives is to become a research center. The new reading room opened to the public on January 28, 2013. Those interested can follow activities on the website (www.daughtersofcharity.org/our-legacy/) or on Facebook (www.facebook.com/dcarchives/). The Provincial Archives is located at 341 South Seton Avenue in Emmitsburg, MD. Staff includes Provincial Archivist Denise Gallo, Associate Archivist Carole Prietto (former archivist of the St. Louis Province), Sr. Rosa Lee Kramer, Bonnie Weatherly, Mary Ann Weatherly and Selin James.