Archives Report

New Collections in 2015

Last February Jeff Burns sent us the digitized papers of John R. Quinn, bishop and archbishop of Oklahoma City (1971-1977), archbishop of San Francisco (1977-1995), and president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference (1977-1980). The digital files, dating 1967-2000, amount to 1.5 gigabytes and include documents on the Pontifical Commission on Religious, “Essential Elements of the Church’s Teaching on Religious Life,” the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, the California Catholic Conference, “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response,” the 1987 Papal Visit to the United States, bishops’ meetings in Rome, Quinn’s Oxford lecture, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Consortium Perfectae Caritatis, and PADRES / HERMANAS.

In April Ralph Keen sent the nine linear inches of research files from Heather Hartel concerning Father Nelson Baker. The files include general Lackawanna & Bethlehem Steel history from Lexis/Nexis; Buffalo News articles on Baker and his cause for canonization; copies from the Buffalo Library’s Local News Archives on Baker; printouts from websites that mentioned Baker; and Thomas A. Galvin material from Redemptorist Provincial Archives. (Galvin wrote the book on Baker: Modern Apostle of Charity, 1925.) The files also contain bibliographies of sources for the study of Father Baker and other research material, as well as books (The Incredible Story of Father Baker by Floyd Anderson and The Mysteries of Father Baker by John Koerner) and one VHS video tape, Legacy of Victory: Remembering Father Baker.

In May Sister Laura Hammel, OSC, of the Sisters of Saint Clare, Saginaw, Michigan, sent chronicles of her congregation, 1990-2014; files, 1989-2003, documenting the foundation process; papers of individual sisters; newspaper articles, 1997-2014; related photographs; and digital data.

Also in May the Mexican American Catholic College (originally Mexican American Cultural Center) in San Antonio, Texas, sent 242 linear feet of records. These came through the efforts of Timothy Matovina and with funding from Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies. They document activities of the president and administration of MACC. The records consist of founding documents, clippings, correspondence, event files, fundraising files, endowment files, administrative files, Encuentro Program files, history files, papers of Sister Rosa Maria Icaza, Father Virgil Elizondo, and John Linskens, and files on other subjects and activities, including the Diocesan Pastoral Plan for Hispanics and the HCAPL Pew Project. The collection includes VHS video recordings of Catholic television shows and Bible programs, photographic slides, and newspaper clippings.

Early in July we received some 21 linear feet of record books from the Sisters of Saint Francis, Oldenburg, Indiana, dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection includes records of members, financial records, and some student records; with ephemeral publications of schools run by the sisters (student magazines and newspapers and circulars for alumnae).

Wm. Kevin Cawley
Senior Archivist & Curator of Manuscripts
Archives of the University of Notre Dame
archives@nd.edu

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This Archives Report originally appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of the American Catholic Studies Newsletter.