BGuthrie Photos: DC -- S. Dillon Ripley Center -- Exhibit: Woman and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America

DC -- S. Dillon Ripley Center -- Exhibit: Woman and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America:

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Description of Pictures: Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America
January 15, 2010 - April 25, 2010 (new closing date)
Rare artifacts and photographs from more than 400 communities are on view to explore the role of Catholic sisters in American life. From the time they first arrived in America nearly 300 years ago, sisters built schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, homeless shelters, and many other enduring social institutions. As nurses, teachers, and social workers, they entered professional ranks decades earlier than most other women. They shared common experiences of immigration and migration and endured the same national crises as other Americans. Despite being considered "weak women" by some, these sisters have made a lasting contribution to American life.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] RIPSIS_100409_001.JPG	[2] RIPSIS_100409_008.JPG	[3] RIPSIS_100409_023.JPG
[4] RIPSIS_100409_026.JPG	[5] RIPSIS_100409_029.JPG	[6] RIPSIS_100409_043.JPG
[7] RIPSIS_100409_048.JPG	[8] RIPSIS_100409_053.JPG	[9] RIPSIS_100409_060.JPG
[10] RIPSIS_100409_070.JPG	[11] RIPSIS_100409_079.JPG	[12] RIPSIS_100409_082.JPG
[13] RIPSIS_100409_087.JPG	[14] RIPSIS_100409_090.JPG	[15] RIPSIS_100409_099.JPG
[16] RIPSIS_100409_110.JPG	[17] RIPSIS_100409_116.JPG	[18] RIPSIS_100409_120.JPG
[19] RIPSIS_100409_123.JPG	[20] RIPSIS_100409_127.JPG	[21] RIPSIS_100409_133.JPG
[22] RIPSIS_100409_137.JPG	[23] RIPSIS_100409_142.JPG	[24] RIPSIS_100409_153.JPG
[25] RIPSIS_100409_156.JPG	[26] RIPSIS_100409_159.JPG	[27] RIPSIS_100409_163.JPG
[28] RIPSIS_100409_172.JPG	[29] RIPSIS_100409_182.JPG	[30] RIPSIS_100409_188.JPG
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. RIPSIS_100409_008.JPG: Infant Jesus made of wax by Mother Joseph to raise funds for the Sisters of Providence, Vancouver, Washington, c 1870s. Mother Joseph designed hospitals and schools, jumped on beams to test their construction, and crafted wax sculptures for nativity scenes. A statue of her is the only one of a sister included in the US Capitol's Statuary Hall.
2. RIPSIS_100409_026.JPG: Religious Freedom: When the Ursuline sisters arrived in New Orleans in 1727, the city was part of the French-owned Louisiana Purchase of 1803, New Orleans became part of the United States. Anxious to know if their property rights remained secure following the transfer of power to the United States, their superior wrote directly to the president. "Your institution will be able to govern itself," President Thomas Jefferson responded, "without interference from civil authority."
3. RIPSIS_100409_029.JPG: "Whatever diversity of shades may appear in the religious opinions of our fellow citizens, the charitable objects of your Institution cannot be of indifference to any." -- President Thomas Jefferson, letter to Marie Therese Farjon of St. Xavier, 1804
4. RIPSIS_100409_043.JPG: Letter from President Thomas Jefferson to Sister Marie Therese Farjon of St. Xavier, an Ursuline nun, 1804. Some legal scholars interpret President Jefferson's letter as a clear endorsement of religious freedom in a secular state: "I have received, holy sisters, the letter you have written me wherein you express anxiety for the property vested in your institution by the former governments of Louisiana. The principles of the constitution and government of the Untied States are a sure guarantee to you that it will be preserved to you sacred and inviolate, and that your institution will be permitted to govern itself according to it's own voluntary rules, without interference from the civil authority. Whatever diversity of shade may appear in the religious opinions of our fellow citizens, the charitable objects of your institution cannot be indifferent to any; and it's furtherance of the wholesome purposes of society, by training up it's younger members in the way they should go, cannot fail to ensure it the patronage of the government it is under. Be assured it will meet with all the protection which my office can give it." Note: Quoted material throughout the exhibit the exhibit is transcribed exactly as written in the original documents.
5. RIPSIS_100409_053.JPG: Triple-lock box used by the Sisters of Providence to safeguard documents, Vancouver, Washington, 1840s-early 1960s. This wooden safe could only be opened with keys held by three different sisters -- the Superior, Assistant Superior, and Treasurer. The Sisters of Providence used this "triple-lock box" for more than a century. Before most women in the United States could legally own property, execute contracts, or assume loans, women religious typically incorporated themselves to circumvent these restrictions and transact their business.
6. RIPSIS_100409_060.JPG: Fluted cap worn by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, mid-1900s. Caring for habits required daily time and attention. In 1923, a vicaress of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood reflected on the amount of time members of her community spent caring for their habits: "The very little time that is daily left to them -- time that should really be given to rest and relaxation -- must be laboriously spent in laying, sewing, and especially in fluting their frills."
7. RIPSIS_100409_070.JPG: Fluting machine used by the Marianites of the Holy Cross to flute the caps worn by the sisters, manufactured in Canada, mid-1900s. Sisters first plugged in the machine to heat the prongs. They folded the starched cap over the first prong. Next, they pulled the handle to reveal the second prong and then folded the cap under it. They continued to fold the cap over and under the prongs until the entire cap was fluted.
8. RIPSIS_100409_079.JPG: Into the West: As a young woman in France, Louis Brulois, a Sister of Charity of St Augustine, imagined going to America to "care for the little Indians." Many sisters went into the American West with similar missionary zeal. Those who worked among American Indians did so primarily through Catholic missions and government-funded boarding schools. For American Indian children, "away schools" meant separation from family, rules against speaking their own languages, and usually the eradication of their cultures. While being true to their own values, sisters took park in a system now seen as cruel and insensitive.
9. RIPSIS_100409_082.JPG: Pioneer Spirit
10. RIPSIS_100409_087.JPG: Immigrant Sisters: From the 1830s to the early 1900s, sisters took part in a great migration along with millions of other European emigrants. Sisters came from France, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Italy and other countries. In 1830, fewer than 500 sisters lived in the United States. By 1900, their numbers had increased a hundredfold to nearly 50,000. Most of these sisters had emigrated from other countries. In 1922, two postulants from Germany arrived in New York Harbor on the ship President Filmore. Their clothing set them apart. Sister Mary Edwin of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ later recalled: "The passengers were told to stand in line for a physical examination. This was to make suer that none of the passengers brought contagious diseases or lice to America. Sister Theodolinda and I were dressed as postulants and so we did not have to be examined. We had a health certificate from our family doctor."
11. RIPSIS_100409_090.JPG: Starched cornette worn by the Daughters of Charity between 1685 and 1964. Dress of the Day: Many habits once reflected ordinary dress, but became more noticeable as styles changed. The Daughters of Charity blended in well with French peasant women they served in the mid-1600s, but stood out on American streets of the mid-1900s.
12. RIPSIS_100409_099.JPG: Traveling trunk, made of pigskin and decorated with brass tacks, belonging to Mother Joseph Pariseau, foundress of the Sisters of Providence Northwestern Missions, c 1856. Trunks of this type were originally used by trappers for trade with American Indians.
13. RIPSIS_100409_110.JPG: Scale used by Mother Marianne and sisters to measure medicine, Kalaupapa, Hawaii, late 1880s. Isolated from the rest of society by law, disfigured by disease, lepers had long been society's outcasts. At the Bishop Home on the island of Molokai, Mother Marianne insisted on cleanliness, music, and beauty "to help put a little more sunshine into their dreary lives." Mother Marianne Cope (1838-1918): In July 1883, Mother Marianne Cope responded to a plea from the Hawaiian government to set up a hospital system for patients suffering form Hansen's disease (leprosy). In Syracuse, New York, she had been the general superior of the Sisters of St Francis. She gave up this position of respectability to work in relative isolation in Kalaupapa, Hawaii, for the remainder of her life.
14. RIPSIS_100409_116.JPG: Courage and Care: Catholic sisters provided skilled nursing during many of the nation's most difficult trials, from the Civil War to the flu epidemic of 1918. The public that once perceived them as outsiders came to appreciate their care and skill. Working for little or not pay, sisters risked their safety, often alone. Describing an outbreak of yellow fever in New Orleans, Mother Austin Carroll, a Sister of Mercy, wrote: "Not a bell rang, not a note of music -- the very songbirds have deserted us." The Great Flu Outbreak: In 1918, a virus called the Spanish Flu created a pandemic. Spread by soldiers and citizens displaced by World War I, the fly first struck US military posts, and then moved rapidly across the country. Public health facilities could not meet the need. Sisters responded by providing nursing care.
15. RIPSIS_100409_120.JPG: Yellow Jack and Bronze John: Throughout the mid-19th century, crowded cities, poor sanitation, and insufficient healthcare resulted in devastating epidemics. As Mother Austin Carroll noted during an outbreak of yellow fever -- also called "Yellow Jack" and "Bronze John" -- in New Orleans in 1878, "Wherever this pestilence spreads, a panic follows."
16. RIPSIS_100409_123.JPG: Scourge of Smallpox: Disfiguring and highly contagious, smallpox was a human scourge for centuries. It struck the United States in epidemic proportions during the late 1700s, and again a century later. In 1872, five sisters from Germany cared for smallpox victims as visiting nurses in St Louis. First known as the "Smallpox Sisters," they received their formal name, the Sisters of Saint Mary, in 1874.
17. RIPSIS_100409_127.JPG: Telegram (facsimile) from Father Aloysius to Mother Odilia, sent during the outbreak of yellow fever in Memphis, Tennessee, 1878. Following the death of Sister Wilhelmina, a Franciscan who caught yellow fever while nursing during the epidemic, Father Aloysius directed her community to "send no more sisters." He did not want to put additional sisters' lives at risk. September 10, 1878 Rev Mother Odilia, Sister Wilhelmina died today at eleven oclock sisters Gertrude Vincentia & Stanislaus very low send no more sisters Father Aloysius
18. RIPSIS_100409_133.JPG: Civil War Nursing: On a winter day in 1961, a gunboat ran upriver under a flag of truce. It carried the remains of Mary Lucy Dosh, a Sister of Charity of Nazareth, the first sister to die on duty during the Civil War. More than 600 sisters served as nurses during the war. They earned respect from a once-suspicious public. Throughout many wars, epidemics, and natural disasters, sisters, too, lost their lived along with those they served.
19. RIPSIS_100409_137.JPG: Skilled Nurses: On the eve of the Civil War, the Union Army operated only one hospital. The Confederacy had none. Catholic sisters, however, had run 20. Sisters nursed the sick and wounded from both North and South for the duration of the war. As he was tended by a Sister of Mercy, Private Hubbard from Massachusetts voiced the thought many soldiers shared: "I don't care what you are, you're a mother to me."
20. RIPSIS_100409_142.JPG: Nursing field kit and tobacco plug belonging to Sister Anthony O'Connell, c. 1862. Patent medicine bottles excavated from the grounds near the Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas, formerly a Sisters of Mercy convent, mid-1800s. Sister Anthony O'Connell (1814-1897): At the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, North and South each suffered 10,000 casualties. Anthony O'Connell, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, pressured Army doctors to allow sisters to tend to soldiers on the frontlines. Her lobbying succeeded, earning her the title "Angel of the Battlefield." According to lore, Sister O'Connell's nursing field kit always contained a plug of tobacco she could offer to soldier.
21. RIPSIS_100409_156.JPG: An estimated 300,000 copies of Maria Monk sold prior to the Civil War, making this anti-Catholic book second only to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in sales for the period.
22. RIPSIS_100409_159.JPG: Nativism and "The Stranger": In the mid-1800s, America faced deep rifts over slavery, immigration, and religion. A new political party, the American or "Know-Nothing" Party, established an anti-immigration, anti-Catholic platform. Newspaper editorials described Irish Catholic immigrants as "a burden and a misery to this country." In response to prejudice and hatred, some sisters wore secular clothing to conceal their identifies when traveling outside the relative safety of their convents.
23. RIPSIS_100409_163.JPG: Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, a best-selling book about the author's fictitious account of living within a convent, published in Philadelphia, 1836. First released in 1836, Maria Monk is a hoax -- the fabricated tale of a woman who claimed to have been a nun who fled from a convent in Montreal. An estimated 300,000 copies sold prior to the Civil War. An estimated 300,000 copies of Maria Monk sold prior to the Civil War, making this anti-Catholic book second only to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in sales for the period.
24. RIPSIS_100409_172.JPG: The Oregon School Fight: A True and Complete History, Portland, Oregon, 1925. During the mid-1920s, an Oregon state law mandated that all children attend public schools, effectively banning private education. Backed locally by the Ku Klux Klan, the law was successfully opposed by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in Portland, Oregon. In 1925, the US Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional.
25. RIPSIS_100409_182.JPG: Wicker trunk used by Sister Engelharda Wilmes, a Sister of Christian Charity, when she traveled from her native Germany to the United States to serve the immigrant church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania c 1938.
26. RIPSIS_100409_209.JPG: Sister Corita Kent: She made the 1985 Love stamp, painted a gas tank in Boston's Back Bay in rainbow colors, and influenced the lives of hundreds of art students. Few heeded the call to examine "the signs of the times" as visibly as Corita Kent, a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As both a practicing artist and a teacher at the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles during the early 1960s. Sister Corita used images from popular culture and current events to express her beliefs about the Vietnam War and social justice. She left her religious community in 1968 and moved to Boston.
27. RIPSIS_100409_219.JPG: Wishing well, gazebo, ceramic figure, and crucifix made by prisoners for Sisters of St Joseph, Nazareth, Michigan, late 1900s. These and other gifts acknowledge a tradition of prison ministry that dates back to the Sisters of St Joseph's origins in France at the time of the French Revolution. The gazebo was made by a Muslim prisoner who attended Catholic services behind bars. The prisoner who carved the bone crucifix was a self-described atheist. For the sculpture of the ceramic figure, the dove symbolizes the freedom that can be attained by "letting go." The wishing well had this inscription: "If I had one wish it would probably be that I always remain in your prayers. Peace be upon you."
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