Author: Notre Dame Archives

In October, Michael A. Diebold gave us 26 cassette audio tapes containing interviews he conducted with teaching priests of the Archdiocese of Louisville, and transcriptions of the interviews. Sister Rose Marie Mantin, O.P., donated a collection of prayer books, missals, and hymnals used by the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, Michigan, before the Second Vatican Council.  The Notre Dame Center for Liturgy sent papers of Rev. Gerald Shirilla, consisting of research files having to do with the Catholic Church and its liturgy: collected material, articles, note cards, and drafts of chapters of his dissertation, amounting to approximately three linear feet.

In November, Sister Dorothy Ann Blatnica, S.C., sent 2.5 linear feet of research material gathered for her doctoral dissertation, “In Those Days”: African American Catholics in Cleveland, 1922-1961 (Case Western Reserve University, 1992), published as At the altar of their God: African American Catholics in Cleveland, 1922-1961 (New York: Garland, 1995). This collection consists of audio tapes and transcriptions of interviews; photocopies of historical documents including correspondence, reports, and newspaper clippings; photographs; releases signed by subjects of interviews; the prospectus for her dissertation, with critiques; and a copy of the dissertation itself.

In November and December, Peter Denio sent records (1983-2009) of the National Pastoral Life Center amounting to some 180 linear feet; including general office files, church magazine files, development files, pastoral services files, Roundtable files (The Roundtable Association of Diocesan Social Action Directors), New Pastors’ Workshop files, Executive Director files, and files of NPLC founder and director Msgr. Philip J. Murnion, with photo albums, videos, and other audio-visual material; and some 50,000 computer files amounting to 33 gigabytes of digital data.

Last February Christine Doan, archivist for the Sisters of the Presentation in San Francisco, donated papers documenting the participation of Sister Patricia Marie Mulpeters in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Since we serve as the archival repository for LCWR, we were happy to receive these papers.

In March Alice Osberger donated a small collection of papers (1921-1975) of her brother, Frank B. Flynn, representing his educational career at Cathedral School, Christian Brothers High School (St. Joseph, MO), the University of Notre Dame, and Drury College (Springfield, MO), and his service in World War Two. The collection also includes a few later papers.

In April Mary Louise Hartman donated the first accession of Records of the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church (ARCC), 1980-1990; consisting of foundational documents, publications, working papers, advocacy, dissent, publicity, action alerts, and Board of Directors’ files.

In July Mary Charlotte Chandler, RSCJ, sent records of the Center for the Study of Religious Life in Chicago, which closed on June 30th. These records document the whole history of the Center (1998-2009); they include files from the CRLS Board and Corporation, financial records, programs and publications, files on organizations including LCWR, CMSM, USCCB, and other religious life organizations and educational institutions; topical files, committee files, files on scholars, director’s presentations and travel files, and a file on significant historical moments.

Also in July John Walbridge donated the papers of his wife, Linda Walbridge, a Catholic anthropologist who studied Christians in Pakistan, including Bishop John Joseph, the first Punjabi Catholic bishop. These papers also include her research files on Arab Shi’ism among Lebanese immigrants in Michigan.

In August Mary Good donated the William and Mary Good Papers, which include records dating from the late 1950s through the 1990s representing Bill Good’s work with college Young Christian Students, including correspondence, minutes of meetings, study workshops, study days, study weeks, retreats, newsletters, reports, working documents, pamphlets, inquiry booklets and mimeographed circulars. Mrs. Good also sent papers that she collected from her participation in Young Christian Workers. These papers supplement our large collections of records from Young Christian Students and Young Christian Workers.

Also in August Irene Leahy donated papers of her husband Eugene J. Leahy, consisting chiefly of course material for the music classes he taught at Notre Dame. Mary Craypo donated papers of her husband Charles Craypo, including research files for his book on Wal-mart (the manuscript of which was almost finished at the time of his death) and records of his earlier studies of the working poor, his work on the telegraph industry, and his teaching at Notre Dame.

Last July we received the Walter Ufer Papers from Dean Porter, Professor Emeritus of Art, Art History, and Design, and former director of the Snite Museum of Art on the Notre Dame campus. Walter Ufer (1876-1936) was an American artist associated with Taos, New Mexico; he is known for his paintings of Native Americans, particularly those of the Taos Pueblo. Dean Porter donated eight linear feet of Ufer correspondence and other papers dating chiefly from 1913 to 1936, including one linear foot of notebooks or diaries.

Along with the Ufer Papers, Porter sent eight linear inches of Howard Norton Cook Papers. Cook is also an artist known for his paintings of the American Southwest. Porter donated photocopies of letters received by Cook with related papers and four cassette audio tapes containing interviews with Cook.

In September and November Anthony O. Simon donated a collection of correspondence exchanged between twentieth-century Thomistic philosophers. Simon is the son of philosopher Yves R. Simon and director of the Yves R. Simon Institute. He has for many years been active in the American Maritain Association. The collection includes photocopies of correspondence between Jacques Maritain and John U. Nef, between Yves R. Simon and John U. Nef, and between Jacques Maritain and his bibliographer Donald Gallagher, along with some other papers of Yves R. Simon. Years ago Anthony O. Simon donated a large collection of Yves R. Simon’s papers to the Jacques Maritain Center at Notre Dame, which also has an important collection of Jacques Maritain’s papers.

Thanks to thank Mary Jo Weaver for recommending us as an archival repository to the Carmelite Sisters of Indianapolis. Since last October we have received 44 linear feet of records from their monastery, including documentation of their inclusive language psalter, their religious typesetting business, their web site, and their annual interfaith prayer service for peace.The records also include files on the history of the monastery, including chronological files, records of individual sisters (current members, former members, women who have lived at the monastery), and records of friends of the monastery; clippings and chronicles; files on initiatives of the monastery, and on the participation of Indianapolis Carmelites in national organizations, including the Association of Contemplative Sisters and Carmelite Communities Associated; with historical data on Carmelites in America, on Carmelite formation, on third-order Carmelites, now called the Secular Order of Carmel, and on the Carmelite Order in general; books including breviaries, prayer books, and ceremonials; periodicals including the  Contemplative Review and the Servitium Informativum Carmelitanum newsletter; photographs, audio-visual material, and historical artifacts such as the pre-Vatican II Carmelite habit, devotional objects, and equipment for making hosts for the eucharist.

In June we received material collected by Rev. Jeffrey M. Kemper in support of his doctoral dissertation,“Behind the Text: A Study of the Principles and Procedures of Translation, Adaptation, and Composition of Original Texts by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy.”The collection, amounting to about four linear feet, includes copies of ICEL correspondence, memoranda, agenda, meeting material and texts.This new material complements other collections in our archives from the Consultation on Common Texts and the English Language Liturgical Consultation.

Gordon Zahn, one of the leaders of the Catholic peace movement, died last Dec. at the age of 89.  Many years ago he made arrangements to donate his papers to the Notre Dame Archives, and last Aug., with the help of Professor Loretta M. Morris, the first shipment has recently arrived.  Professor Morris and her student assistants at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles produced an item level description that covers more than 14,600 items (15 linear feet), among them letters written by Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.  The collection includes Zahn’s correspondence, Pax Christi files, articles, books, photographs, digital files, and audio-visual material.  They also include material on Franz Jägerstätter, the Austrian Catholic executed for his refusal to serve in Hitler’s army. Zahn’s biography of Jägerstätter helped increase devotion to him as a saint and martyr, and Jägerstätter was beatified in October 2007.  The Zahn Papers join our other collections that document the Catholic peace movement, including the papers of Gerard Vanderhaar, Eileen Egan, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, and David Bowman, S.J., and records of Zahn’s Center on Conscience and War, Pax Christi U.S.A., the Catholic Peace Fellowship, and the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center.

In November we received the papers of James O’Gara, a former editor of Commonweal and one of the most influential American Catholic editors of the 20th century, from his daughters, Margaret and Monica O’Gara. He died in 2003 at the age of 85. His papers consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, typed speeches, typescripts of television shows, articles, university course lectures, presentations for parish groups on the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, photographs, and printed ephemera dating from 1918 until 2003.  They amount to three linear feet.

Dr. Daniel Cherico, known for his books and articles on thanatology and ministry to people near death, spends much of his spare time compiling data on Catholic clergy and religious, so that the contributions of individuals will not be forgotten, and so that the reputations of those who have been maligned can be restored.  As a side effect of this effort, he acquires material that will be of interest to Catholic scholars in the future.  Starting in March of 2007, he has been donating this documentation to the Archives of the University of Notre Dame.  He has sent printed ephemera, books, pamphlets, newsletters, newspapers and magazines,  representing parish and diocesan anniversaries, conferences, Catholic institutions and individual bishops and priests from New York, Newark, Minneapolis / St. Paul, and other places; audio and video tapes; black-and-white and color prints and slides  of Catholic clergy, religious, laity, and buildings; medals, awards, rosaries, crucifixes, pins, and other religious objects; scrapbooks, index cards with quotations and notes from research in Catholic archives, answers to questionnaires on parish histories in the Diocese of St. Paul, photocopies of typewritten and handwritten papers and histories, and funeral sermons and obituaries.

In April we received from AnaMaria Goulet the papers of her husband, Notre Dame professor Denis Goulet, including office files representing his teaching, his interest in developing countries in Latin America, and his publications, with offprints or copies of over 160 of his articles.  Prof. Goulet held the William and Dorothy O’Neill Chair for Education for Justice and was associated with the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and Nanovic Institute for European Studies.  He was widely known and respected for his pioneering contributions to the interdisciplinary study of development ethics.  In addition to his many articles, he published eleven books, including The Cruel Choice: A New Concept in the Theory of Development (1971); The Uncertain Promise: Value Conflicts in Technology Transfer (1977); and Development Ethics at Work: Explorations 1960-2002 (2006).

In the Fall of 2006, the Archives of the University of Notre Dame received two significant new collections.  At the end of October Timothy P. Schilling sent us seven scrapbooks of clippings and a box of newspapers documenting the crisis in the ecclesiastical career of Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen.  Schilling also sent copies of his doctoral dissertation, “Conflict in the Catholic Hierarchy: Coping Strategies in the Hunthausen Affair” (University of Utrecht, 2003).  A few month later, he sent three cassette audio tapes containing an interview that he conducted with the Very Rev. Michael G. Ryan, who was closely associated with Archbishop Hunthausen, and a comprehensive summary of this interview.

Early in November John and Kathleen Ferrone donated 115 reel-to-reel audio tapes, 74 cassette audio tapes, and 2 video tapes having to do with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the South Bend area, 1972-1980s, along with related documentation consisting of correspondence, mimeographed and ditto material, printed ephemera on the People of Praise and Charismatics, some material on cults, and an anthropological study of True House by Fr. Ken McGuire, CSP: “People Prayer and Promise” (Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1976).