Shea was only 14 years old when he published his first article, a short essay on Cardinal Albornoz in the Children’s Catholic Magazine. It wasn’t until the 1850s when Shea really began his work in American Catholic history. Between 1852 and 1855, Shea published several scholarly works that were critically acclaimed: Discovery and Exploration of Mississippi Valley (1852), History of the Catholic Missions Among the Indian Tribes of the United States, 1529-1854 (1854), An Elementary History of the United States (1855), and A School History of the United States (1855).

Shea was very passionate about his life as a scholar; so much so that over the next four decades, he published two hundred and fifty articles and books. His magnum opus was a four volume series titled, The History of the Catholic Church in the United States, published between 1886 and 1892. With all of Shea’s publications over the decades, it is reasonable to assume he relied on his expansive network of personal and professional relationships to obtain the pertinent information required for his extensive scholarly works. The Shea correspondence collection I processed in late fall 2012 provides a unique perspective and reveals Shea’s activities as a writer, researching scholar, historian, and friend.

During my initial review of the collection, I found that most of the correspondence was overstuffed in worn out archival folders and boxes—a preservation nightmare. I was fortunate enough to find one positive quality about the collection; it was previously processed at the item-level which may prove useful to researchers.

After discussing an appropriate processing plan with Faith Charlton, PAHRC’s then Reference and Technical Services Archivist, we devised a plan that included: keeping the item-level correspondence intact while updating correspondents’ names to Library of Congress Name Authority File (NAF) as well as their religious order (where applicable); performing basic preservation such as re-housing and removing rubber bands/staples/paperclips; and creating a finding aid in Archivists’ Toolkit. The most challenging aspect of processing the collection came from the fact that Shea had a substantial amount of personal correspondence; the collection is housed in approximately seven boxes.

The bulk of the collection is comprised of incoming correspondence. Some of the larger files with twenty or more letters are from notable figures who helped Shea during his scholarly years.

For instance, the collection contains a large file of correspondence between Oscar Wilkes Collet, a writer, scholar, and member of the Missouri Historical Society. Here is a postcard received by Shea requesting help locating research materials. 

February 2, 1885 postcard sent by Oscar W. Collet
regarding unpublished research materials.

Another notable correspondent was John Wesley Powell. Powell was a U.S. soldier, geologist, explorer of the American West, and director of the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of Ethnology.

Letter written by John Wesley Powell, Geologist for the U.S. Department of the Interior, on October 27, 1876 requesting Shea’s scholarly assistance.

Another large correspondence file comes from Michael Augustine Corrigan, Archbishop of New York.

Typed letter composed in 1891 by Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan asking Shea for clarification of sources to the assertion that there were large defections in the Catholic Church in America.

Other large correspondence files contain letters from Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley, James Cardinal Gibbons, Peter DeSmet, John Ward Dean, Edmond Mallet, and Eugene Vetromile. 

The collection is open to researchers. The PDF finding aid can be found here. PAHRC also has the original finding aid with item-level information which includes specific dates. If you would like to take a look at the original finding aid or any of our other collections, you can schedule an appointment to visit PAHRC or email us at pahrc89@gmail.com.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

References:

The American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. (1897). Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia Vol. VIII No. 1. Philadelphia: The Society.

In a letter dated September 19, 1862, White writes:

we had a terrible battle in which Sargent Neal Gillen a great friend of Jimmy Hughes had his leg nearly torn off from a solid shot and i am almost certain he is dead his brother our captain stayed with him and was taken prisoner our brigade was on the right and the left broke and [??] then the rebels got on our left and rear and we got out as quick as we could the rebels were behind us we had to get out the best way we could our company lost from eight to ten killed and wounded and prisoners…we expected another battle to day but they have skedadled…

September 19, 1862, page 1

September 19, 1862, page 2

One week later, White continues to discuss the horror he had experienced:

after i wrote the last letter i took a walk over to the battlefield it was an awful sight if it had been the first battlefield i saw it would make me sick it was worse than Fair Oak [Battle of Fair Oaks, also known as the Battle of Seven Pines, which took place in Virginia on May 31 and June 1, 1862]. it was four miles long and the dead lie all along in lines in one place there was a regular line of battle for about one hundred yards they lay in twos where Ricketts [Brig. Gen. James B. Ricketts] battery opened grape and canister it mowed the rebels down like grass i saw a great many of our dead, but twice as many rebels…

September 26, 1862, page 1

September 26, 1862, page 2

White began his service during the Civil War on August 19, 1861. His collection of letters to his parents recount his experiences in some of the most important battles of the war– Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. The letters provide a glimpse of Union camp life during the Civil War and insight into the psyche of a Union soldier. They also document the experience of Irish Americans, specifically in White’s case Irish Catholics,  as the men who made up the 69th regiment were mostly of Irish origin from Philadelphia.

1915 publication of “An Appeal to Truth”

Cardinal Mercier attempted to dispel various nasty rumors that Germans were directing at Belgian citizens as well as make public Belgium’s victims of abuse.

Cardinal Mercier was particularly agitated over the German government’s accusations that Belgians were committing crimes against occupying German soldiers. Mercier claimed that these accusations, which were addressed in the German government’s 1915 publication, entitled The White Book, were completely untrue and fabricated.

The German government claimed that Belgians, including young girls, were murdering and torturing wounded German soldiers, The Cardinal stated, “Hardly had the German armies trodden the soil of our country, when the rumour spread among you that our civilians were taking part in military operations; that the women of Vise and of Liege were gouging out the eyes of your soldiers…” (2)

The Cardinal denied these allegations and instead offered his own; he argued that Germans soldiers had committed unspeakable acts against entire villages in Belgium, and that not even priests or nuns were safe from them:

“Fifty innocent priests and thousands of innocent Catholics were put to death; hundreds of others, whose lives have been saved by circumstances independent of the will of their persecutors, were in danger of death; thousands of innocent persons, with no previous trial, were imprisoned; many of them underwent months of detention, and, when they were released, the most minute questioning, to which they were submitted, revealed no guilt in any of them.” (9)

At the pamphlet’s core was Cardinal Mercier’s attempt to convince German bishops to agree to a fair tribunal. He sought a public forum in which the Archbishops of Belgium would be given a chance to refute the German charges and present evidence accordingly. Additionally, he sought revenge for the murdered and harassed Belgian citizens.

It seems to me that, in an effort to appear even-handed, Cardinal Mercier added “If, in formulating these denunciations, we are calumniating the German army, or, if the military authority had just reasons for commanding or permitting those acts which we call criminal, it is to the honour and the national interest of Germany to confute us.” (9)  Additionally, this statement places the German Bishops in a precarious position because if they do not accept the public trial then it could be argued that they did not rise to defend the honor of Germany and its soldiers. The Cardinal maintained that on several occasions Germans ignored their cries for justice. He stated:

“On August 18th, 1914, the Bishop of Liege wrote to Commandant Bayer, Governor of the town of Liege: – ‘Several villages have been destroyed one after the other; important people, among them some priests, have been shot; others have been arrested, and all have protested their innocence…’ No reply was received to this letter.” (4)

Cardinal Mercier argued that the Germans had conducted their own investigation into the matters without including any cross-examination. He cited a German inspection of Louvain from 1914 as an example of the one-sided nature of these inquiries. Cardinal Mercier stated that when German authorities spoke to witnesses, “Sometimes it was in the presence of a representative of local authority, who was ignorant of the German language, and so was obliged to accept and to sign on trust the official reports.” He claimed that this evidence was unacceptable, the argument one-sided, and that it was unfair for them to take the argument to the Pope without giving the Belgian’s a chance to voice their issues. (6-7)

Mercier entreated German bishops to agree to a fair tribunal in which both sides would be given equitable opportunity to present their case. He used priestly solidarity to back his request, “Is it not upon us, the pastors of our people, that the duty lies of helping to get rid of these bad feelings, and of reestablishing on its foundations of justice, to-day so shaken, the union in love of all the children of the great Catholic family?” (12)

Unfortunately, I have been unable to ascertain if the German bishops agreed to a tribunal or even responded to this public letter. However, while looking for other materials in PAHRC’s pamphlet collection relating to German atrocities committed in Belgium during the Great War, I found a pamphlet written by J. Esslemont Adams and Leon Mirman entitled “Their Crimes.” The pamphlet, published in 1917, discussed crimes against Belgian and French citizens during the German occupation. They state “Germany has been martyrizing Belgium. She has from that moment onwards turned the land into a prison: the frontiers are armed against Belgians like a battle front…” (60)

1917 publication of “Their Crimes”

Adams and Mirman’s arguments seem to back Cardinal Mercier’s allegations, even going so far as to cite the Cardinal’s letter to Governor General von Bissing (the German Governor General of Belgium during the occupation). The passage stated the crimes against both French and Belgian women and children, “Sometimes the attacks were individual and sometimes committed by bodies of men, e.g., at Melen-Labouxhe, Margaret W. was violated by twenty German soldiers, and then shot by the side of her father and mother. They did not even respect nuns.” (32)

What I took away from reading these pamphlets is the suffering occupied territories encounter during times of war. The authors of these publications wanted to increase public awareness in an effort to demand retribution for victims and to form a sense of national solidarity for the war effort. I will endeavor to search for some of the answers that these two sources leave me with. For now, they have imparted a vivid picture of the intensity and insanity that accompanies war.

For instance, many of the items that I’ve come across were created by Josephine M. Walsh. These materials, mostly diaries, were likely pulled from the Walsh family papers, a collection that documents the Martin J. Walsh (1840-1910) family, in particular Martin’s sons James J. Walsh and Joseph Walsh, both of whom were doctors.

Josephine Walsh (center) on her way to Europe, July 1900

Josephine Walsh was the youngest child of Martin Walsh, a prominent general goods businessman who lived in Parsons, PA, and Bridget Golden Walsh, the niece of Martin’s business partner. As one of six children, she was more than twenty years younger than her distinguished older brothers, James and Joseph. Joseph Walsh, based in Philadelphia, became a physician and studied tuberculosis. James Walsh cut short his Jesuit education due to his interest in medicine. Based in New York, he went on to become a doctor, a well-known lecturer, and author of several books on religion and healing.

Dr. James J Walsh

Josephine’s mother died in 1895, when she was 12. Her father died fifteen years later. Josephine cared for him during the last two years of his life, after a stroke left him weakened.

Josephine’s diaries span her young adulthood, from her time at Mount St. Joseph’s Academy until her twenties. They are full of travel notes, commentary on social events, and writings on her family and even their shop business. Story drafts and inspirational ideas are scattered throughout her notebooks. She also wrote plays, which she and her friends performed for their families.

Though her family was quite wealthy, she apparently sought financial independence through her stories. A diary entry from 1906 laments her rejections from publishing houses.

“So far the income from my writings has amounted to nothing. In fact less than nothing – because I have had the expense of paper, ink and time!”

Walsh on the business of writing. 1906 diary, page 1.

Walsh on the business of writing. 1906 diary, page 2.

Josie wanted to be a writer, but this was a tough dream for a woman in the early twentieth century. It appears that her family did not support her ambition. Her brother James in particular had a very strict idea of a woman’s domestic responsibilities, and did not allow her to pursue anything else.

“When I had kept house for about a year, I begged Jim to let me go to school some place to learn higher education and real culture, but he wouldn’t hear of it. When I insisted and said I would bolt anyhow whether he approved or not, he wrote me a letter that will live in my memory forever. He told me that if I left home – I would be like the woman who tired of one husband and sought another. He told me to be a real – a real woman, and not a petulant girl. I pestered him with letters full of my dissatisfactions for fully three years…he begged me to appreciate my happy lot in life and my fortunate position, even though I couldn’t see it that way.”

Her brother’s refusal to allow her to attend school.

Her brother’s refusal to allow her to attend school (cont.)

Dr. James Walsh lecture on the proper duty of women – “to bear many children, that men may abound.”

The Josephine Walsh papers as well as the Walsh family papers would be very useful for researchers interested in the lives of wealthy women, or more specifically Catholic women, around the turn of the 20th century. These papers also document certain views that were held during this time period about women and a woman’s “proper place.”

circa 1870

O’Reilly’s appointment as surgeon general of the army, a position he held from 1902 until  his retirement in 1909, was the last in a long line of assignments that came during his almost 50 years of service. O’Reilly certainly did not experience many dull moments during his career as it coincided with several national and international wars and conflicts.

O’Reilly’s career began in 1862 when he interrupted his medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania to enlist as a medical cadet during the Civil War. A good deal of correspondence in the collection is O’Reilly’s letters to his mother that he wrote while stationed in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Order for O’Reilly to report to the General Field Hospital near Chattanooga Creek, Chattanooga, Tennessee, March 12, 1864

In 1867, O’Reilly was sent to several army posts in the southwest and was then stationed in Wyoming Territory ending up at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. While there, he was involved in clashes between the U.S. military and the Sioux Nation in 1874  and 1880.

For a time, O’Reilly was stationed at Red Cloud Agency, one of the first reservations established by the U.S. government, located in the northwestern corner of present-day Nebraska. This agency served as one of the centers of activity during the Sioux Wars of 1876-77.

The government assigned troops to Red Cloud Agency in March 1874 after the killing of an agency clerk. The military encampment was named Camp Robinson (Fort Robinson). One of the letters from O’Reilly to his mother discusses the troop’s arrival to the camp.

In the letter, O’Reilly writes

The Indians looked pretty blue when we arrived and well they might. A command of over 600 cavalry men with 40 wagons takes up a tremendous length of road when on the march…

March 5, 1874 letter to his mother, page 1

March 5, 1874 letter to his mother, pages 2-3

During the Spanish- American War, O’Reilly served as chief surgeon of the First Independent Division, the 4th Army Corps, and later chief surgeon on the staff of Major General James F. Wade in Havana.

One of the reasons Spanish troops stationed in Cuba were at a disadvantage during the war was that they were suffering severely from yellow fever. In a letter O’Reilly wrote to his sister Mary while he was stationed in Florida, he notes the concern over the yellow fever outbreak and discusses the movement of troops in the area, as well as how he had been treating members of women’s religious orders.

O’Reilly writes:

There hasn’t been any fever- yellow fever I mean- in Tampa. There is or was a good deal of typhoid as this is pretty ?? to be in camps of green troops.

My associations since the General and staff went to Huntsville has been largely sick holy people. On Saturday I sent seven Sisters of Charity from New Orleans off on a ship to Santiago…They are yellow fever nurses.

O’Reilly to his sister, August 16, 1898, page 1

He continues on the second page:

We are moving the troops out of here as fast as possible and by the end of  week they should all have gone. I suppose then I shall go to Huntsville but I don’t know.

O’Reilly to his sister, August 16, 1898, page 2

O’Reilly’s letter also seems to indicate that his son, Philip, who he refers to as “Jack” was also involved in the war. Philip, a cadet in the U.S. Navy, died in 1901 at age 22. On page one, he notes:

In that now the blockade is over Jack’s ship is ordered back to League Island, so no doubt you will see him soon…

The finding aid for the Robert M. O’Reilly papers is now available online.

Though born in Scotland, Redpath became interested in uncovering the causes of the famine that had swept Ireland in the late 1870’s. The Tribune agreed to his proposal and during 1880 and 1881, Redpath made three trips to Ireland, sponsored in part by The Tribune and The Boston Pilot, to ascertain the causes of the famine. While in Ireland, he became a supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell and the Irish Land League, and a staunch opponent of the landlord system that kept the Irish people in poverty.

During these years, Redpath wrote numerous articles and delivered lectures throughout the United States supporting the cause of Irish land reform and, eventually, Irish freedom.

Reacting to the pro-English stance of most American newspapers concerning Ireland, in July 1882 Redpath bought the New York based newspaper McGee’s Illustrated Weekly from its publisher, Maurice Francis Egan and determined to make it a vehicle to support land reform in Ireland and promote Irish independence.

July 15, 1882 issue of McGee's Illustrated Weekly noting the sale of the paper to Redpath.

The first issue of the newly named Redpath’s McGee’s Illustrated Weekly appeared July 22, 1882.

Redpath’s editorial comments in the first issue clearly declared the pro-Irish temper of the paper:

“I shall try to make this journal an interpreter between American and Irish friends of liberty. As soon as Americans know the true story of Ireland they will support her in every wise effort to overthrow the despotic rule of England.”

By the third issue, published on August 5, 1882, Redpath had deemed the title too confusing and shortened it to Redpath’s Illustrated Weekly. Though founded as an activist newspaper devoted to the cause of reform in Ireland, the paper also covered Irish culture in general with sections such as “Pictures of Irish Life” and illustrations of prominent Irishmen, Irish-Americans and “friends of Ireland.”

Redpath’s opposition to English rule in Ireland and the large Anglo-Irish landlords he saw as responsible for Ireland’s misfortune branched into other articles in his newspaper such as anti-landlordism in New York City and opposition to English imperialism in Egypt. The paper also supported other social causes such as women’s suffrage, civil service reform and the labor movement.

Depictions of tenement housing in New York City

Illustration showing British imperialism in Egypt

Redpath also realized that a newspaper devoted primarily to Ireland and social reform may have  limited appeal, so he tried to broaden its readership by including humorous pieces, domestic and foreign news blurbs, sheet music, poems and serialized novels. At times the paper also included a Boys and Girls Department and a Ladies Department.

Section devoted to women's fashion

Changing financial circumstances and lack of interest in Ireland and social issues caused gradual changes in the newspaper’s format and content. With the February 24, 1883 issue, the name of the newspaper was shortened further to Redpath’s Weekly. This reflected the reduction in the number of illustrations due to rising publication costs.

By August 1883, the paper had become more literary and less a vehicle for Irish freedom and social activism with more space devoted to serialized fiction, including French and Russian works translated by associate editor, Jeremiah C. Curtin. Included were perhaps the earliest serializations of stories by Jules Verne. These changes, however, were not enough to save the paper and the last issue of Redpath’s Weekly was published on August 23, 1884.

This 1883 issue included Part II of Verne's "The American Robinson Crusoe"

PAHRC has the most complete run of Redpath’s Illustrated Weekly.

The paper has also been digitized as part the Digital Library @ Villanova University. To view the digitized issues click here.

References:

McKivigan, John. Forgotten Firebrand: James Redpath and the Making of Nineteenth Century America. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London. 2008.

For over sixty years, Robert Halvey served as a freelance photographer for the Catholic Standard and Times, often as a volunteer.  His career as a photographer began in the 1930’s, taking photos for the Roman Catholic High School newspaper and neighborhood newspaper The Kensington Critic. He was then a U.S. Army photographer during World War II, for which he received a Legion of Merit, and later a staff photographer for Pennsylvania Hospital.

Halvey's award winning photo of Mother Teresa at Philadelphia’s Eucharistic Congress, 1976

Having never discarded a photo, the collection contains negatives from the entirety of Halvey’s career, from 1935 to 1999. These images capture presidents, popes, entertainers, as well as everyday participants in Philadelphia Catholic life. In addition to photos taken for The Catholic Standard and Times there are photos taken for organizations and schools such as Immaculata College, and local events such as St. Patrick’s Day parades. Halvey once said, “I think many of my pictures will last long after I’m gone,” and PAHRC intends to digitize the negatives to fulfill this prediction.

Luciano Pavarotti and the late Cardinal Bevilacqua, 1989

Young girl with The Catholic Standard and Times, 1958

The collection currently consists of 39 archival boxes filled with envelopes of negatives. The various types of negatives in the collection demonstrate how the photographic process evolved throughout Halvey’s career.  With the exception of several early glass negatives, the collection contains primarily cellulose acetate film, or safety film.  These negatives are in 4×5 single sheets and 3×5 35mm or 7.5×1.5 70mm strips. Safety film is named for its inflammability, but is nonetheless unstable and subject to deterioration.  This makes reformatting the images crucial to their preservation.

The first step in preparing the photographic negatives for digitization was getting an estimate of the number of images, or negatives, in the collection. Due to the large size of the collection, another volunteer, Gillian Grady, and I used sampling to accomplish this task. After counting the number of envelopes in each box, we counted the number of negatives in a sample population of envelopes, as each envelope contains a sometimes vastly different number of negatives. Based on the results, we can reasonably estimate that the collection has approximately 350,000 negatives.

Our next step is to begin cataloging the images using Past Perfect. Stay tuned for more blog posts about this project!

Sources:

Baldwin, Lou. “Today’s Picture – Tomorrow’s History.” The Catholic Standard and Times [Philadelphia] 5 Feb. 2004: 3, 29.

Valverde, Maria F. Photographic Negatives: Nature and Evolution of Processes. Rochester: Image Permanence Institute, 2004.

March is a month of basketball, when the NCAA championship tournament takes over sports pages and airwaves. But March is also Women’s History Month and at the intersection of these two things, we find Immaculata University, home of the “Mighty Macs.”

Forty years ago this month, the women’s basketball team of Immaculata College, as it was known then, won the first women’s national basketball championship and won it again in 1973 and 1974.  This team from a small, Catholic women’s college outside Philadelphia garnered national recognition for women’s basketball and women’s collegiate sports.  The team is still garnering national attention with the 2011 release of the film, The Mighty Macs.

Women had been playing collegiate basketball since 1893 but it was only in 1971 that a full court, five player game was officially adopted.  Now men and women were recognizably playing the same sport.  Immaculata still preserved some of the more modest aspects of early women’s basketball.  Their players wore skirts on the court until the 1974-1975 season.  But these women still played aggressively and intensely – running, jumping, and reveling in the opportunity to play hard.

Immaculata vs. West Chester, 1974

The 1972 championship team just barely made it into the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) tournament that year. (The NCAA Women’s Division Championship was not inaugurated until the 1981-82 season.) Though the team had a 24-1 record under coach Cathy Rush that year, most people thought the tiny women’s college couldn’t compete at the national level.  But at the tournament in Normal, Illinois, the team won game after game and finally defeated their rival West Chester State (the school that had handed them their single defeat that season) in the championship game with a score of 52-48.

Coach Cathy Rush, 1974

The following year, the Mighty Macs repeated their success but with a much bigger audience.  Local sports writers covered the games and the entire Immaculata College community supported the team, including the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who had founded the school.

Immaculata vs. Stroudsburg State, 1974

In the 1973-74 regular season, the Mighty Macs were nationally recognized and their games were major sporting events.  They played the first nationally televised women’s basketball game against the University of Maryland.  The team played Queen’s College in the first women’s game in Madison Square Garden. The Macs boasted a 35-game win streak that year and a third national championship.

Immaculata vs. Stroudbsurg State, 30th victory, 1974

The Immaculata team was welcomed at Philadelphia International Airport by a crowd of their supporters.  Family, friends, and supporters of the Immaculata community all turned out.

Returning to Philadelphia after the team's third straight championship, 1974

The team went on to place second in the AIAW tournament for the next two years and made it to the semifinals in 1977.  Cathy Rush retired from coaching that year and Immaculata’s dominance of women’s basketball waned as public universities, with more money for recruitment and scholarships, began to take over.  The passage of Title IX in 1972 allowed more women than ever to play sports but shifted the spotlight away from the small women’s college in Chester County.  Nevertheless, the women of Immaculata College, both the basketball team and their supporters, proved to the nation that women could play basketball and play it well.

The photographs shown here are from PAHRC’s Robert and Teresa Halvey Photograph Collection.

Sources:

Byrne, Julie. O God of Players. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
“Remember the Glory Days!, Program for the 25th Anniversary of First National Women’s Collegiate Basketball Championship won by the Mighty Macs of Immaculata College”. Immaculata, PA: Immaculata College, 1997.

PAHRC’s significant collection of periodicals includes newspapers and journals related to black Catholics. Among these are the earliest newspapers published by and for the black Catholic community. These newspapers also covered issues relating to the African American community in a broader sense.

According to Cyprian Davis, author of The History of Black Catholics in the United States, the black Catholic laity emerged as a cohesive and influential force during the last couple decades of the 19th century. In November 1889, a number of prominent men (the actual number is not known) gathered in Baltimore for the first black Catholic lay congress in the country’s history.

The emergence of this community was largely due to the efforts of Daniel Rudd, the “leading Catholic representative of the Negro Race.” It also appears to have been due to the significant increase in missionary work among African Americans around this time as evidenced by the considerable number of journals devoted to black Catholic missions that began to be published towards the end of the 19th century.

It was in 1886 that Daniel Rudd started the weekly black newspaper American Catholic Tribune, initially titled Ohio State Tribune in Springfield, Ohio. The newspaper was then published in Cincinnati before moving to Detroit where it continued to operate until 1899. Rudd noted the paper would “give the great Catholic Church a hearing and show that it is worthy of at least a fair consideration at the hands of our race, being as it is the only place on this Continent where rich and poor, white and black, must drop prejudice at the threshold and go hand in hand to the altar.”[1]

American Catholic Tribune, February 25, 1887

PAHRC has a fairly significant, though incomplete, run of the American Catholic Tribune from 1887 to 1894. According to WorldCat, only several libraries worldwide have this newspaper.

The Research Center also has several issues of The Journal, a weekly Philadelphia newspaper published in 1892 by Swann and Hart. Though it lasted less than a year, The Journal spoke to Philadelphia’s growing number of Black Catholics. It appears that PAHRC is the only institution that has this publication.

PAHRC also has a single issue of The Catholic Herald (February 18, 1905) which was published in Washington D.C. I have not been able to find any information about this publication. The paper was given official approbation by James Cardinal Gibbons and describes itself as “The only colored Catholic paper authorized by the Church.” Its masthead also read: “The Catholic Church is the only hope of the Negro.”

PAHRC’s collection of periodicals also includes several journals relating to black Catholic missions. Published by religious orders that devoted their missionary work to blacks, such as the Josephite Fathers, these journals not only offer insight into these orders and their activities, but also document the African American communities with which the orders interacted.

PAHRC has a significant, though incomplete, run of The Josephite Harvest, previously The Colored Harvest, from the first year of its publication in 1888 to 1956. Based in Baltimore and educated at St. Joseph’s Seminary, the Josephites established black missions throughout the country and abroad.

The Colored Harvest (October 1893)

A photograph of St. Francis school and church in Natchez, Missouri (October 1893 issue)

Photographs depicting May processions and high school graduates from several parish schools and academies in Baltimore and the surrounding area (July-August 1923 issue)

Other journals in PAHRC’s collection include The Flight, published by the Institute of Mission Helpers in Baltimore, and Mission fields at home followed by Mission published by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Philadelphia. Founded by Saint Katharine Drexel, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament devoted themselves to mission work among blacks and Native Americans.

PAHRC’s collection not only includes the archives of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, but also the collections of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, the oldest Catholic historical society in the country. In it’s 1885 charter, the ACHS stated that it’s purpose “shall be the preservation and publication of Catholic American historical documents, the investigation of American Catholic history, especially that of Philadelphia, and the development of interest in Catholic historical research.” It appears, however, that like many historical societies, the ACHS  sometimes accepted materials that did not relate to it’s mission statement, or fall within a collection scope- if one had even been articulated- especially if one of its members owned or had access to historic materials.

An interesting small collection that seems to fall within this category is the David Lynch Papers, 1830-1865 (MC 13), possibly collected by the ACHS due to the mere fact that Lynch may have been Catholic. A tobacconist from Pittsburgh, PA, David Lynch (1793-1860) had served as a major in the land and marine services in the War of 1812. Appearing to have been politically well-connected, the governor of Pennsylvania appointed Lynch as an auctioneer for the city of Pittsburgh around 1830. Lynch was also appointed as Pittsburgh’s Postmaster in 1833.

Certificate of Lynch's appointment as an auctioneer for the City of Pittsburgh, February 9, 1830(?)

A staunch Democrat who was actively involved in politics, David Lynch happened to be  friends with fellow Pennsylvanian James Buchanan. The collection includes a few letters between the two men that were written during Buchanan’s terms as a Congressman and President.

In the following letter, dated December 23, 1850, sent from his Wheatland estate in Lancaster, PA, Buchanan provides Lynch with a lengthy response regarding the likelihood of Buchanan becoming President. The letter provides a good deal of insight into Buchanan’s personality and political philosophies as well as the current state of politics in both Pennsylvania and the country. Part of the first page of the letter reads:

You know I am not a sanguine man, nor is my heart so fixed upon that high honor that defeat will cost me ‘a night’s sleep or a meal’s victuals.’ I firmly believe that the time has at length arrived when the Democracy of Pennsylvania may furnish a President to the union should they think proper…I have every reason to believe that all the Southern States are decidedly friendly to my nomination. Indeed some of their leading men say, they will support no other Northern man.

Page 1

Part of the second page reads:

There is an element now actively at work which may defeat all calculations and many leading men of both parties are engaged in it. Even the Washington Union appears to lean that way. This is to sink the names of Democrat and Whig and to form a new Union party.

Page 2

Buchanan shares his views on the separation of church and state on the third page:

If there is anything in world which I do despise it is attempts to bring religion into politics and to  make a man’s creed operate against him, I don’t care to what sect he may belong.

Page 3

Page 4

The collection also includes estate papers relating to James Buchanan’s Pennsylvania properties, presumably because Lynch as an auctioneer was somehow involved with the transfer of land.

A small collection that seemingly has little or nothing to do with Catholicism in America, the David Lynch Papers, nevertheless has historic value. Materials in the collection offer a glimpse into state and national politics during the antebellum period, including information relating to a significant national figure.

A full finding aid for the collection will be available shortly.