The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives
Volume 1; Issue 1 Fall 2006
ACUA Newsletter
Inside:
Records
Management ..................1
From the
Curator’s Desk................2
Education and
Outreach..........................3
Treasure
Chest ..............................4
Museum
Storage ............................4
A/V Collection
Update ............................5
Manuscripts
Processed ........................6
Mohler Grant
Winners ..........................7
ACUA Newsletter
CUA Records Management
Program Begins
T
he archives
office
accomplished
several records
management goals
over the past year.
First, in May 2005,
the archives hired
Leslie Knoblauch as
the records archivist.
She secured approval
from the Office of the
President for the
initiation of a formal
records management
program on campus.
Records stored in the basement of a CUA building (left) and in the Archives
after processing (right).
Meanwhile, the
unofficial records
management team of
Timothy Meagher, Ph.D.;
Office records will be
John Shepherd; Patrick
a major
Cullom; and Leslie
accomplishment.
Knoblauch held face-to-face
The archives staff
meetings with key university
made connections with
administrators, such as the
other departments after
provost, the vice president for
the approval of the
finance and administration,
records management
the vice president for student
program, resulting in
life and the general counsel
preliminary records
about managing their records.
surveys conducted
Assistant Records Manager Leslie Knoblach
The Office of the President
with the schools of
arranging a records consultation.
served as the pilot program,
architecture and
which included surveying
planning, engineering,
records with the staff; reorganizing the office’s
and nursing; the departments of art, education
primary filing system, including the indexing and
and English, and public safety; the offices of
organization of the main subject filing system;
facilities planning and construction, disability
and creating and approving a retention schedule.
support services, public affairs, study abroad,
The archives also tapped the skillls of former
treasurer, and vice provost and dean of graduate
CUA library director Adele Chwalek as a records
studies. Knoblach also processed the records of
management consultant. Her expertise led to
the athletics department and the archives, and
significant weeding and reorganizing of the
produced finding aids and appraisal reports for
existing collection of CUA presidential records
both collections. The archives staff received a
as well as integrating new deposits. Those
retention schedule. With these successes,
include the records of presidents Byron, Ellis,
Knoblach moves on in the future to the records
O’Connell (David), Pellegrino and Walton. When
of the Board of Trustees, the provost, alumni
it’s completed, the arrangement of the President’s
relations and development.
Fall 2006
1
ACUA Newsletter
Productive
Year for the
Archives
T
his was perhaps the most
ambitious and exciting year in
the history of the archives at
Catholic University. Drawing on the
Mohler Endowment, we created two
new full-time and two part-time
positions. We launched broad initiatives
in university records management and
archives outreach and education as well
as vastly expanded our audiovisual
collecting and services. These efforts
produced some extraordinary results.
You may have read that our new
Assistant Records Manager Leslie
Knoblach visited 15 university offices
From the Curator’s Desk:
advising, conducting records surveys,
Timothy Meagher, Ph.D.
and supplying boxes that resulted in
nearly 400 feet of university records
being archived. As part of our expanded archival
outreach, our new Education Archivist Maria
Mazzenga, Ph.D., organized or delivered five
presentations — four for classes and one for an
alumni event — hosted three tours of the
archives, managed and published an article about
our two-week Religious Archives Training
Institute for more than 20 aspiring archivists,
organized two educational lectures related to
labor issues for the broader university and public
community, and oversaw the posting of five
educational Web sites and began work on two
more. Finally, Patrick Collum, our audiovisual
archivist visited eight CUA offices and arranged
transfer of more than 500,000 images from
public affairs as well as thousands of images and
The American Catholic History Research
Center and University Archives Newsletter
Voulme 1, Issue 1
Fall 2006
2
Fall 2006
hours of recordings from the drama department.
He and his assistant, Marcella Fredriksson, also
digitized approximately 2,200 images,
authorized the use of 60 images for publications
and digitized over 65 hours of audio and video
for use by both CUA offices and outside
researchers.
These achievements suggest great promise for
the future of the archives. Building on our
exciting beginnings in that effort, Catholic
University, for example, could soon be the only
university in the District of Columbia with a
working records management program, clearing
valuable office space and enhancing the
efficiency of record retrieval. At this moment we
also have the only American Catholic history
Web presence in the country aimed at secondary
and college teachers and students. That presence
could become the foundation for a whole range
of educational programs such as teacher
institutes or high school and college student
research competitions, as well as the creation of
a collaborative network of Catholic religious
order, diocesan and college and university
archives across the country to support that work.
Furthermore, gaining experience from our
wonderful work with university audiovisual
materials, we can begin to envision fulfilling the
role assigned to us by the United States Catholic
Conference of Bishops to become the film and
video archives of the Church in America.
Whether we fulfill that potential and capitalize
on the exceptional work done to date will
depend on the funding available to us. Although
the Mohler Endowment has strengthened the
archives program in many ways, we still require
additional support through donations of
collections, equipment, supplies and money. The
form on the last page of this newsletter offers
information on how you can help us fulfull our
mission.
202-319-5065
202-319-0554 (Fax)
[email protected]
http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/index.html
Editor: Jordan Patty
The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives
Education and
Outreach
E
ducation Archivist Maria Mazzenga, Ph.D., tapped the
invaluable archives collections on labor and, working
with archives staff, organized two campus
presentations that honored both individuals significant to the
collections and continuing labor-related issues. “Whither the
Labor Movement?” honored Monsignor George Higgins;
“Beyond the Swoosh: Sweatshops and Social Justice,” was
jointly funded with assistance from several campus groups and
held in honor of Dorothy Mohler. “Swoosh” examined Nike
products and the sweatshops used to produce them. Both events
took place on the CUA campus in spring 2006. In 2000,
Dorothy Mohler’s estate bequeathed funds to the archives for
an endowment that has supported additional professional staff,
facilities and equipment. Mazzenga also completed “Forging
Bonds of Sympathy: The Catholic Church and the Knights of
Labor,” which was added to the online American Catholic
History Classroom. This “virtual Catholic history classroom” is
Jim Keady and Leslie Kretzu used archival materials from CUA’s
a series of Web sites created by staff at the archives to make
collection in their presentation on Nike products and sweatshops.
primary documents in Catholic history more accessible to high
school and college teachers.
In addition to approximately 10 to 20 primary documents,
each site contains background information on each general site topic, short individual document introductions and document-based
questions, chronologies to aid in contextualizing the
documents in broader U.S. events, further readings
lists and other fascinating materials related to issues
and events in the American Catholic experience.
Other site topics are: “Catholic Patriotism on Trial:
The Oregon School Case of the 1920s”; “The
Federated Colored Catholics”; “How Much is
Enough? Catholics and A Living Wage,” and
“Catholic Responses to Industrialization.” The sites,
which can be accessed through the archives home
page, are designed for use in U.S. history, Church
history or other social science and religious studies
courses. Please contact the American Catholic
History Classroom project manager Maria Mazzenga
at [email protected] with any questions or
comments about the Web sites.
Women delegates to the General Assembly of the Knights
of Labor held in Richmond, Va., in October 1866 pose
with an unidentified baby. This image, along with other
photos and more than a dozen primary documents, can be
accessed at the American Catholic History Classroom's
latest site on the Knights of Labor.
Fall 2006
3
ACUA Newsletter
Additional
Treasure
Chest
Acquired
O
A cover from a 1961 issue of the
Treasure Chest.
n May 10, 2006, Processing
Archivist Jordan Patty and
Education Archivist Maria
Mazzenga, set off for Newville, Pa., with the
expectation of collecting a complete run of
Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact, a Catholic
comic book published from 1946 until 1972.
The archives already owned eight bound
volumes of the Treasure Chest, received in
1970 from W. Wingate Snell and 17 bound
volumes of the Treasure Chest received in
2003 from CUA’s John K. Mullen of Denver
Memorial Library.
The Newville donor was Frank M. Borth,
one of the illustrators who contributed to the
Treasure Chest. Mr. Borth worked on the
Treasure Chest almost from its inception
after he completed service in the army
during World War II. In addition to
illustrations, Mr. Borth contributed his own
stories, including “Uncle Harry’s Gold
Mine” and “Uncle Harry’s Monkey’s
Uncle.” As a contributor, he wanted copies
of his work, but the publisher only mailed
the issues in packages of 10 for distribution
to children at Catholic parochial schools.
Since the price to mail 10 issues would have
been the same as one issue, Mr. Borth
decided to receive 10. His daughter
discovered that CUA’s University Archives
possessed a Treasure Chest collection and
provided his contact information.
Mr. Borth’s donation filled multiple gaps
in the CUA collection, although it did not
complete it, Mr. Borth agreed to provide a
taped recorded oral history about Treasure
Chest and his work there. The archives
holds very little correspondence or other
information concerning the creation of the
Treasure Chest comic books, so his
recollections on how the comic book was
produced will assist future researchers. The
archives hopes to add his interview along
with the additional issues to the Treasure
Chest digital collection, which contains most
of the issues up until 1963, before the
copyright renewed. Associate Archivist John
Shepherd continues to acquire missing
issues to complete the collection. Please
visit the Treasure Chest digital collection at
www.aladin.wrlc.org/dl/. A finding aid for
the entire collection is available at libraries.
cua.edu/achrcua/TreasureChest.html.
Museum Storage
Clean Up
In June 2006, the museum storage area in Curley Hall received a muchneeded renovation. Although the archives maintains part of the collection
in its main storage facility, the bulk of the museum collection has been
housed in a separate storage area for many years. With a renewed commitment to the museum collection by the university, the archives awarded a
cleaning contract to Servpro. Cleaning required the removal of all of the
objects to another building on campus. While the objects were held in
temporary storage, the archives staff invited faculty and staff to view
objects available on loan as decorations for their offices. Since a formal
museum display area does not exist, the offices serve as small exhibit areas
all over campus and departments save on the costs of decorating.
4
Fall 2006
ACUA Newsletter
The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives
Audio/Visual
Collection
Update
Father Gilbert Hartke on the stage set.
P
atrick Cullom, A/V archivist,
received, cataloged, preserved,
digitized and shared with
researchers many new items while also
continuing his work with existing
holdings. The most notable collections
located were the personal/professional
papers of the founder of the CUA drama
department, Father Gilbert Hartke,
including thousands of images and
multiple hours of recordings. The Office
of Public Affairs turned over to Collum
more than 500,000 images of CUA from
1973 to 2002.
The hiring of Marcella Fredricksson in
the newly created audiovisual technician
position in September 2005 contributed
to increased volume of acquisitions by
the audiovisual department. Fredriksson
assisted Cullom with processing, image
requests, collection indexing, preservation, item level description, and the
creation of large digital collections for
access on the Web.
Collum and Fredriksson digitized
approximately 2,200 images and
authorized the use of 60 images in
publications that include both CUA and
several other scholarly and popular
publications and programs. They
digitized 65 hours of
audio and video for
use by both CUA
offices and outside
researchers, while
providing university
Soldiers relax at a watering hole in Columbus, Ga., ca.
1942–1946. A larger version of the image in addition to
others in the NCWC Lantern Slide collection may be
aceessed online at http://www.aladin.wrlc.org/dl/.
ACUA Newsletter
offices, especially alumni relations,
university development and public
affairs, with hundreds of images for use
in CUA-related publications, Web pages
and events, as well as for such CUAsponsored events as the CUA Women’s
History Month Photographic Exhibit and
the annual Senators Club Luncheon.
Cullom continued to work with the
WRLC Digital Collections Production
Center. The most recent project, the
NCWC Lantern Slide Collection,
consists of 111 images created by the
National Catholic Welfare Conference
(predecessor of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) to highlight
the NCWC’s work with veterans of both
World War I and World War II. The
slides date from ca. 1927 and ca. 19421946 and are available online at
www.aladin.wrlc.org/dl/.
The archives is creating a new digital
collection, tentatively titled Historical
Images of CUA, that will contain images
of the CUA campus and community from
different eras. The bulk of the collection
consists of a photograph album given to
the university’s first rector, Bishop John
J. Keane, which contains images of the
CUA grounds and faculty as they
appeared in 1890, and images photographed by Lawrence Wright (class of
1921), during his years at CUA from
1917 to 1921. Once the collection is
available online, it will also be accessible
through www.aladin.wrlc.org/dl/.
A preview of an image that will be included in the Historical Images of CUA
collection online. The photograph of Cardinal Hall (left) and Gibbons Hall
(right) was made from the roof of McMahon Hall. The third building (center),
known as both Keane Hall and Albert Hall, was demolished in 1970.
Fall 2006
5
ACUA Newsletter
Additional
Manuscript
Collections
Processed
W
ho was Michael Kenny and
why does CUA have his
papers? Born in London,
England, on June 23, 1923, Kenny earned
five degrees at Oxford University,
including a doctorate in social
anthropology in 1967. He managed a
theater in London’s West End, taught at
Oxford and in Spain, and
joined the CUA faculty as a
teacher of anthropology in
1959. Here he was assistant
professor from 1959 to
1962, when he became an
associate professor. In
1966, he was named an
ordinary professor. He was
a member of the CUA
President’s Advisory
Committee on University
Planning, chaired Latin
American studies
committees, and was a
trustee of the Consortium
of Washington Universities.
As the editor of
Anthropology Quarterly,
past president of the
Washington
Anthropological Society,
and a fellow of the
American Anthropological
Association and the Society
for Applied Anthropology,
Kenny was internationally
recognized for his
contributions to the field of
Ibero-American Studies.
His A Spanish Tapestry:
Town and Country in
Castile (1961) was widely
praised and went through
many editions. The Michael
Harry Read (right) shares a beer with Al Capone (center) and an
Kenny papers have now
unidentified man in Cuba, ca. 1930.
been processed in the
archives. The bulk of the collection dates
from the 1950s to the 1980s and consists
largely of research and class notes, but
also contains significant documentation
on his career at CUA as well as his
writing and publishing work. An
inventory is available online at
6
Fall 2006
libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/findaid.html.
In addition to the Kenny papers, the
Processing Archivist Jordan Patty also
reorganized the Harry Cyril Read Papers.
Read was born on May 13, 1892, in
Chicago, Ill., to Harry Carleton and
Margaret Ann (Griffin) Read. He
attended Chicago grade schools and
worked on a business degree at
Northwestern University from 1919 to
1921. After working as a reporter for four
years, Read became the editor of the
Chicago American in 1926 during some
of the most intense crime in Chicago and
United States history. Read carried on the
tradition of aggressive newsgathering by
the Chicago American by forming a
relationship with Al Capone, one of the
most notorious Chicago gangsters at the
time. In 1945, Read and his wife moved
to Washington, D.C., when he accepted a
job as assistant to James B. Carey, the
secretary-treasurer of the Congress of
Industrial Organizations (CIO). In this
capacity, Read represented the union at
the United Nations Conference for
International Organization in San
Francisco in 1948 and at the World
Federation of Trade Unions in Rome in
1948. While in Rome, Pope Pius XII
received him in private audience. Read
had been involved with Catholic-related
groups as a member of the Association of
Catholic Trade Unionists, the Catholic
Economic Association, the Catholic
Labor Alliance, and the Catholic
Interracial Council. In addition to his
work with Catholic organizations, he also
became more active on health and safety
committees in Washington, D.C., and was
recognized posthumously by the National
Safety Council, which established the
Harry Read Memorial. Read worked as
Carey’s assistant until the 1955 merger of
the CIO and the American Federation of
Labor, when he became the assistant to
William F. Schnizler, the secretarytreasurer of the AFL-CIO. Online finding
aids to the Harry Cyril Read Papers as
well as the records of the CIO are
available at libraries.cua.edu
/achrcua/findaid.html.
ACUA Newsletter
The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives
Archives Welcomed
Off-Campus
Researchers
T
hroughout the spring and summer of 2006, the archives
supported the travel of three researchers. Each one
submitted an application and described the importance
of the archives’ holdings to the completion of their projects.
Julia Young, a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American history at
The University of Chicago, conducted archival research for
her dissertation, “Mexican Emigration During the Cristero
War, 1926–1929.” This project investigated the religious and
political activities of Mexican Catholic emigrants in the United
States during Mexico’s Cristero War, a three-year conflict
between the revolutionary government and the Catholic
Church. Young reviewed the administrative files of the
National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC), which played
a key role in negotiating a peace agreement between the
Catholic Church hierarchy and the Mexican government, as
well as in facilitating the immigration of exiled Mexican
clergy to the United
States. Visiting
scholar, Peter Boyle,
currently based at
the Cushwa Center
for the Study of
American
Catholicism,
University of Notre
Dame (2004–
present), also used
Michael Pasquier in the archives reading
the NCWC files and
room came to the archives after winning a
looked at the role of
grant named to honor Dorothy Mohler.
the American
Catholic Church in World War I. The title of his doctoral
dissertation is “Irish Catholic Military Chaplains in the British
Army 1914–1918: Contribution and Consequences.” Michael
Pasquier, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religion at
Florida State University, used the Peter Guilday Papers.
Pasquier’s work on the history of Marian devotion will appear
in the forthcoming book, Saints and Their Cults in the Atlantic
World (University of South Carolina Press). Pasquier is
completing his dissertation on French missionaries in 19thcentury America.
From the Archives Vault ... A photograph of attendees at the 1958 National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice in Chicago, Ill.
ACUA Newsletter
Fall 2006
7
The American Catholic History Research Center
and University Archives
Washington, DC 20064
The Catholic University of America
The American Catholic History Research Center and University
Archives Is Asking For Your Support!
The archives is always seeking new collections, equipment donations and additional funds to continue our mission of collecting,
organizing, preserving, making accessible, and promoting scholarly and public understanding of the records of The Catholic
University of America and, more generally, the documentary and artifactual heritage of the American Catholic people. Please take a
moment to fill out the form below or e-mail the information to [email protected]. Thank you!
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please visit development.cua.edu and designate your gifts to
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