April 3, 2006

Prospectus

Pioneers, Poets and Prophets:

Catholic Sisters in America

A Proposal for an Exhibition on the History of Catholic Sisters in the United States

Since the very beginnings of our national history, daughters of this country and immigrants from other lands joined in unique forms of intentional communitarian life dedicated to prayer and service. Thousands of young women followed in their footsteps, embracing lives committed to teaching, healing and social action. Catholic sisters played a vital role in shaping American life. This exhibition seeks to introduce and illuminate their important contribution.

Sisters nursed both Confederate and Union soldiers during the Civil War; they cared for afflicted populations during the epidemics of cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, smallpox, tuberculosis and influenza during the 19th and early 20th centuries; many died as a consequence of their labors. They participated in the opening of the West, traveling vast distances to minister in remote locations, setting up schools and hospitals and working among native populations on distant reservations. They built colleges, orphanages and charitable institutions that served millions of people; they staffed and managed complex organizations long before these positions were open to other women. They created the largest private school system ever known. They financed and administered these institutions, struggling with, and at times resisting, male secular and religious authority. Their efforts prepared countless immigrant children to enter the mainstream of American life. They were among the first to stand with minorities, to educate women, to work among the urban poor, to exemplify and promote the leadership of women.

Catholic sisters have had an impact on American social, religious and civil history which today is little known and appreciated. Their significant contributions are unfamiliar to the general public, even to people whose lives have been touched directly by their service. Marginalized by both their gender and their religion, reluctant at times to take credit for their achievements, Catholic sisters have often been unrecognized for their remarkable accomplishments. Their story has been surrounded by mystery and obscured by stereotype and prejudice.

The story of Catholic sisters in the United States is filled with enormous vitality and dedication. From the earliest days of the republic more than two hundred and twenty thousand women living in hundreds of religious communities contributed to the building of America through their lives and service, working with great energy and dedication in education, health care, and social service. Theirs is an untold story of women’s leadership, exercised when women did not even have the right to vote; it is a story of women’s determination and vision when there was as yet no public venue for women to be heard.

THE EXHIBITION

We propose to mount an exhibition to recount the story of Catholic sisters and their work in the United States. Based on the archives of many of the communities of sisters who have ministered here, this exhibition will be structured around seven areas in the history of American women religious contextualized within the framework of our national history:

Introduction - who are Catholic sisters

History of Sisters’ communities in the early Republic

Early US foundations - pioneer sisters

Sisters in education - the parochial school system, academies,

colleges and universities

Establishment of hospitals and work in health care

Contributions to social service

Changes in contemporary Religious Life

Biographies of noted women.

The exhibition will document this rich and interesting history through the use of careful scholarship, photographs and artifacts in a professionally designed presentation. The exhibition will explore these themes, presented in light of a vocation of dedication to God and service to others, of creating meaning and establishing community, of empowering women through education and challenge. It will address the power of community, shared work and common goals to accomplish works of great magnitude. These values: dedication, community, vision for the future and service to others are principles at the very heart of the American project. It will examine these contributions, as well as the stereotypes that have at times prevented them from being recognized.

In support of the visual material, we will explore the feasibility of an interactive component to expand the scope of information offered in the presentation: several stations throughout the exhibition will provide additional documentation of history, location and ministries carried out by religious sisters in the past and today. A timeline of US history will situate these contributions in the context of a larger national history. Finally a brochure, outlining some of the history and significant elements in the show, will accompany the exhibition.

While the primary target audience is a general viewing public, this exhibition will be of particular interest to a scholarly audience of historians of American culture and religion.

SPONSORSHIP

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is an organization representing over 400 congregations of Catholic sisters living and working in the United States. As the support system and corporate voice for leaders of women religious of the United States, it promotes an understanding of the religious life of Catholic sisters. As the LCWR prepares to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, it seeks to create this exhibition honoring US Catholic sisters and celebrating their contribution to American culture. The anniversary of the LCWR makes this commemoration particularly timely; significant too is the imperative caused by the aging of many communities, and the realization that the recollections and stories of some of our members will not always be available to be shared.

VENUE

We are working with curators at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History as the primary site of this exhibition. Hosting the show at the Smithsonian positions this history of women religious in the central place it would seem to deserve, at the heart of the American project and at the center of American life. Part of this exhibition will be designed to travel to other sites around the country, to increase its visibility and share this story with as broad an audience as possible.