This is a guest post by Andrew Cogswell, Mount St. Mary’s Class of 2025.
I recently completed a six-week internship with the Daughters of Charity Provincial Archives. Initially, I was introduced to the staff, some sisters, the general history of the Daughters of Charity, and learned what my tasks would be. My first project was compiling clippings of newspaper articles regarding the work of Daughters of Charity from 1998 to 2011 in Indiana. These articles were originally collected by staff at the Evansville campus and document the sisters’ contributions in Indiana. Here I spent many hours cutting out articles, reading them, and putting them in folders based off their connection to the Daughters of Charity at their ministries in the area.
This was only one of a few projects. My next main job was assisting with re-appraisal of artifacts that arrived when the current province was created. This specific task was quite fun, as I got to see what lies within these cases of artifacts and learn about the material culture of the Daughters. In this project, I got to see what sisters deemed as important, including many relics of saints (Mostly St Vincent de Paul, St Louise de Marillac, and St Elizabeth Anne Seton.), and even artwork made by the sisters. Additionally, being able to catalog and appraise these artifacts feeds into my interest of museums and how they gather artifacts for display and preservation.
My next major task was transcribing an oral history interview from Sister Sandra Goldsborough. While the video of her interview was important, the transcription helps to make the interview far more usable for researchers in the future. While the transcription process took quite a few hours for a hour-long interview, it really showed at the heart what the Daughters of Charity is. Through the many trials and hardships Sr. Sandra faced, she never faltered on her duty or love to God. For her a challenge was just part of the condition of life that she was grateful for. Which being able to listen to this interview, showed me how true to her order and to Christ she really was.
While in this internship I dealt with a few different types of archival work, I found a much greater reason in it all. Seeing the work of the Daughters of Charity in Evansville, viewing the artifacts they left behind, and listening to Sr. Sandra’s interview, I have come to the conclusion that these sisters truly live out their motto. Their motto being, “The Charity of Jesus Crucified Urges Us,” is clearly reflected in everything I saw, confirming their deep love for Christ and for others. That through massive changes in all their lives and the differences the church has gone through, they have not changed their core principles one bit. Each and every sister truly is a disciple of Christ and are truly an example of holiness. If anyone wants to learn about the archival world, see some cool artifacts, and more importantly learn about the Daughters of Charity’s impact, this is a great experience one should not pass up.
docarchivesblog.org 