February 28, 2024 · 10:35 am

Long Overdue Gratitude to the Oblate Sisters of Providence

The cholera epidemic of 1832 that swept through Baltimore killed 1% of the city’s population, which translated into 800 deaths.  The Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, Mother Seton’s community, received recognition and gratitude for its work and service.  Another community of sisters did not receive their gratitude for a very, very long time, purely because they were Black.

The Oblate Sisters of Providence were the first community of African American women religious in the United States.  Founded by Venerable Mother Mary Lange and counting among its first band of members Sister Theresa Maxis Duchemin, a student of Mother Seton’s school, the Oblate Sisters primarily came from and ministered to the free African American community in the Baltimore area.

The only known photo of Mother Mary Lange, c. 1870s/80s

The Calverton Almshouse was one of the great horror sites of the epidemic.  The Sisters of Charity labored in one room providing comfort to the dying, while the Oblate Sisters labored in another; segregation prevented a more efficient and effective method of care.  Yet, despite this practice, when Archbishop James Whitefield contracted the disease, he called upon the Oblate Sisters rather than the Sisters of Charity, who held the official mandate for care granted by the Archdiocese. 

Calverton Almshouse (Courtesy Enoch Pratt Free Library / State Library Resource Center)

Despite facing the same horrors, and each community losing Sisters to cholera in the epidemic, the accounts in the Daughters’ Archives fail to mention the work of their Oblate companions.  Only in 2023 did the city of Baltimore extend an official recognition of gratitude to the Oblate Sisters. 

While better late than never is certainly true, it is our hope that all be recognized in their own times and to see the completeness of the work of God’s Church and every soul that forms it.

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February 5, 2024 · 11:31 am

Pioneers: Estelle Howard at Providence Hospital, Washington

Today we would like to highlight a pioneer at one of the Daughters largest and longest-lived institutions, Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C.  When Estelle Howard arrived at Providence to begin her career as a nurse, she became one of the first two Black nurses to work at the hospital.  She would spend the next 43 years at Providence, garnering a number of other pioneering firsts during her time there.

It was 1947 when Sister Rita Voss called the Freedman’s Hospital Nursing School and asked for the best two students in the graduating nursing class.  No white hospital had ever made such a request of Freedman’s before.

Expecting an interview, the two nurses were hired on the spot and asked if they were ready to work.  In 1951, Ms. Howard became head of a segregated ward, but as units desegregated, she became the first Black head nurse of an integrated unit.  She later rose to the ranks of Assistant Director of Nursing and Control Coordinator of the Emergency Unit.

Among her other accomplishments, roles, and titles at the job were those of a reporter for the employee newsletter and leadership positions in the District of Columbia’s Nurses Association.

Estelle Howard in 1963

In 1982, for her pioneering role and years of dedicated service, Ms. Howard was the inaugural winner of the Sr. Anne Robb Award, given to those who have shown dedication to Providence Hospital, above average performance and achievements, and perseverance in the face of difficulties.  Even after this lifetime achievement award, she served for another eight years at the hospital.  In her presentation of the award, Sister Irene Kraus called her “a model of a person who focuses on the good in life and people and refuses to be embittered or to respond in kind when she meets unkindness … Miss Howard has the unique ability over the years to be loyal and supportive of those she has worked with at every level.”

Estelle Howard and Sister Irene Kraus in 1982, when Ms. Howard received the Sister Anne Robb Award

Estelle Howard retired after exactly 43 years at Providence on April 23, 1990.  The hospital proclaimed it Estelle Louise Howard Day.  Her work made it possible for many others to pursue their career as they desired and to make nursing and the Hospital better for its administrators, doctors, nurses, and patients.  Even after her retirement, she continued to volunteer at the hospital.

Estelle Howard in 1990, near her retirement

Estelle Howard’s story is documented in the Archives through the various employee newsletters, photo collections, and a profile written about her in 1990, but we are also fortunate enough to have a copy of a life story that she wrote “And Now My Time at Bat Remembering” in 1999.  Although it is but a few brief pages, it allows her to tell her story in her own words and as she wished to, with deep reverence for her immediate and extended family and for the elder family members who can preserve and pass on Black family history.  It documents her ancestors’ leaving Alabama during the Great Migration and the forces growing up that shaped her life, including the town library, the Great Depression, and stories of family history in Louisiana.

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January 30, 2024 · 9:51 am

The St. Joseph’s Needlework Collection

When Mother Seton started St. Joseph’s School (later Academy) in 1810, she made it a point to include the very practical skill of needlework into her curriculum for the young girls who attended the School.  Many of these needleworks survive in the archival collections of the Daughters from across the span of the 19th century.

The incorporation of needlework into the curriculum served to teach skills in the arts, religious instruction, the beginnings of basic literacy, and practical skills for 19th century feminine life that prepared the girls to be proper 19th century women.  Many of the needleworks in the collection combine multiple mediums, with a background painted in watercolor and the silk embroidered on top of it, as with this piece shown below by Margaret Ann Cappeau (began her studies in 1826).

For literacy and instruction in religion, many students started with basic letters and numbers.  When they had mastered these tasks, they advanced on to stitching out verses of scripture.  Mother Seton even helped her daughter Catherine with her needlework and early learning on this front.

In addition to being records of the curriculum of the Academy, the needlepoints also serve as some of the earliest records of the evolution of the School’s campus.  A common subject of the needleworks is a depiction of the school itself, and, in the era before photography was invented or common, the images created by the students provide the earliest visual records of how the campus grew and evolved.

Other needleworks contain stories of their own.  Belle Barranger began creating the largest needlepoint in the collection on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg, when the School was evacuated and temporarily closed as both the Union and Confederate armies marched through town.  As she tried to finish St. Patrick and his destruction of the serpents, she did not have time to finish the serpent itself!  As the piece passed from one generation of her family to the next, so too did the story and what it represented, until her descendants, still knowledgeable of the Daughters, donated it back to them for posterity after their mother’s death.

These samplers were common in Maryland and have a distinctive style.  Today, they are exceedingly rare and valuable, with the Daughters of Charity collection being one of the largest, with nearly 40 samplers dating from 1812 to 1940.  Many of the samplers from the collection are currently on display in the Seton Shrine Museum through the end of 2024.  They can be viewed both as beautiful pieces of artwork or as pieces of documenting the history of education in Emmitsburg.

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