Tag Archives: Emmitsburg

April 22, 2024 · 9:49 am

The Emmitsburg Plant Books

In the age of Laudato Si, we are reminded of the value of knowing what our common home looks like, and part of this is knowing the level of biodiversity in our environment.  The Sisters and Daughters of Charity who ministered at St. Joseph’s Academy and at their Provincial house throughout the 19th century did not go into extensive detail on trees, plants, and ecology around them.  Thankfully, some of their students did.

The Archives has five books, each containing a collection of pressed leaves and flowers of various plant species found in the area, along with the scientific name of each plant.  The books range in date from 1806 to 1874.

The typical page from one of these books consists of one or several samples cut and pasted into the books and its scientific name.

This page consists of Salvia Splendens and Salvia patens, or red and blue sage.

The scrapbooks provide evidence of the education Academy students were receiving, both in Latin and in plants and botany.  While many of the plants are native, several of them are not, indicating some type of cultivation.  One of the books even contains a chart of the plants, including its count, scientific, and common name, as well as more information on its taxonomical classification.

From 1807

Seeing as some of the books predate Mother Seton’s founding of her school in Emmitsburg in 1809, it is unclear exactly how some of the earliest books came to the collections.  Others, however, have clear provenance and direct connection to Emmitsburg, as the one created by Mary O’Rourke, class of 1874, sent by her husband and daughter after her passing.

We are in the process of scanning these books, first and foremost as a conservation measure.  Decaying plant matter does not typically do well for conservation and holding up well, as anyone familiar with trees, soil, gardening, or nutrients will tell you.  The plant samples are also incredibly fragile, made dry and brittle by over a century (sometimes two) of survival.  Scanning will preserve the books in the state they are in now, at least in image form, in case more and more pieces get whittled away.  Currently, three of the five books have been scanned, and we are planning to make them available publicly through our colleagues at Digital Maryland.  Eventually, we will make the others available as well, but due to their size, we will need to work with third-party vendors with capabilities that we do not have on-site.

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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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October 18, 2023 · 10:30 am

Creating the Habit Exhibit

For about a month now, the Daughters of Charity Provincial Archives’ exhibit on the history, symbolism, and eventual change of the Daughters habit has been open. We wanted to use this opportunity to discuss some of the background that led us to the finished product of the exhibit.

The origin of the exhibit came, of course, with the planning of the renovation of the Seton Shrine Museum, when the Daughters Archive secured their own exhibit gallery, open to the public alongside the Shrine. As we thought about what would be our first opening to a large crowd, we turned to our own statistics and the number of questions we receive about the Daughters traditional habit. With the number of requests we receive on this subject, we saw an opening to appeal and educate on a popular subject. With the number of habits, rosaries, and chaplets in the artefactual collections, we saw a chance for a very material heavy exhibit.

From here, we saw five key things to focus on: the origins in the times of St. Louise, the habits and chaplets and their symbolism, making a cornette, and the change of the habit.

When it came to creating the mannequins, the showpiece and centerpieces of the exhibit, we did have to acquire a few more mannequins, but also now faced the challenge of how to prepare them for a museum-going audience. Thankfully, we were able to draw upon our colleagues at Heritage Frederick, the Historical Society of Frederick County, to teach us how to dress them properly. Their curator, Amy Hunt, had just finished leading the creation of their “Women’s Work from Farm to Fashion” exhibit, and taught us what she knew about displaying textiles and clothing.

We realized early on that we wanted something of a ‘workshop closet’ feel, both as an aesthetic and as a way to establish some separation between the visitor and the habits – hence the platform and barrier. We realized the chaplets and rosaries could easily be displayed in exhibit cases that we already had, and we already had a pulled cornette on display in our old exhibit space in a perfectly sized case. The cornette-making equipment also provided a nice show piece, and we had already digitized an instructional video of a Daughter explaining how to make a cornette into its iconic shape and image.

We also realized that something in the artifact collections, which we had in abundance but which got very little actual use could give the exhibit a much-needed feeling of fun and spontaneity – the dolls. These not only illustrated the different habits over time, even when we did not have room for more mannequins, but also provided a resonance point for guests and particularly something relatable for children.

With the big showpieces and themes covered, we could then take steps to fill the rest of the space. One staff member realized that artwork depicting the habits could entice visitors. Another realized that guests could have a personal connection with a Daughter if they were allowed to touch and handle her chaplet. All of these things helped create our first exhibit truly open to the public without restriction. We invite you in to explore the truly iconic apparel of the Daughters of Charity!

Getting in the Habit: Iconic Apparel of the Daughters of Charity is open at the Seton Shrine in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Monday through Saturday 10AM-5PM, except Wednesday when it is open until 7:30PM. Private tours can be arranged by contacting archives@doc.org or calling 301-447-6067. The exhibit will be open through the end of 2024.

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