Subseries 01 - History

• Multiple media
• Textual record

6.75 cm of textual records
1 photograph: b&w

This subseries contains records related to the history of the western mission in Alberta of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Ontario from 1922 to 2001. This subseries is focused on the history of the St. Joseph’s Convent Regional House. The first Motherhouse was the Sacred Heart Convent on 108th Avenue from 1922-1961, and the second location was the Regional House at 135th Street from 1961-2000. This series contains annals and historical summaries of the activities at both Motherhouses, including a copy of Fifty Golden Years in Canada’s Golden West, a historical summary from 1922 to 1972 compiled by Sister Catherine Cunningham. Topics include the Sisters’ work, daily chores, parish work on and off site, retreats, conferences, celebrations, Corporation meetings, Regional Council meetings, Chapter of Affairs meetings, elections for delegates for the General Chapter, Community work appointments and transfers, Open Houses for women interested in religious vocation, and Final Vows of the Novitiates. The Sisters were teachers, administrators, and principals and the records discuss their involvement with a range of education activities and events including administering and teaching kindergarten to high school students, teaching music classes, swim classes, summer classes, holding sports field days, performing in the annual Kiwanis Music Festival, and competing in the Edmonton Regional Science Fair. These historical summaries also contain topics on the land purchase and renovations of the Motherhouse and the Sylvan Lake house cottage. As well as topics on the elderly, infirmed, and geriatric care of the Sisters.

There are reflections and transcripts of interviews of Sisters who served in the Edmonton Archdiocese. The interviews were conducted by Leith Peterson from May to June 2001, to collect background information to help produce a souvenir “Memory Brochure” titled In the Spirit of the Sisters of St. Joseph: A Tribute to the Regional House in Edmonton, Alberta for the October 2000 closing of the Regional House in Edmonton. There is a printed map of the five Diocese of Alberta from the Edmonton Archbishop J. N. MacNeil; a printed drawing of a “Family Tree of the Sisters of St. Joseph” with tree branches of congregations in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia; and photocopies of newspaper articles from 1890 to 1939 on the biographies of the Board Trustee Members of the Separate School Board and statistics on enrollment, taxes, and debenture debts of the Separate School Board.

There are several lists including a list of 14 new apostolates; a list of 30 Sisters who received full communion from 1923-1940; a list of donors and their gifts received at the opening of the Regional House such as, statues for the chapel, an organ, a tabernacle, crucifix, sanctuary lamps, vases, candle sticks, carpet, and coffee percolator; a list of “Important Dates” from 1922-1982 with historical milestones of the opening year of the foundations of hospitals and schools that the Sisters established in Alberta; and a list of Sisters who were stationed in Edmonton from 1922-2001. In addition, there are handwritten messages on small pieces of note paper, a pamphlet, and a black and white photograph taken on May 1964 of St. Joseph’s Convent Regional House on 135th Street, in Edmonton.