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This sous-contains fundraising documents pertaining to rural collections and the Orphans’ Festival which show that the Sisters needed support from the surrounding community in order to operate the orphanage. Articles, tickets, programmes, and receipts from the annual Orphans’ Festival show the importance the event held, not only to the Sisters but also to Hamilton citizens. Financial records further illustrate how much money was needed to care for the orphaned children. The account books detail the necessary items Sisters purchased to successfully run the orphanage. The fee books show how much parents paid to foster their children. These records also demonstrate the needs the Sisters had on outside resources, like government grants and surrounding community funding. Documents pertaining to regulatory compliance are also found, including the 1965 Children’s Institutions Act and Regulations which outlines the rules the orphanage had to follow in order to operate within the law. Correspondence on a variety of topics is also present in the collection, including finance, education, and daily operations. There are photographs which offer a “snapshot” into the life of the orphanage. These images depict Sisters working in the orphanage, the Orphans’ Festival, children’s communion celebrations, and the dining hall. The sous-fonds also contains records created by the Advisory Committee of Mount St. Joseph Orphanage. These records outline the types of work the committee did, including structural changes to the building. There are several summaries of the history of St. Mary’s Orphanage, and a brief summary of the history of Mount St. Carmel Infants’ Home. The registers offer significant information about the children who remained in the care of the orphanage. These list information such as the orphan’s name, date of birth, religious denomination, nationality, date of admission and discharge, date of death [if applicable], and who took the child after he or she was discharged. There are also registers that list information about children who stayed for day stays, as well as children who were moved into foster homes. The sous-fonds contains information about orphans who received their religious sacraments, as well as baptismal records. Also found personal folders and admission cards, which provide information about application and departure, correspondence and parental addresses and occupations.

This sous-fonds contains materials related to the activities of the St. Joseph's School of Music, including rosters of staff and students, music festival results, sheet music, photographs and scrapbooks.

This fonds contains records pertaining to the activities of the hospital and its associated administrators, staff, and organizations, including histories, annals, financial documents, governance records, photographs of people, the buildings and events, and news clippings.

The fonds consists of essays, annals, a memoire, correspondence, memos, minutes, reports, financial papers, newspapers, newspaper clippings, photographs, drawings, floor plans, fact sheets, orientation booklets, bylaws, yearbooks, speeches, programmes, invitations, cards, newsletters, posters, flyers, press releases, membership roll, scrapbooks, and certificates.

The fonds consists of records concerning the St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing in Chatham. It contains material related to the hospital, the school, the student nurses, and the Alumnae Association. The fonds contains correspondence, pamphlets, booklets, newsletters, promotional material, scrapbooks, photo albums, yearbooks, a diploma, a nursing kit, a crest, two large, matted photographs of graduation classes, and news clippings related to the school, the hospital, the students, and the alumnae. It also includes a variety of photographs of student nurses, student life, the school, the hospital, hospital staff, and alumnae events, and memorabilia from alumni and graduation events.

The Alumnae Association was dedicated to connecting the students and preserving the history of the school. The Alumnae Association’s newsletters, event preparations, treasurer’s book, annual report, constitutions, and bylaws are present.

Notable material directly concerning St. Joseph’s Hospital includes a 1957 constitution and moral code of the medical staff and a list of administrators. There is also a list of the directors of the School of Nursing.

Series consists of records pertaining to the construction and opening of St. Joseph’s Hospice. This includes meeting minutes, leasing agreements, newsletters, correspondence, architectural drawings and prayers and blessings. There is a zip disk containing digital copies of textual records originally arranged in five binder sections.

Sous-fonds contains photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, programs, reports; sound recordings of performances; information about students, teachers (both Sisters and lay teachers), award winners, and alumni; the administrative activities of the Academy; its history, including the opening, closing, graduations, and yearbooks; correspondence with the Ministry of Education of Ontario; and notable groups such as the Academy Singers.

Series contains correspondence, deeds, photographs, and newspaper articles about Mount Hope Motherhouse in London, Ontario before its purchase and while it was operating. Earliest records include a report card from 1868, a letter dated 1869, and an original deed of land dated 1883. Records from the late 1920s to 1960s include original newsclippings. Many of the records are undated photographs, photocopies, or typed histories and biographies. The latest record dated 2005 is email correspondence.

The fonds consists of histories for Killam, Galahad, Rimbey and Stettler hospitals that have been combined to create a history of the Alberta hospitals run by the Sisters of St. Joseph. Killam General Hospital was opened for the longest period of all these hospitals, and therefore a large quantity of the combined history is about this hospital. Along with the series for the histories of the four hospitals, there are series for commemorative and administrative materials. The fonds contains community histories, a timeline, staff listings, correspondence, newsletters, pamphlets, and photographs.

This series contains the annals of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Hamilton, Ontario’s ministry in Guatemala. In October 1963, Sisters Francis Xavier Ruth, Marie Garnier (Joan) McMahon and Bertille Riordan started a mission in Guatemala. They traveled to Teculután to establish a school. A construction committee was formed to buy a plot of land the belonged to the Casteñeda-Rossal family for the school and convent. The town gave half of the land to the Sisters and Don Carlos Piaz of the construction committee provided the other half. The Sisters raised funds to pay for the construction of the buildings. The school opened on January 18, 1965. It was officially inaugurated and named Colegio San José on March 19, 1965. The school offered both elementary and secondary programs and was fully approved by the Guatemalan Ministry of Education. Education was also extended through the airwaves, where literacy programs were broadcast. Evangelization work occurred through catechetics in the schools, the local parish, and through radio programs. In the 1970s, a beca program was created. This program collected donations in-order-to help fund children’s education.
Several other projects were initiated in addition to the school. In 1969, a dentistry clinic was built. The clinic provided a space for nursing Sisters to treat the sick. Several of the Sisters also worked in the local clinics. In 1977, Sister Mary O’ Sullivan started the Nutritional Centre to help children with malnutrition receive care. A focus was also placed on pregnant mothers, and the Sisters provided nutritional advice to ensure the health of their infants. The Nutritional Centre officially opened on August 22, 1978.
In 1976, an earthquake devastated Guatemala. Restoration programs commenced shortly after. The Sisters lent the football field of the school to be used for temporary housing for the 200 workers who had lost their homes during the disaster. The Sisters in Hamilton started “Operation Guatemala,” a charity effort to raise funds and send supplies to the devastated country.

Sister Aloysia Fischer was responsible for the organization and administration of the Christian Children’s Fund, which was an American program, from 1972 to 1976. She also administered the Guatemala Education Bursary (C.O.G.E.B.) in 1975. This bursary program was created by Bishop Reding of the Hamilton Diocese. He wanted to start a program like the Christian Children’s Fund but with Canadian and Diocesan roots. The program provided Teculután families with financial assistance to help with school costs. Participating children had to attend Colegio San José or the local school and mothers had to attend one hour of cooking, one hour of sewing, and one hour of nutrition classes per month. Sister Madeleine Graf later administered this program from 1977 to 1979.

The Sisters also were involved in bringing portable water and electricity to poor areas. The Sisters and priests brought running water to El Jute and Gúijo in 1978 and to the small village of Los Palmares in 1979.

The mission formally ended in November 1979 when the Sisters returned to Canada. That year, they relinquished control of the Colegio San José and the Nutritional Centre to the Capuchin Sisters of the Third Order. Although no longer directly involved in the mission, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Hamilton continued to send funds to Guatemala into the 2000s. Several Sisters went back to Guatemala celebrate various milestones. For instance, Sisters Madeleine Graf and Marie Garnier (Joan) McMahon returned to Teculután in 2005 for the 40th anniversary of the Colegio San José.

This series contains written histories and recollections including annals, correspondence, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, publications, donation lists, financial reports, legal documents, class lists, photographs, negatives, and meeting minutes.