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 A new exhibit which explores the way that Catholics have influenced and shaped the city of Chicago features vintage photographs and artifacts donated by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who established one of the area’s first girls’ schools in the late 1800s.
The comprehensive exhibit opened Saturday, March 8, at the Chicago History Museum and will run through January 4, 2009. The Catholic Church is one of the central stories in the history of Chicago, Gary T. Johnson, president of the Chicago History Museum, said during the opening reception.
“The story is as old as the city itself,” Johnson said. “The story is as rich as the city itself. You cannot tell the story of the city of Chicago without telling the Catholic story of Chicago.”
The exhibit includes images, sacred objects, Catholic school artifacts, reflections of Catholic Chicagoans and videos which capture the complexity of Catholic life in Chicago, said Ellen Skerrett, a social historian who was the lead exhibition consultant.
“This is the first museum to examine the role religion has played in created and sustaining life in Chicago,” Skerrett said during the opening reception. “It is appropriate that it coincides with Women’s History Month since so much of Catholic life has been a women’s story.”
As planning for the exhibit began, Skerrett, who graduated from SSND-sponsored Academy of Our Lady (AOL) in 1967, contacted Sister Charlaine Fill, SSND, about contributing to the displays. Sister Charlaine, heritage coordinator in Chicago, worked with Jill Grannan, a curator at the museum, to provide photographs, an historical quilt, AOL scrapbook and original artwork.
“One of the reasons they wanted to feature the Academy of Our Lady is because it was one of the earlier schools that taught women in an area of Chicago that was then considered ‘on the prairie,’ and it is still a school today,” Sister Charlaine said.
When two curators visited the SSND convent at AOL more than a year ago, one of the first things they noticed was the SSND quilt hanging prominently in the foyer. That quilt, now displayed on a wall in the “School Days” section of the exhibit, was designed by Sister Josephine Niemann, SSND, and made in the Liturgical Arts Department in the St. Louis Province, said Sister Charlaine.
“The quilt is wonderful to have on display because it shows the whole history of the School Sisters of Notre Dame from Germany to Chicago,” Sister Charlaine said.
A detailed description of the quilt, which bears the quote, “Love Gives Everything Gladly,” explains its featured elements, including the SSND symbol and portraits of Blessed Theresa Gerhardinger, foundress of the congregation in Germany; Mother Caroline Friess, the first Mother Superior in North America, and Mother Mary Eldred King, who helped established the Chicago Province in 1965.
“In 1877, the School Sisters of Notre Dame chartered the Academy of Our Lady (also known as Longwood Academy) on the far southern outskirts of the city on 95th Street near Ashland Avenue,” the description states. “The school primarily served Irish and German girls and included a prestigious college preparatory program. The order’s commitment to education lives on through a non-Catholic charter school that currently occupies the school and former convent grounds.”
The narrative posted with photos of an Academy of Our Lady classroom from 1900 and AOL seniors from 1993 features quotes from AOL alumna Laura Washington who notes that Catholicism “created for me a value system and a foundation that changed my life.”
An award-winning journalist, Washington also credits her Catholic school education with influencing her career as a reporter and her commitment to social justice issues.
“That [commitment] comes directly from my Catholic upbringing and what the sisters tried to teach me about … respecting your peers, respecting your community.”
Around the corner from the quilt and photos, a 1912 AOL scrapbook belonging to Florentine Foley is on display, open to pages containing programs from St. Valentine’s Day and a Musical Conservatory to greet Mother M. Aquinata on the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.
The AOL scrapbook is in a case along with artifacts from other area high schools, including a 1951 yearbook and class ring from St. Mel High School; the senior year portrait of former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who attended De La Salle Institute, 1919; an eighth grade diploma from St. Adalbert’s School, 1921; a senior year autograph book from St. Sabina, 1948; a Visitation High School yearbook, 1957; and a football scrapbook from St. Columbanus and St. Leo, 1935.
In the “Worship in the City” section of the exhibit, the Seventh Station of the Cross, an oil on canvas painting by Sister Mary Stanisia Kurkowska, is among the religious artwork on display. Sister Stanisia painted the station, “Jesus Falls for the Second Time,” for the SSND convent at the Academy of Our Lady around 1925. The stations later were hung at nearby St. Margaret’s of Scotland convent but now are stored in the SSND archives in Chicago.
During her lifetime, Sister Stanisia was one of the most widely-known female painters throughout the Catholic world, and she is featured in the book, “Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary.”
The exhibit also includes thematic sections on “Committed to Community,” “Changing the Church,” and “Faith in the Future.” One alcove is dedicated to the Eucharistic Congress of 1926.
“This exhibit is really great,” Sister Charlaine said. “They worked really hard to be representative of all the religious congregations in Chicago, and there is so much to cover.
“This was really an opportunity to make our presence felt because the School Sisters of Notre Dame were there in the beginning. But this isn’t just about us. We were there, and we were part of something much bigger. This puts the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the context of what was going on in Chicago history.”
By Julie Gilberto-Brady
SSND Communications Coordinator
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