October is American Archives Month, which was created to promote the value of archives and the importance of archivists. People often have misconceptions about what an archive is, and what archivists do. The public seems to have an image of archivists sitting in rooms pouring over old, dusty documents that they keep away from the public eye. Nothing could be...Read more

The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) North American Archives staff was awarded with the 2022 Governor’s Award for Archival Achievement from the Wisconsin Historical Society during an award presentation on October 4. Read about the award at wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS16797. The SSND North American Archives is the repository of historical documents for the congregation in North America. Located at Mount Mary University...Read more

By Grace Avila, Assistant Archivist Beginnings are not without their challenges. When School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) founded missions at parish schools, they would never know what type of situation they were getting into. The sisters could be warmly received by the community, met with open hostility or every other possibility in between. Opening missions in states with an...Read more

By Tim Cary, Processing Archivist Transforming the world through education. The ministry of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) is meaningful to the people they teach. The words are also important to the sisters themselves. Prior to the early 1950s, teaching sisters got relatively little formal training before being placed into the classroom. They met the same standards that...Read more

In 1965, Mother Georgianne Segner, the provincial for the Dallas Province, was traveling to Wilton, Connecticut, to attend the School Sisters of Notre Dame Educational Conference. The SSND-ECs were annual events where North American sisters would attend lectures on various topics related to education and teaching. Along the way she had a very interesting encounter. The following was recorded in...Read more

“Yesterday, Friday, July 30 [1847], at five in the evening, we set foot on solid ground for the first time in America – in New York.” Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger wrote these words at the end of the long and arduous trip from Munich to New York. She left Bavaria with the intention of establishing a motherhouse in a...Read more

Margaret Wessels was born January 8, 1902 in St. Louis, Missouri. She entered the congregation in 1919 and was given the religious name Eulogia. Sister Eulogia professed her first vows in 1923 and for the next 40 years, she worked primarily as an elementary school teacher in Missouri, Illinois, Texas and Louisiana. When Sister Eulogia entered the congregation, teachers were...Read more

Why is Sister Virginia Grumlich hanging out with actor Robert Young? The story is simple. In 1969, the Preparatory Institute of Notre Dame in Sunland, California closed. The following year, the SSND and the Eddie Cantor Charitable Foundation established what became known as Tierra del Sol, a program originally conceived to be an alternative to training in a sheltered workshop....Read more

From the Michele Levandoski, archivist at the School Sisters of Notre Dame North American Archives: Mother Caroline Friess was known for her embroidery skills. She established the Tapestry Department at the Milwaukee Motherhouse as a means to generate income to support the sisters. The department made various types of liturgical items, such as vestments, palls, chasubles and burses. The photos...Read more

From the Michele Levandoski, archivist at the School Sisters of Notre Dame North American Archives: When people hear the name, “School Sisters of Notre Dame,” they think of them as educators. However, not all SSND were teachers. There were a group of sisters known as “homemaking sisters,” whose job it was to keep the sisters living in the Motherhouses, convents,...Read more