After a four year gathering of artifacts and information from religious women across the country, and under the guidance of the Smithsonian Institution ( as well as other experts from the fields of museum and public relations display), the exhibit “Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America,” a project of LCWR, opened in Cincinnati on May 16, 2009. The exhibit was a stupendous undertaking and was brought about (as was also true of the history of women religious in the U.S.) by beginning with a vague idea about what was needed and blossoming into an amazing and overwhelmingly rich presentation of the work of women’s congregations in our country from 1727 into the present. It is to be a three year traveling exhibit shown throughout the United States. As of this writing, no specific place in California is yet publicized as a site for the exhibition. Questions of security (many irreplaceable artifacts) and space have not yet been answered adequately in the Golden State.
The permanent portion of the exhibit is comprised of many small galleries. These feature artifacts, photos, written text and films presented on TV monitors, to exemplify the themes and history of the work done in our country by Catholic religious women. In the final portion, a cross section of contemporary religious speak directly from the screen, talking about the contemporary experiences of sisters living a consecrated life in a new century here, in this country.
Because religious life here has been so diverse and has been expressed differently in different regions of the country, the first gallery of the exhibit is a changeable one that will feature the religious congregations and works of that particular region with photos, texts and artifacts drawn from the local religious communities. This local history introduces the viewer into the major, permanently mounted exhibit of the following several galleries. These, in turn, culminate in the filmed remarks of present religious women and in a wall upon which over 650 congregations that have served in the United States have their names listed alphabetically. I found us listed as Sisters of the Holy Family, Fremont, CA.
The exhibit is very well done, engaging and quite moving, very beautiful. It does focus on hospitals, schools, orphanages and some social work, most particularly from the East Coast and plains states. There is very little illustrating the religious communities of the West. The service ministries that drew our own community’s attention are not dealt with or very lightly touched upon. There is hardly a mention of catechetics and day care is barely represented --one picture of a New York Nursery School -- and not much reflects home visiting, work with and for the retarded or non-institutional ministries. Hopefully, we will be able to show some of the history of those missing ministries in the local gallery that begins the exhibit when it is shown in California. I had to content myself with the thought that, after all, with 300 years of history, so many diverse communities, and so limited a space it must have been very difficult to adequately outline everything. The categories of school and hospital convey much of what has been done.
The overall impact of the exhibit gives one a sense of tremendous history enacted by women simply doing the work to which their congregations were called in marvelously creative and adaptive ways. The photographs and artifacts are fascinating, the texts interesting and helpful, the films arresting. The interviews capture one’s full attention as individual sisters speak to the concerns of today and tomorrow. The exhibit is well worth attending. It truly reflects the amazing graces of God operating in the length and breadth of the United States.
Sister Michaela O'Connor, SHF
November 14, 2009