Providence Flashbacks

Behind the Scenes in the Archives!

Behind the Scenes in the Archives!

BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST   The first week of April is Archives Awareness Week in Ontario! With that in mind, here is a behind the scenes peak into the archives of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul. All the photographs used for the Throwback...

Solving a Small Mystery

Solving a Small Mystery

BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST We came across this photograph from St. John’s School, Gananoque in the Archives. It didn’t have a date, or a good explanation of what is going on in the photograph. Based on the clothes and the cars, it might be the 1920s, and the...

Sister Muriel teaching at St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing

Sister Muriel teaching at St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing

Sr. Muriel Gallagher teaching anatomy at St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing, Montreal.BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Sr. Muriel taught at Sr. Mary’s School of Nursing from 1955 to 1965. The School was opened in 1925, and the Sisters of Providence ran it from 1943...

Daylight Savings!

Daylight Savings!

BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Daylight Savings Time (DST) was first instituted in Canada on April 14th 1918, but was canceled at the end of WWI by the federal government. Certain municipalities, including Kingston, continued with DST. The Congregation was unsure...

Teaching in Batawa

Teaching in Batawa

Farewell for Sisters in Batawa in June 1975.BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Batawa was established as a factory town by the Bata Shoe Company in 1939. Initially the children of Batawa attended public school in nearby Frankford. Father Dostol, s.j., the parish priest,...

Marble statue of Mary wasn’t always there

Marble statue of Mary wasn’t always there

BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Have you ever noticed the beautiful white marble statue of Mary above the entrance to the Motherhouse? It wasn’t always there. A niche for a sculpture was built when the entrance was constructed in 1932; however, the niche sat empty...

Exciting new treasure to the Archives

Exciting new treasure to the Archives

BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST The Archives received an exciting new treasure in April: the first patient register of St. Vincent de Paul Hospital in Brockville. The Register documents the patients treated at the hospital from November 28th, 1887 to January 9th,...

Spanish Influenza Epidemic

Spanish Influenza Epidemic

BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Editorial in the Morrisburg Leader from 1918 or 1919 regarding the Spanish Influenza Epidemic: During the past fortnight two Sisters of Charity have been nursing the sick in Morrisburg. Most of our citizens do not know who these...

Cornerstones and time capsules

Cornerstones and time capsules

Construction of Providence Motherhouse, October 28, 1931. This photo was taken a month and a half after the cornerstone was laid.BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST The finding of the 1956 cornerstone at St. Mary’s of the Lake got the Archives staff thinking about...

Spooky and spirited celebrations!

Spooky and spirited celebrations!

Halloween poems printed in the October 1931 edition of The Guardian magazine. The Guardian was created and printed by the Sisters of Providence from 1916 to the late 1950s. BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Children aren’t the only ones who enjoy Halloween. Here are a...