Sharing Our Past - Digital Imaging Grant

The USF Library Archives has been awarded a 2009 LSTA grant to complete the project titled "Sharing Our Past: Digitally Archiving the History of the University of St. Francis". We received word of our acceptance (and our giant check) in 2008 and have been steadily working on finishing the project.We are about 3/4 done and as we near the end, we have prepared a small article that describes the project and gives a quick overview of the history of USF.

“Sharing Our Past: Digitally Archiving the History of the University of St. Francis” is a project that will create an online collection of digitized photographs, brochures, newspapers, posters, and other materials related to the history of the University of St. Francis, the City of Joliet, and Will County. This collection will provide access to information and materials that are an important part of the history of higher education in Illinois. It will also greatly increase the USF Library Archives’ current outreach efforts, providing a taste of the Archives’ materials in a central location.


The Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate have been serving in Joliet since the congregation was founded by Mother Alfred Moes in 1865. Their ministries included taking in orphans and boarding students, staffing parish schools, and serving various ethnic groups during their adjustment to American life. Their desire to serve the people in their community led them to study and master every academic area in order to provide a well-rounded education through their schools. As their education skills grew, so did their schools, culminating with the establishing of the College of St. Francis, now the University of St. Francis, in 1920.


Initially using only the Motherhouse convent and the newly constructed Tower Hall, by the late 1950s it was apparent that the college was outgrowing their buildings and the Sisters began to make plans to expand. A new Residence Wing was added to Tower Hall in 1955 and the St. Albert Science Building became the third main building on campus in 1959. These new additions were quickly followed by Marian Hall, a large dedicated Residence Hall, in 1966 and a separate Library Building in 1968.


The College of St. Francis welcomed their first lay president in 1969 and after a failed merger with Lewis College in Romeoville, began to welcome male students. The now co-educational school continued to thrive amidst the many changes. They added award-winning athletic teams, building a new Recreation Center in 1986; they increased the amount of lay faculty, updating scholastic programs and adding more options of study; and after successfully creating Master’s Degree programs, the school gained the title of University of St. Francis in 1998.













The Sisters of St. Francis and the University of St. Francis are deeply rooted in Joliet. The history of the school provides insight into the daily and scholastic life of college students in the area, showing the changes over time in educational and social norms. This online collection will provide a visual representation of that history and will create opportunities for learning and growth for the people of Illinois, genealogy researchers, historians, and the USF family.

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