University of St. Francis Library Archives

Entering my third year as Archivist at the University of St. Francis, I have new responsibilities in the library and goals for the archives. A Quick Recap College of St. Francis cheerleaders practicing in hallway ca. 1980-1989 At the beginning of last year my student worker, Adjo Tameklo, and history intern, Madison Bowie, worked together to add metadata for over 500 new images for the digital collection, Sharing Our Past, A Visual History . Many of the pictures depict USF athletics from the 1970s-1980s, which had been a gap in the collection. I was also able to catalog 400 books from the Barbara A. Cooke Musical Theater Collection . Mostly autobiographies, biographies, and historical reference books the collection is available to search in the Brown Library catalog. During the summer I became the Library Archives & Catalog Manager for the Brown Library. Along with managing the archives, I am now responsible for overseeing the cataloging and classification of mate...

This week the Brown Library Archives received an exciting new addition from one of our alums. Beverly (Bajt) Kopman, a 1966 graduate from St. Joseph College of Nursing (SJCN), donated her St. Joseph Hospital nurse cape and cap. Both pieces are in excellent condition and are welcomed  additions  to the St. Joseph College of Nursing collection.  Cape donated by alumna Beverly Kopman The cape is wool with a dark navy and red color scheme. Along the collar is “STJH”  in gold stitched letters, which stands for St. Joseph Hospital. Inside the left-hand flap are Mrs. Kopman’s initials “B.A.B” in white and black stitching.  The white cap was awarded during a “capping ceremony,” which occurred before students began their hospital training. Nurse's cap donated by alumna Beverly Kopman Detail shots of gold lettering on cape's collar and inside flap The cape was used by nursing students beginning in the 1920s, when the SJCN was first establi...

In 1997 the St. Joseph College of Nursing joined the College of St. Francis and on January 1, 1998 became the College of Nursing and Allied Health at the newly renamed University of St. Francis. But before this storied nursing school joined USF they had been training nurses in Joliet for almost eight decades. Here's an abbreviated timeline about the history of St. Joseph School of Nursing. 1866 - 4 women form the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Seelback, Germany 1876 - Those 4 Sisters arrive in Avilla, Indiana 1881 - The Sisters traveled to Joliet to care for those affected by an epidemic of typhoid fever 1882 - Joliet donates $600 towards the creation of a hospital to be run by the Sisters 1882 - The Sisters of the Sacred Heart purchase the Motherhouse on Broadway from the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate to use as the St. Joseph Hospital *** So begins the relationship between the two congregations. The Sisters of St. Francis provided education for the Si...