Authored by: Alexandra Mercado

The Old St. Mary’s Collection at the Paulist Fathers Archive Washington, D.C.

The artifact shown is a digital image of a photograph. This image is  titled “smgjd_028_Watermarked.jpg” and is from the “Old St. Mary’s Collection,” which belongs to the Paulist Fathers. This narrative will first discuss information about the original photograph, then it will discuss the digital version of the image, then it will discuss the Paulist Fathers and objects related to this image and it will conclude with information about the Academic Service-Learning involved in creating this narrative.

To begin this narrative will provide information about the photograph. Turrill-Miller Photographers took the original photograph in 1905. It was taken during the Golden Jubilee of St. Mary’s Paulist Church in San Francisco California.  It shows the inside of St. Mary’s Paulist Church and it is black and white. There is some text on the photograph, but it is mostly illegible. What can be read states, “Fr. Stark’s Confessional-was once the.” It was taken around the time of the San Francisco Earthquake that occurred on April 18, 1906 around 5 am.[i]

Michelle Levy and Christina Orozco digitized the photograph on August 20, 2013 at the St. Paul’s College in Washington D.C., which is the location of the Paulist Fathers archive.[ii] This digital version is 4000 X 3265 pixels and is 2,960,768 bytes. It contains the watermark of the Paulist Fathers. This image was uploaded to the Hidden Heritage Collections as part of a requirement for a Library and Information Science course at St. John’s University.

The Paulist Fathers society is a group of Roman Catholic Priests. Part of their mission statement is “We build bridges of respect and collaboration with people of other world religions. We welcome people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds in our parish, city center and campus worshipping communities.”[iii] The photograph is of St. Mary’s Paulist Church. At the time of this narrative I only know of the “Old St. Mary’s Collection” to be related objects to this image. Loosely related artifacts would be objects dealing with structures before and after the earthquake.

This narrative is part of an Academic Service-Learning component of a course at St. John’s University. Professors may require students to perform service that relates to their coursework. This ideal coincides with the Vincentian heritage and mission of the university, which explains, “We seek to foster a world view and to further efforts toward global harmony and development.”[iv] Through this service I have helped the Paulist Fathers to maintain and preserve their history. This image has been uploaded to the Hidden Heritage Collection so that others may view it and learn about the history of the photograph. This service learning has helped to serve the underserved.