St. Peter Claver

...to Mother Katharine Drexel to inform her that he had secured a priest to minister to the Black Catholics in Philadelphia.[1] There had been a growing need for a dedicated ministry for some time. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Black Catholics did not have a church of their own

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Patrick Coad, patentee of the galvanic battery, and interesting miscellaneous items

I am almost finished processing a small collection, Patrick Coad Family Papers (MC 37). An online finding aid will soon be available. Patrick Coad, undated Patrick Coad (1783-1872), an Irish immigrant who settled in Philadelphia, was the first American patentee of a graduated galvanic battery with insulated poles. Coad was

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Philadelphia’s First Bishop

Philadelphia’s first Bishop, the Irish-born Franciscan Michael Egan, was appointed a full century after the American colonists began the practice of their Catholic Faith in the New World. Bishop Michael Egan, n.d. The colony of Pennsylvania, chartered in 1681 with William Penn as proprietor, offered the safety of religious tolerance,

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World War One Army Chaplains

...s assigned to the 110th Infantry Regiment in the 55th Brigade of the 28th Division and crossed the Atlantic to join the fighting in France.[5]   Wolfe’s letters back to the states were often published in the Catholic Standard and Times, which gives us great insight into the conditions that

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