News & Happenings

The SP connections with Boston College and the Jesuits are long standing since for many years the Sisters had two houses of study, across from Boston College’s main entrance, for Sisters attending there.

— The following article was written by Sister Kathleen Popko, SP President.

March 25, 2025 will long be remembered as the day the Sisters of Providence moved its archives to the Boston College Catholic Religious Archives Repository.  

SP Archivist Phyllis Ladd, pictured at right above with Sister Senga Fulton, SP has been preparing for years for this historic moment. In 2018, she attended the Boston College Catholic Archives Conference where she joined with others in addressing the challenges of preserving religious congregations’ archives. The Sisters of Providence leadership team worked closely with Phyllis to discern a path leading to a new home for the SP Archives. Massachusetts–based Boston College emerged as the optimal location given its strong commitment, expertise, and experience.

Our SP connections with Boston College and the Jesuits are long standing since for many years we had two houses of study, across from Boston College’s main entrance, for our Sisters attending there.

Initially Boston College had designated its Theology and Ministry Library building for Catholic religious archival materials. We visited Michael Burns, special assistant for Boston College Archives, at the site in June 2019 to discuss the possibility of transferring the Sisters of Providence archives to the BC Religious Archives Repository. Since that first visit, we have been preparing for such a move, working closely with Michael Burns and Ellen Dalton Pierce, archives consultant. In June 2024, we signed the Archives Deposit Agreement and determined to move the archives in the first half of 2025.

For the past five years the leadership team has had multiple meetings with Phyllis to assess and ready our documents dating back to 1873, including photos, videos, voice recordings, and more. Several sessions were required to discern any limitations relative to accessing various documents for scholars’ research.

Moving day finally arrived!

Pioneer Movers, skilled in moving libraries and archives, sent three staff who arrived at 8:30 am and continued to pack and move carefully 507 archival boxes into their truck. Finished before noon, they headed to Boston to bring the boxes to the Archives Repository. News of the archives’ safe arrival and placement in the Repository was greeted with cheers from the Sisters, with flowers and heartfelt gratitude given to Archivist Phyllis Ladd.

Phyllis will continue working in the SP Archives for the remainder of 2025 gathering together materials held for months as she prepared for this major move. Additional materials still in process will be reviewed and forwarded to Boston College during 2025. Phyllis will retire at the end of 2025, after 13 years!  

Commenting on archive’s move, Phyllis said: “In the new home of the archives in Boston College’s Catholic Religious Archives, the SP collection will be a valuable source of information, not just about their religious community but about the history of Massachusetts, of healthcare, and the particular contributions that women religious have made to the region in which they live and serve. I am pleased I could be a part of expanding the lens of our historical perspective.”

Sister Kathleen Popko, SP President, added that “The Sisters of Providence are most grateful to Phyllis for shepherding our archives through this important process. We are indebted to her for her conscientiousness, organizational skills and dedication to her work and to the Sisters of Providence. We are appreciative as well to Boston College’s leadership for its vision in making this significant commitment to help preserve the histories of Catholic religious in the United States for current and future scholarly research. Their efforts are expanding even further with construction of a new repository building.”

Boston College President William Leahy has successfully raised $78 million dollars for a new Archival Repository with construction underway. Securing additional funds for an endowment to sustain the Repository’s operations is now his goal.

Managing this new Repository is Thomas Lester, former archivist for the Archdiocese of Boston, who recently assumed the role of Director of the Boston College Archival Repository. 

MOVING DAY: Sisters who gathered to present flowers to Phyllis after the archive’s move. From left to right are Sisters Ruth McGoldrick, SP and Mary Caritas Geary, SP, Associate Louise Cooper, Phyllis Ladd, archivist, and Sisters Julie Crane, SP, Mary Constance O’Brien, SP, Mary Cecilia Vallee, SP and Kathleen Popko, SP.