From the Archives
By Mary Woodward
American Archives Month is national celebration led by the United States National Archives every October to promote the importance of archives in preserving cultural heritage and historical records. It’s a time when archives nationwide open their doors to highlight their collections, showcase stories, and celebrate the value of public records.
For the past five years through this column, we have been highlighting in various ways our diocesan archives. We have shared sacramental records dating back to the 1790s, stories from the travels of our bishops at home and abroad, our diocesan connection to the Gulf South region, unique characters and historical tidbits. A huge thank you to Bishop Richard Oliver Gerow who meticulously maintained our collection for more than 40 years.

Our archive collection is full of American history and church history. We currently are in a clean and reorganize mode. Papers and artifacts are getting a new look. Therefore, the vault is closed to any outside professional research at this time.
As much as we would like to allow visits to the archives, it simply is not the nature of the beast. Visits to our archive collection are reserved for professional scholars researching historical topics for dissertations and journal publications. We do not allow independent genealogical research among our records or the well-intentioned history buff.
With that understanding, we have tried to break open some of our cherished history for you to give you an image of how our Catholic faith has developed over the past 300 years in this little corner of God’s Kingdom. So, in celebration of American Archives Month let me feature a few of our favorite images from the collection.

(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson.)