New Additions to the Archives at PAHRC
Listed below are new additions to the Archives. Please check back often as new additions are added. Everything listed here is open to the general public unless otherwise noted.
2003
Catholic Participation in World War II
A database of War Service Record cards from the American Catholic Historical Society is available for research. It contains almost 14,000 entries that give information on World War II soldiers, such as: serial number, parish of origin, unit, and decorations received. Several of the soldiers also wrote some of their experiences on the backs of the cards. Approximately 10,000 cards provided information for the database, while 4,000 more names were added from lists found in parish histories.
A committee was formed in 1947 to find a way for obtaining a record of the service of Catholics in World War II. The project was created to show future generations that their forefathers generously served their country in its time of peril. It was designed after a similar project done by the National Catholic Welfare Council, which successfully created a record of Catholic Service in World War I.
The committee decided to compile a record of what both parishes and individuals did to help the war effort. Advertisements for each step of the project were sent out, and committees were established in each parish. These parish organizations became the vehicles that collected the information. The parishes submitted cards and reports to the American Catholic Historical Society, which organized them by parish and stored them in their archives. This program was only done in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but was meant to be a model for other dioceses.
The cards have been entered into a database, and entries can be arranged in many different ways. Researchers can also search through the cards by term. This database will be valuable to genealogists who are seeking to find out more about their relatives.
William Franklin Sands Papers
Collections: MC 36, MC 87, 2000.025, 2000.039
These four collections consist of manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, and articles of William Franklin Sands, b. 1874, d. 1946.
The diplomatic papers in these collections are made up of notebooks and correspondence that Sands kept while he served in Korea, Japan, Central America and Russia. Many of these items are from Sands service in Korea, and include important books, such as: a notebook kept by Charles Le Gendre, and a vook of diplomatic memos kept by Sands. Sands also kept a lot of diplomatic correspondence. Many of the early letters tell about events, such as, the Boxer Rebellion and the Russo-Japanese War. Later letters focus on the political unrest in Central America and the events that surrounded the building of the Panama Canal. There are also letters from the American International Corporation, of which Sands was a part. Several certificates appointing Sands to diplomatic positions in Central America and passports that he used round out this part of the collection.
Much of the rest of these collections are files of correspondence that Sands kept. He wrote many of these letters while he was a diplomat, but there are also letters that talk about World War I, the Catholic Church in Mexico, the Russian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, post war Korea, and books that he was writing. Among Sands distinguished correspondents were the following:
President William McKinley
President Theodore Roosevelt
President William Howard Taft
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
John Hay
Elihu Root
Philander Knox
Cordell Hull
John Sherman
Henry L. Stimson
James A. Farley
Charles A. Magoon
General George Whitefield Davis
Prince Albert Radziwill
Walter Lippman
Frank Kellogg
Archbishop Michael J. Curley
The collections also contain many articles written by Sands for Journals like The Commonweal. Several of these deal with Central America, Japan, and American History. there is a substantial amount of information and correspondence for his books, Undiplomatic Memories, and Our Jungle Diplomacy.
The rest of the collection is made up of photographs of Sands and his experiences in the Far East and Russia. Many of these photographs came from his service in Korea. There are pictures of Sands with dignitaries in Korea, as well as some of the important Koreans and Japanese. He also has several pictures from the Boxer Rebellion, and one from the Russian revolution in Petrograd. there are also several papers that give a history of the Sands Family and its various branches.
2007
Charles F. Sibre Photographs
PAHRC received a small collection of photographs from the Catholic Cemeteries Office which were taken by Charles F. Sibre. Mr. Sibre worked for the Catholic Standard & Times at the same time as Bob Halvey, and together they covered some of the same events such as the Papal Visit in 1979, and the Canonization of St. John Neumann. Unfortunately, this collection is not as comprehensive nor is it indexed as is our Halvey Collection, but we are pleased to have it and it does contain photos which help to enlighten the history of the Archdiocese.
Left: President Kennedy at Independence Hall on July 4, 1962.
Center: Pope Paul VI in Rome at the Canonization of St. John Neumann, 1977.
Right: Cardinal Krol meeting with Shenouda III Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, 1977.
PAHRC
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