The National Archives Project for Women Religious (NAPWR) is a consortium of repositories working to house, preserve, and make accessible the archival collections and histories of women religious congregations in the United States. This collaboration provides a coordinated response to assist congregations in planning for their archives, amplifies the message of the urgent need to protect these collections, and increases access by digitally linking repositories.
Access to the stories of women religious will preserve significant chapters of American and Catholic history as well as inform and inspire future generations to continue mission-driven service to their communities.
Their stories are rich, and their contributions are significant.
And their histories must be preserved.
They founded and operated more than 10,000 schools in the U.S., including colleges and universities, beginning with the Ursuline Sisters, who arrived in New Orleans in 1727 and opened the oldest continuously operating school for girls in the country.
They built more than 800 hospitals in the United States, at one point providing one out of every five hospital beds. Twenty percent of Civil War nurses were Catholic Sisters. They opened their convent doors to become makeshift hospitals where they cared for sick and injured soldiers.
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