Archives task force members Sister Charlaine Fill from the Atlantic-Midwest Province and Sisters Mary Ann Kuttner and Mary Kay Ash from the Central Pacific Province connected with a piece of the past on Tuesday, September 18. They, along with Michele Levandoski, Archivist for the School Sisters of Notre Dame-North American Archives, Milwaukee, opened the cornerstone box from the motherhouse at Notre Dame of DeKalb, Illinois.
The box was originally contained within the cornerstone when the motherhouse was established in 1967. The motherhouse was sold in 1976 to Wurlitzer Organ Company. Eventually, the cornerstone box came to the Chicago archives, where it remained unopened. When the Chicago archives closed last year, the box was moved to Notre Dame of Elm Grove, Elm Grove, Wisconsin.
Among the box's contents were two volumes of Mother Caroline's letters, a program from an Ice Capades show that was a fundraiser for the Chicago/DeKalb area and a 1963 “Chicago Tribune” newspaper containing an article about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Several photographs were also in the box, including one of the provincial leaders from DeKalb, Illinois, Mequon, Wisconsin, and Mankato, Minnesota. Other photographs were from the 1965 dedication of the high school that was located on the DeKalb grounds. Many of the items from the box will remain at the School Sisters of Notre Dame Archives located at Mount Mary University, Milwaukee.