First Subseries of Maryland Province Archives Available in DigitalGeorgetown

Handwritten letter with a drawing of a church altar. Text: the place where it is to be is nearly in this way: but I would perhaps be as well to take this wooden column away and have the picture as it ought to be. I may spend for a well made painting about $200 and not above $300. Please to tell me your opinion of that business. But consider the difficulties and dangers to have it painted and ... in Europe and sent over.

Subseries 1.1 of the Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus is now available on DigitalGeorgetown. This subseries comprises correspondence related to the provincial, or head, of the Maryland Province from 1805–1883. It contains 430 folders of documents and more than 20,000 pages, including materials related to the 1838 sale of 272 enslaved people. More generally, the archives represent a crucial primary source for the study of the Jesuit Order from the mid-17th century to the 20th, and, more broadly, for the study of Catholicism in America. The archive also documents the history and development of Georgetown University.

The addition of this subseries to the repository represents a significant milestone in a project that began with recommendations from the University's Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation over five years ago. The full archives are being re-processed, and all materials from before 1900 will be digitized and made available online. Additional series and subseries will be added to DigitalGeorgetown as they are completed.

The Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus includes materials from 1634-1995, although the bulk of the materials date from 1800-1875. Subseries 1.1 includes materials from and related to Ignatius Brocard, Angelus M. Paresce, Burchard Villiger, Charles H. Stonestreet, and Francis Dzierozynski, among others.