Carmel Archives
Carmel Archives
420 Robert E. Lee Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70124-2596
Telephone number: (504) 524-2398
Fax: (504) 524-5011
Email: theresegreg@mindspring.com
Website: http://mountcarmel.home.mindspring.com
Contact person: Sister Thérèse Gregoire
Access privileges: Access to records reviewed when requested. Access limited to materials not classified as confidential (such as Minutes of Executive Council) and which may be of value to historical researchers or to genealogists.
Hours: By appointment only, please call for more information.
Repository Information: The Carmel Archive aims to preserve the history of the Sisters of Mount Carmel and their ministry in Louisiana and in the Philippines. Their collections are private, but they do allow researchers with a specific purpose. The Sisters began working in the New Orleans area in 1833, although there are very few archival records from the early period. Their contribution rests in the establishment of schools for both white and African-American students in pre-civil war New Orleans. The Sisters were also recognized for work in both New Orleans and Thibodaux during the yellow fever epidemics and the Civil War. Records are not complete, as many were lost in a twentieth century flood.
COLLECTIONS:
1. Female Orphan Asylum
4-5 Hollinger boxes
This collection consists of records about the Female Orphan Asylum that operated in New Orleans, on St. Claude Street, from 1869 to 1919. The orphanage was initially established for orphans of the Civil War. Included are ledgers that list students' names and grades, some documentation of why they were placed at the orphanage, financial records, newsclippings, etc.
2. Nuns of the Battlefield
1920s
out-of-print book
Nuns of the Battlefield is an out-of-print book written in the1920s. It documents the contribution of several orders of nuns to the survival of Civil War victims. One chapter is dedicated to the Sisters of Mount Carmel.
3. School for Free Women of Color
ca. 1880s-1890s
1 ledger
This collection is composed of a single ledger from the School for Free Women of Color that operated from the 1840s to the1890s, until the Sisters of the Holy Family and Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament took over education of black women. The ledger lists names and grades, mostly in the 1880s and 1890s.