Ursuline Academy
Ursuline Academy Archives and Museum
2734 Nashville Avenue,
New Orleans, La. 70115
Telephone number: (504) 866-1472
Fax: (504) 861-9159
Email: mlharris@ursulineneworleans.org
Website: http://www.ursulineneworleans.org
Contact person: Sister Joan Marie Aycock
Access privileges: Restricted. Contact Sister Joan Marie Aycock with specific requests.
Hours: Not applicable, by appointment only
Repository Information:
The Ursuline Academy in New Orleans was the first educational establishment for women in the United States and was established only a few years after the foundation of the city itself. The Ursulines in New Orleans also started the first orphanage, the first free school, the first retreat for ladies, and the first school for Native American and enslaved African-American girls in the United States.
The archive holds the records of both the convent and the Academy from 1727 to the present day. Early printed books have been transferred to the Historic New Orleans Collection.
Collection highlights: Treasures include a letter from Louis XV of France permitting the nuns to come to New Orleans and letters from Thomas Jefferson and James Madision. These documents, together with examples of work of Ursuline students and artifacts relating to the Convent and Academy, are on display in the Museum. Notable members of the community include Sister Francis Xavier, the first woman pharmacist in the New World.
Finding aids: Available in repository.
Publications: For a history of the Academy see Sister Jane Frances Heaney, A Century of Pioneering: A history of the Ursuline Nuns in New Orleans, 1727-1827 (New Orleans, 1993).
COLLECTIONS:
1. Ursuline Convent Archives
1727- present day
1 large vault
Records of the Ursuline Convent, from 1727, including property records, correspondence, biographical sketches of nuns, plans, and photographs.
Early documents of the order include the account of the organization of the community at Hennebont, 1727; Actes de Prise d'Habit et de Profession with names of witnesses and obituary notices; Deliberation du Conseil I, 1727-1902, which recorded decisions made by the community and the results of triennial elections; Journal depuis 1727 jusqu'en 1853; Ursuline annals, a manuscript history compiled about 1881; and Livres ou sont les noms et les annees de la naissance des negres et negresses qui sont venus au convent sur notres habitation (1824).
The archive holds records of the Academy from the nineteenth century. However, only very limited information exists about former students.