Doctoral Students Serve as
Field Archivists

The Incomparable Hildegarde!

Monica Gallamore is studying and writing her dissertation on the immense popularity of “The Incomparable Hildegarde,” a singer and pianist whose persona often ran counter to many of the accepted archetypes of the mid-twentieth century.  "Hildegarde influenced women’s fashions, music, and entertainers such as Liberace— who modeled their careers on her style,” stated Gallamore.  She hopes her research "can someday restore the image and legacy of Hildegarde.”

Ms. Gallamore began her research in the Marquette university archives, which already preserved an extensive collection of the entertainer’s personal scrapbooks.  Other archival repositories maintained professional papers donated by the entertainer.  In 2008 Gallamore began corresponding with Don Dellair, Hildegarde’s last business manager, and learned of the existence of additional papers.  Last winter Gallamore and archivist Matt Blessing traveled to New York to acquire the entertainer’s diaries, correspondence, photographs and recordings, materials that doubled the size of the Marquette research collection.  Archives staff recently completed the finding aid for the collection.

Born Loretta Sell in 1906 in rural Wisconsin, Hildegarde attended Marquette for one year in the mid-twenties.  She played organ at silent movie houses and sang on the vaudeville circuit before bursting to stardom while touring Europe.  In 1939 she appeared on the cover of Life magazine, introducing her to 15 million American readers.  Generations of New York residents (and tourists visiting Manhattan) attended her concerts at the Plaza Hotel's Persian Room.  Hildegarde died in 2005 at age 99.   She is estimated to have offered 100,000 performances during a professional career that spanned seven decades.

Dr. Arthur G. Falls

As a student in Professor Patrick Carey's "American Catholic Theology" seminar, Lincoln Rice decided to investigate the legacy of Dr. Arthur Falls. Seeking primary sources to support his research, Lincoln Rice identified and contacted Dr. Fall’s niece, Mrs. Vilma Childs, and learned about a + 600-page typed reminiscence prepared by Dr. Falls in the late 1950s.  As semester deadlines approached, Lincoln Rice and Matt Blessing traveled to Michigan and arranged for the acquisition of the manuscript.

Spanning a half century of Chicago history, the memoir augments Marquette’s other renowned Catholic social action collections.  “This manuscript provided a perspective on why Falls believed so strongly in racial integration as opposed to separation," Rice commented, "as well as insights into the workings of the Chicago Urban League, the Federated Colored Catholics, and the beginnings of the Catholic Worker movement in Chicago.  Dr. Falls did not shy away from hardship, difficulty, or struggle; he knew that those on the side of right often win despite overwhelming odds.”

Born in Chicago in 1901, Arthur Falls was a Catholic African American physician who spent decades fighting against racial discrimination in Chicago’s hospitals, public spaces, and institutions.  By the mid-thirties Falls had become active in several interracial Catholic groups.  Perhaps most significantly, he helped to establish the Catholic Worker in Chicago.  Following World War II the surgeon engaged in a lengthy personal struggle to build a home in the all-white suburb of Western Springs, while also lobbying the Chicago Archdiocese to desegregate Catholic hospitals.  Falls died in 2000 at the age of 98.

For more information about these collections please contact, Matt Blessing,
Department of Special Collections and Archives, at (414) 288-5901.

This page compiled and maintained by: Susan Hopwood, 288-5995

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