Hard Travelin' for
Marquette Archivist
Summer 2005—During 2005 archivist Mark Thiel will log more than 25,000 miles and travel to 14 Western states to conduct research on Catholic Indian schools and missions. He has battled everything from Los Angeles gridlock to unpaved roads in Alaska’s interior to identify and help preserve historical records.
Thiel, project assistant Tamara Lange, and undergraduate Nick Zeidel are compiling a comprehensive guide that will serve as a resource for both scholars and genealogists. The 22-month record survey project is supported by a $82,000 grant from the National Historical Records and Publications Commission (NHPRC). The electronic guide will be completed in late 2006.
The Department of Special Collections and University Archives maintains vast archives on Christianity in Native America, documenting scores of Native American communities and religious orders. A 1984 guide to Catholic Indian records in the Midwest was recently revised and made available electronically. In 2005 Marquette's Department of Special Collections opened its first large digital collection, "Native America Images," which includes photographs found in the records of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions.
For more information on the NHPRC grant, or on the archival collections relating to Christianity and Native America, please contact Mark Thiel, Department of Special Collections and University Archives, at (414) 288-5904 or mark.thiel@marquette.edu
Mark Thiel, at left, discussing the survey project with archives staff at the Sisters of Providence (Seattle, Washington)
San Jose de Tumacacori Mission in Arizona, founded in 1691
