Fr. François
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
This is a Franciscan sister of the Sacred Heart. I recently purchased this doll and three others from a woman in the United States who was lucky enought to have acquired them from the large collection of nun dolls at Saint Mary of the woods college. I would love to know the history behind that collection. Maybe I should write to their archivist.....
Fr. François
Fr. François
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Unsure if you still need history of Saint Mary of the Woods nun doll collection. The collection was started by Camille C. Rigali, a graduate of the college around 1920. Camille went to work for the family business, the Duprato Studios in Chicago, Illinois following graduation. When the Duprato Studios were commissioned to complete a statue of St. Therese of Lisieux following her canonization, Camille wrote St. Therese's religious congregation and asked for photographs of the habit worn by the community from the front, side and back. Following receipt of the photographs, Camille decided to begin an archive to be used by the studio of all religious women and wrote to hundreds of congregations asking for photographs of the habit worn. When one congregation sent her a doll instead stating they did not have photographs or a camera and she could instead take her own picture from the doll, Camille's idea for the archive was to use dolls instead. She rewrote the congregations and asked for dolls dressed by the religious community. Through the years, she received nearly 120 nun dolls. In the 1960's, she donated the nun doll collection to her college, Saint Mary of the Woods in Terre Haute, Indiana. In 2007, most of the collection was auctioned off during a 4-day auction along with many other antiquities and religious artifacts owned by the college. I believe the college kept a few, including the doll for the Sisters of Providence. I purchased two dolls from the auction-- the doll from the Servants Of The Holy Heart Of Mary and a doll marked incorrectly as the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor but was actually the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word doll. If you would be interested, I have an image from each doll sold from the auction catalog. (I graduated from SWMC) I see you from your blog you have the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart doll. I now work for the healthcare system that is sponsored by the Sacred Heart sisters.
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