Dorothy Kazel, OSU: Still a Symbol of Hope
Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
The Women Religious Archives Collaborative (WRAC) Heritage Center in Cleveland, Ohio will be a place of study and celebration. Housing the archives of over 75 congregations of women religious in a state-of-the art facility, WRAC will make them accessible for research in person and online. It will also present public exhibits and events, and interactive digital programs, that honor the unique contributions of women religious to their communities and the country.
WRAC will hold the history of Catholic sisters from across the United States and Canada.
Explore our interactive map and see where our member congregations are located!
of congregations lack professional archivists
need to relocate their archives in the next 10 years
of communities don’t have a long-term plan for their archival collections
of women religious are 70+ years old
Sources: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate study, Georgetown University, 2022; National Religious Retirement Office study, 2020
Just as they were there for us, women religious need us now as they work to ensure their legacies. Please donate today and become a Founding Donor of the WRAC Heritage Center. Your gift will help preserve and celebrate the important contributions of women religious.
The state-of-the-art, $22 million center will secure the archival collections of over 40 congregations, reducing the financial burden on each; make archives available for study by students, academics, and family members; and share the remarkable stories they contain with the public—in person and online.
Thank you for your support!
Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine
Ohio
Sisters of St. Francis
Tiffin, Ohio
Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Erie, Pennsylvania;
Sisters of the Incarnate Word & Blessed Sacrament, Parma Heights, Ohio;
Sisters of Loretto, Nerinx, Kentucky;
Sisters of the Precious Blood, Dayton, Ohio
Sister Susan Durkin, WRAC’s Executive Director, will be speaking at the First Friday Club of Cleveland on April 3, 2025. Join us to learn more about WRAC and why this is such an important project.
Read our feature profile as seen in Crain’s Cleveland Business 2024 Giving Guide.
NAPWR is a consortium of repositories working to house, preserve, and make accessible the archival collections and histories of women religious congregations in the United States. This collaboration provides a coordinated response to assist congregations in planning for their archives, amplifies the message of the urgent need to protect these collections, and increases access by digitally linking repositories.
Women Religious Archives Collaborative
2475 E. 22nd Street
Cleveland, OH 44115
[email protected]
216.287.5176
Stay up to date on all of WRAC’s news and updates by subscribing to the monthly newsletter.