Dominican University will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the school’s name change from Rosary College this year with the opening of a center dedicated to the history of the Dominican Roman Catholic religious order in the United States. The center will also have a special name of its own.
Dominican University, 7900 W. Division St. in River Forest, has agreed to become the home of more than 5,000 historical documents relating to Dominicans in this country.
The center has been named after Sister Nona McGreal, who, at 92, is considered one of the foremost historians on Dominicans here and worldwide.
The center is expected to open by 2008. A ceremonial dedication will take place sometime this year.
McGreal received her bachelor’s degree from Rosary in 1942 while also teaching full-time at the college. She lives on the West Side and has taught at Rosary and Dominican. She spends her time now as a researcher and historian.
The McGreal Center will not only be home to historical Dominican information, but serve as a research tool, said Donna Carroll, the university’s president.
“I’m a fan and an admirer,” Carroll said of McGreal. “Nona McGreal is an extraordinary woman in Dominican education. This is a center that, we hope, will help preserve and advance Dominicans in the United States.”
Dominican has a temporary space on campus for the center and will decide on a permanent location by this spring, said Jessica MacKinnon, the university’s director of public relations.
The historical materials are stored at St. Martin des Porres Church on the West Side. The church has been shuttered by the Chicago Archdiocese of Chicago.
The historical materials include letters, diaries, and first-hand written testimonials from sisters, friars, bishops and nuns dating as early as the 1700s. They had been compiled at St. Martin’s since 1984 with the hope that they would become part of a historical center, said Sister Janet Welsh, interim director of the McGreal Center.
When St. Martin’s closed, Dominican University stepped in.
“When we changed our name, we really made a commitment to be a leader in Dominican education in the country,” said Carroll. “Given that public commitment, taking on the responsibility for a center that advances Dominican studies is a part of that fulfillment.”
McGreal’s own research helped initiate the project to chronicle Dominican U.S. history, and she helped facilitate the publishing of the first volume.
McGreal, who is working with Welsh in compiling and cataloging the materials for the move, was an obvious choice for the center’s name, said Carroll.
McGreal, a sister at St. Martin des Porres for more than 20 years, was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
Welsh said she and McGreal spend about three days a week at St. Martin’s going through the materials.
“Every morning she’s up doing research,” Welsh said.
She said much of the material will be compiled into the second volume of the history of Dominicans in the U.S. Vol. 1 covers the order from 1786-1865. The second volume will cover 1865-1910. A third volume is very likely, Welsh said.
Welsh said some of the documents for Vol. 2 include letters written by sisters who were leaving the North to help provide medical care for Union soldiers and to help educate slaves.
Other materials include first-hand accounts of fevers that swept through Tennessee during the war.
“You can glean so much by looking at just one document,” added Welsh, who teaches at Dominican and is a historian by trade and passion, she said.
Welsh said Dominicans have contributed a great deal to American society by building churches, schools and hospitals, and working in social justice movements.
Dominicans in Oak Park and River Forest date back more than 80 years, she said.
Welsh noted the center will help tell those stories. She predicts that the center will help attract students interested in Dominican history and serve as a laboratory for students enrolled in library sciences and education.
“We don’t want to be just a repository of information, but a research center,” Welsh said.
The university has provided the center’s initial funding, said Carroll, but the school will look for endowments and other funding sources.
The Dominican Order, also known historically as the Order of Preachers, was founded by St. Dominic in Europe in the early 13th century. The Dominican Order in the United States began by 1786.
Dominican University, named after St. Dominic, was founded by Father Samuel Mazzuchelli in Sinsinawa, Wis., in 1848. Originally called St. Clara Academy, the school became a college in 1901 and moved to River Forest in 1922. It later changed its name to Rosary College. McGreal has written a book about Mazzuchelli.
The school, and those connected to its origin in Wisconsin, refer to themselves as Sinsinawa Dominicans.
CONTACT: tdean@wjinc.com
Sister Mary Nona McGreal, O.P.
Born April 20, 1914
Profession as Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa, 1933
Teacher in parish schools, Diocese of Chicago, 1933-1942
BA, Rosary College, 1942
MA, Catholic University of America, 1944
PhD, Catholic University of America, 1950
Faculty member, Catholic University of America, 1942-1950
President, Edgewood College of the Sacred Heart, Madison, Wis., 1950-1967
Director of Project OPUS (Order of Preachers United States) 1984-2006
-Terry Dean