Guide to the Mother Celeste Thompson scrapbook
Finding aid prepared by Ashley Toutain
University of San Diego, Archives and Special Collections
© 2020
Copley Library
5998 Alcalá Park
San Diego, CA 92110
Telephone: 619-260-2730
Email: spcoll@sandiego.edu
Title: Mother Celeste Thompson scrapbook
Date: before 1950
Collection number: USDSC_2008_004
Creator: Thompson, Celeste, 1885-1970
Extent: 1 box (9x11x1.5”)
Abstract: This scrapbook is an architectural notebook compiled by Rev. Mother Celeste Marie Thompson, RSCJ. It includes Thompson's notes
on architectural history, newspaper clippings, postcards, and magazine cutouts covering a variety of architectural styles.
Languages:
English
Rev. Mother Celeste Marie Thompson, RSCJ was born June 13, 1875 in Saint Louis, Missouri to Macklot Thompson and Céleste de
Lauréal Thompson. Céleste de Lauréal was born in Guadeloupe and moved with her family to the United States at the age of six.
She appeared in the
Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915
.
Mother Thompson joined the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Maryville in January 1896. She was named the Mistress General
in Menlo, Chicago, and St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1941, she was named Superior of the house in St. Joseph and in 1950, the Superior
of Sheridan Road in Chicago. In approximately 1954, Thompson moved to San Diego and worked with Mother Rosalie Hill and the
San Diego College for Women. Thompson passed away on August 17, 1970.
This scrapbook is an architectural notebook compiled by Rev. Mother Celeste Marie Thompson titled "A Collection of Notes on
Architecture." It includes Thompson's notes on architectural history, newspaper clippings, postcards, and magazine cutouts.
The architectural styles she described include Grecian, Roman, Romanesque, Byzantine, Gothic, Saracenic, Renaissance, and
Egyptian. Some postcards and magazine cutouts have been affixed to the pages of notes. Many of the postcards and newspaper
clippings are interleaved between pages. The majority of these postcards include correspondence.
All scrapbook materials remain in their original order.
This collection is open for research.
[Folder Title], Box # Folder #, Mother Celeste Thompson scrapbook, Copley Library, University of San Diego, Archives and Special
Collections.
Gift of Therese Whitcomb.
According to an accompanying letter from Therese Truitt Whitcomb, Mother Thompson compiled the scrapbook from approximately
1923 to 1955. Whitcomb, the first graduate from the San Diego College for women in 1953, borrowed the book to conduct research
for her thesis on the history of Western Domestic Architecture. Mother Thompson gave the book to Mother Mariella Bremner in
1955. In 1979, Bremner gave the book to Whitcomb, who donated it to the Archives in 2008.
This collection was processed by Ashley Toutain in 2020.
Leonard, John William ed.
Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915.
New York: The American Commonwealth Company, 1914. 812. https://books.google.com/books?id=GvwUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=thompson&f=false
Ryan, Maureen Elizabeth. "Someone You Should Know ...Rev. Mother Celeste Thompson, RSCJ."
AASH Past President MER,
September 9, 2012. http://aashpresidentmer.blogspot.com/2012/09/
Some of the postcards in the Postcard Collection on Digital USD are addressed to Mother Celeste Thompson. These include messages from family and friends.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Thompson, Celeste Marie, 1875-1970
Subjects and Indexing Terms
architectural history
Subjects and Indexing Terms
scrapbooks
notebooks