Dominican Sisters of San Rafael annals
Finding aid created by Dominican Sisters of San Rafael Archives staff using RecordEXPRESS
Dominican Sisters of San Rafael Archives
2023
1520 Grand Avenue
San Rafael, California 94901
(415) 453-8303, ext. 110
info@sanrafaelop.org
https://sanrafaelop.org/
Title: Dominican Sisters of San Rafael annals
Dates: 1850-2021 (bulk 1920-1990)
Collection Number: DSSR2
Creator/Collector:
Dominican Sisters of San Rafael
Extent: 53 manuscript boxes, 22.1 linear feet
Repository:
Dominican Sisters of San Rafael Archives
San Rafael, California 94901
Abstract: The Dominican Sisters of San Rafael annals consist primarily of annals written by an appointed annalist to document and log
historical records related to the sisters’ ministerial endeavors at the locations in which they take place. These include
the Dominican Convent and Dominican College in San Rafael, CA, St. Mary’s Hospital in Reno, NV, St. Joseph’s Hospital in Stockton,
CA and various other convents and schools where the sisters taught, lived, and carried out the mission of St. Dominic. In
addition to annals, included here are photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, programs and other ephemera related
to the sisters, their lives, and their ministry’s activities.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research
Property rights reside with the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael Archives. For permissions to publish, please contact the Archivist.
[Identification of item]. Dominican Sisters of San Rafael annals. Collection Number: DSSR2. Dominican Sisters of San Rafael
Archives
All records were created or collected by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael
Biography/Administrative History
The congregation of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael was founded in Monterey, California in 1851. The sisters moved to
Benicia in 1854, and eventually settled in San Rafael in 1889, where they founded the Dominican College of San Rafael. With
a focus on education and health care, the sisters founded and taught at numerous parochial schools throughout California and
Nevada, including Saint Rose Academy in San Francisco, and founded and administered two hospitals, Saint Joseph’s in Stockton,
and Saint Mary’s in Reno.
An individual sister or group of sisters was appointed as house annalist(s) for each place of ministry. These sisters were
tasked with creating a written record of the goings on within the convent, school, hospital, novitiate house, and/or retreat.
Following specific congregational instructions each annalist tended to forge her own path as a documentarian and recorder
of the Congregation’s history. As is elaborated upon in the Scope and Content note below, annalists varied in their thoroughness,
style of prose, and propensity for collecting photographs, newspaper clippings, and ephemera.
The archives of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael began in the 1920s in an effort to learn more about the foundress of the
congregation but it was not until the 1970s that two Dominican Sisters - Justin and Martin Barry - began to arrange the annals
and use them as primary sources for the purpose of narrative histories of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. Where possible,
their original order has been maintained in this collection.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Dominican Sisters of San Rafael annals consist of 52 manuscript boxes of written annals and other materials describing
the activities of the Dominican Sisters, novices, and related parties in their various ministerial endeavors carried out at
the Motherhouse convent and Dominican College, both in San Rafael, CA, St. Mary’s Hospital in Reno, NV, St. Joseph’s Hospital
in Stockton, CA, and numerous other convents and schools, mostly in Northern California, at which the Dominican Sisters taught,
lived, and practiced their faith.
The collection includes materials from 1850 (year of the congregation’s founding). The bulk dates are from 1920 until 1990.
Most of the materials found in this collection prior to 1898 - the year of the earliest annals - are official documentation
(by-laws, articles of incorporation, etc.) and much of the information related to the sisters’ activities in those earlier
years is found in historical summaries within the annals that were written at later dates.
The annals are primarily written chronological summaries of the sisters’ activities in their administrative, pedagogical and
monastic duties while also covering more quotidian and personal events. The annals cover the sisters’ time as novices, teachers,
nurses, administrators, and practitioners of the Dominican Order in convents across California and Nevada.
Depending on the annalist at a given time and location, the annals can differ greatly in their breadth and depth; some include
almost daily or weekly contemporaneous entries in exacting detail, while others are written at the end of a year or school
term in a more broad, memorious manner. Likewise, many of the annals have been treated much like scrapbooks with extensive
additional materials that can include photographs, newspaper clippings, event programs, correspondence, administrative records,
institutional and biographical histories, and other ephemera, while other folders consist primarily of the typewritten or
handwritten annals themselves.
Original order, as it was defined in the work of previous archivists - most notably Sisters Justin and Martin Barry - has
been maintained where possible. While their work was done, for the most part, after the creation of the records themselves,
their archival work and intimate, personal knowledge of the materials, persons, and institutions represented in the annals
were instrumental in the arrangement and preservation of the materials in this collection. Subsequent accretions to the annals
have been arranged chronologically.
The annals are a mix of original material and a considerable amount of duplicates. These duplicates include typewritten transcription
copies of annals that were originally handwritten, as well as photocopies of both handwritten and typewritten annals, and
newspaper clippings. This was presumably done by previous archivists due to damage to the originals that was caused by the
newsprint. Most of the duplicates are undated and many of the photocopied originals have been discarded.
Dominican sisters California
Dominican College of San Rafael
Dominican University of California
Dominican University of California
Bishop Manogue High School (Reno, Nev.)
Holy Rosary School (Antioch, Calif.)
Justin-Siena High School (Napa, Calif.)
Our Lady of Mercy School (Daly City, Calif.)
Our Lady of The Snows Catholic School (Reno, Nev.)
Sacred Heart School (San Francisco, Calif.)
Saint Agnes Academy (Stockton, Calif.)
Saint Albert The Great Grammar School (Reno, Nev.)
Saint Angela’s School (Pacific Grove, Calif.)
Saint Anne’s School (Lodi, Calif.)
Saint Catherine’s Academy (Benicia, Calif.)
Saint Cyril’s School (Oakland, Calif.)
Saint Dominic Parochial School (Benicia, Calif.)
Saint Dominic’s School (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Saint Dominic’s School (San Francisco, Calif.)
Saint Helena Parochial School (Saint Helena, Calif.)
Saint John’s School (Napa, Calif.)
Saint Joseph’s Hospital (Stockton, Calif.)
Saint Leander’s School (San Leandro, Calif.)
Saint Mary’s High School (Stockton, Calif.)
Saint Mary’s Hospital (Reno, Nev.)
Saint Michael’s School (Livermore, Calif.)
Saint Raphael’s School (San Rafael, Calif.)
Saint Rose Academy (San Francisco, Calif.)
Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic School (Reno, Nev.)
Saint Vincent’s School (Vallejo, Calif.)
San Domenico School (San Anselmo, Calif.)
Santa Catalina School (Monterey, Calif.)
Annunciation School (Stockton, Calif.)
Saint Mary’s Assumption School (Stockton, Calif.)
San Joaquin Middle School (Stockton, Calif.)
Annals and chronicles