Contributing Institution: Archives of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Title: Dutra-Lanthier Family Collection

Identifier/Call Number: SC.108

Physical Description: .67 Cubic Feet 1 DB; 1 FB

Date (inclusive): 1900-1978

Date (bulk): 1911-1945

Language of Material: English .

Open for research.

A collection of family memorabilia including postcards, photographs, and letters documenting the Dutra-Lanthier family's Catholic faith and their historical connections with the Catholic community in San Francisco and the Bay Area during the early 20th century. The collection features an album of pre-assembled items including photograph scrapbook pages, letters, and family history information compiled by the donor. Photographs are of members of the Lanthier family at home, on First Holy Communion and Confirmation days, attending Catholic school, and entering religious life. The collection also includes a selection of transcribed letters (bulk dates, 1932-1966) written between Evelyn Lanthier to her sister, Sister Mary Agnes Lantheir, a Catholic religious sister of the Mission San Jose Dominican community. Their correspondence discusses among other things, their Catholic faith, experience of living vowed religious life, and Evelyn's work as a nurse during WWII.

The collection also includes an album filled with collected postcards from the early 1900s featuring travels mostly in Europe and photograph-postcards of people enjoying the Bay Area outdoors. The postcards were sent by Father Thomas McSweeny, a priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and received by various individuals including Mission San Jose Dominican sisters. Inside the album's cover is a photograph of Father McSweeny and an invitation to his 25th jubilee anniversary of ordination (1900) at Saint Francis de Sales Church, Oakland where he had served as its first pastor.