This series concerns the Sisters of St. Joseph’s involvement in education in Ontario. The records are focused on school boards, associations, educational policies and regulations, and the changes to Catholic education. The types of records included in this series are minutes, bulletins, newsletters, magazines, booklets, clippings, photographs, correspondence, annual reports, and event programs. The major educational organizations these records deal with include the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, the Ontario Separate School Trustees Association, the Waterloo Region Roman Catholic Separate School Board, the Huron Perth Separate School Board, the Separate School Board of London, and the Association of Catholic High School Boards of Ontario. Much of the material concerns changes to education and Catholic education in Canada, and many publications on the topic are included. Some of the publications were created by the Sisters, such as The Changing face of Catholic Education in London 1858-1963, a study for the Separate School Board of London, Ontario. Sister Patricia Hogan was the Religious Co-Ordinator for the magazine Spiritual Development and several issues of this magazine and clippings of articles written by her are present. Sister Alice Marie McDonald and Sister M. Stanislaus McKinnon were involved with the Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario which created the Hall-Dennis Report. Photographs of Sister Alice Marie McDonald and members of the committee working on said report are present along with a summary of the report from the view of Catholic schools.

There are also minutes from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph Advisory Board, a committee within the community that oversaw the involvement of Sisters in education. This included institutes operated by the Sisters and those where the Sisters were employed. The minutes include discussions of contracts, school policies, reports from teachers’ meetings, and Christian education. Amongst the minutes are agendas, correspondence with the advisory board, bulletins, and statistics of Sisters working in schools.

Additionally, there is material focused on the history of the Sisters’ involvement in education and Catholic education in Canada. There is correspondence concerning the establishment of Huron Perth Separate School Board Archives and histories of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Goderich, Kingsbridge, St. Mary’s Town, Seaforth, Zurich, and Kinkora, Ontario. Dr. Elizabeth Smyth studied women religious who taught in Canada and there is correspondence about her research with the Sisters. There are various publications by Dr. Elizabeth Smyth, including her thesis, The Lessons of Religion and Science: The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph and St. Joseph’s Academy, Toronto 1854-1911.

This series contains records concerning the involvement of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the London diocese with the field of education in London, Ontario. This includes the Sisters’ time as students, teachers, principals, and administrators. The educational institutes are Catholic elementary schools and high schools, choir schools, the London Roman Catholic Separate School Board, post-secondary schools, and the Divine Word (the International Centre of Religious Education operated by the London diocese). One of the post-secondary institutions, London Teachers College, was originally named London Normal School. The material in this series consists of correspondence, pamphlets, photographs, news clippings, newsletters, board minutes, histories, yearbooks, and manuals. The correspondence is primarily concerned with administrative matters, the employment of Sisters, and arranging events. Notable topics within these records include teaching practices, anniversary events, Canada’s centennial, and G. Campbell Trowsdale’s study “An Alternative Elementary School in the Performing Arts: The St. Mary’s Choir and Orchestra Program.”

This series contains records concerning the involvement of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the London diocese in the field of education in St. Thomas, Ontario. While the records mention interactions with the Elgin County Roman Catholic Separate School Board and other schools in St. Thomas, the records in this series are all from or about St. Joseph’s High School. Material includes a feasibility study, yearbooks, news clippings, correspondence, photographs, pamphlets, and drama festival programs. The correspondence primarily concerns administration, funding, alumni events, and the Sisters who worked at the school. The major topics of the material are the Sisters’ employment, administrative concerns, the school’s drama department, and coordination of alumni events. There is also an annotated script for the play TUB by James W. Nichol, which the school performed in 1971.

This series contains records related to the ministries in St. Philippe d’Argenteuil, Quebec, carried out by the Sisters of St. Joseph in the Pembroke diocese. The parish comprised about 550 families. The records contain annals, correspondence, photographs, a souvenir booklet, a newsclipping, and a few parish bulletins. The photographs depict the convent, Sister Constance Lacroix, one of two Sisters missioned there, and the church. The souvenir booklet celebrates the centennial of the arish in 1988. It is illustrated with photographs and is in French. The correspondence is in French and in English, and the primary correspondents are Sister Margaret Glofcheskie, the General Superior, Bishop Charles Valois, Sister Constance Lacroix, and two parish priests. The annals were kept by Sister Constance who arrived in the parish on August 31, 1985 to serve as the parish coordinator and a pastoral animator with the Laurentian School Board. The annals note interesting local events such as the feast of the cemetery held on the second Sunday in September during which people came to pray for the dead and to ensure the graves were decorated. As Sister Constance notes, “I felt that I could carry out what our first Sisters did in 1650, but I in 1986,” as she embarks on her ministry in the parish. She was to give guidance to parents for baptism, couples for marriage, and on burials. Sister Constance was joined in December 1986 by Sister Alice Meilleur.