The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati are featured, along with  20 women religious congregations from Southwest Ohio, Southeast Indiana, and Northern Kentucky, in a nationally touring exhibit that celebrates the contributions of Catholic women religious in the United States. The exhibit, “Women & Spirit, Catholic Sisters in America,” opened at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, May 16 and runs through Wednesday, August 30, 2009. The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. will also host the traveling exhibit at a later date.

The exhibit tells the story spanning three centuries of Catholic Sisters in America who served with compassion, dedication, determination and faith in education, healthcare, and social services. Sisters ministered as missionaries, serving the poor and marginalized. They embraced the tide of immigrants in the 18th and 19th centuries, welcoming all nationalities into neighborhoods, schools and parishes.

Artifacts collected for the exhibit include the nurse’s bag used by Sister of Charity Anthony O’Connell during the Civil War when she ministered to soldiers on both sides of the conflict, and the first medical license provided to a woman in New Mexico, issued to Sister of Charity Mary De Sales Leheney in 1901. 

The Women & Spirit exhibit displays numerous artifacts that have never before been on public display. Items assembled from more than 400 communities include traveling trunks, journals of immigration experiences, pioneering healthcare developments, diaries, samplers, musical instruments, clothing and more.

Sister Barbara Hagedorn, President of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, remarked, “The exhibit was developed by the Leadership Council of Women Religious, an organization representing 60,000 women religious in the United States.” The exhibit is significant for several reasons, Sister Barbara said, “It tells the story of the lives and spirituality of women religious since the founding of our country.

For more information, visit www.womenandspirit.org