About this Issue

Abstract

About this Issue Brett Grainger, Associate Editor Publications go to press at strange times. Spring issues blossom in the dead of winter, while winter issues are put to bed while the grass is green. The current issue went to press at a stranger moment, as the nation entered the shadow of the coronavirus crisis. While the future remains unwritten, a number of the essays collected in this issue recover stories of human struggle, perseverance, and loss in times as anxious and uncertain as our own. In the first essay, "Open, Vast, and Inclusive: Catholic Women's History Is Early North American History," Ann M. Little (Colorado State University) argues that the history of Catholic women religious offers early Americanists an opportunity to broaden their imaginations and tell new stories. By describing her experiences and decisions undertaken in the writing of The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright, Little invites and models a more expansive history of early North America, one free of the lingering misogyny so deeply characteristic of early anti-Catholic propaganda. In "'Our Prospects Are Still Mighty Dark … Still I Confide in God': The Ordeal of the Sisters of the Visitation in Antebellum Wheeling," Joseph G. Mannard (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) uses a case study of Virginia Visitandine nuns to explore the contested and contingent process that attended the antebellum "convent revolution." Mannard describes how the nuns resisted becoming the victims of the numerous natural and human forces that assailed them, including epidemics, premature deaths, shortages of qualified teachers, and anti-Catholic violence. By cooperating with non-Catholic allies, women religious and clergy exploited political divisions within the Protestant majority, allowing the Visitation nuns ultimately to prevail over their foes in Virginia's "Nail City." While her name has largely vanished from popular usage, in the mid-twentieth century, the biographies of Katherine Burton were staple reading material among American Catholics. Annie Huey (University of Dayton), in "'Be Interesting but Tell the Truth at All Times': Katherine Burton's Fictional-Narrative Approach to Biographical Writing," suggests that Burton's popularity was due in part to her unique biographical writing method, which she refers to as her "fictional-narrative approach," and because her writing exemplified mid-twentieth century Catholic literature's goal of making the faith accessible and appealing to those in and outside the church. Finally, co-editor Thomas F. Rzeznik offers a thematic overview of the American Catholic Historical Society's most recent exhibit. "The Changing Look of Philadelphia Catholic Architecture" explores the growth of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia though unexecuted architectural designs and modified building plans. Juxtaposing images of what had initially been intended with what was ultimately built, the materials invite viewers to recognize the forces that contributed to the changing look of Catholic architecture and to appreciate its remarkable variety of shape and form. [End Page i] Copyright © 2020 American Catholic Historical Society