Seton Hall History – Page 6 – Special Collections & The Gallery

Women of Setonia 1937 – Ever Forward . . .

This year marks the 80th anniversary since Women first attended lectures or taught courses at Seton Hall. These trailblazers were part of the now defunct Urban Division established by then College President Monsignor James F. Kelley who provided a more inclusive educational experience for all qualified applicants. Women became a fixture in the classroom from the start of the Spring 1937 semester onward at the extension schools in Newark or Jersey City. In addition, students could opt to attend Summer School on the South Orange campus which served as a prelude to full Co-Education that began here in 1968 and has grown ever stronger to this day. This exhibit showcases documentation from the Seton Hall University Archives & Special Collections Center in order to show the historical evolution and contributions made by the Women of Setonia from its origins onward.

This new Extension Division was conducted under the provisions of the original Seton Hall College Charter of 1861. From here, the first catalog(ue) and press coverage came soon thereafter to provide details of the educational plan that awaited the 321 new students and recently hired faculty that included Professors Blanche Mary Kelly (English), Dorothy I. Mulgrave (English), Mary C. Powers (History), and Aileen Reilly (English) among other instructors hired by the school. Mary Grace Dougherty was the first acknowledged co-ed, but she shared this distinction with others who attended the Newark (St. Patrick’s School) during the Spring of 1937. This also included those who enrolled at the Summer School held in South Orange and/or those on site in both Newark or Jersey City (St. John’s School) from the Fall of 1937 over the next few decades. The first graduates of the Urban Division were recognized during commencement exercises held in June of 1938. Counted among those who received diplomas at this ceremony include: Virginia Farrell (Hoboken), Gertrude Isaacson (Bayonne), Catherine Netzel (Irvington), and Rita Murphy (Jersey City) [Pictured on the Right] who went on to be connected to Seton Hall for many years to come.

Women continued to succeed in the Urban Division through the 1940s-1960s in a wide range of fields from Academics to Nursing to Law and others. Co-Education came in full to the South Orange campus in 1968 and from this point onward success has been proven through the student body, faculty, administrators, and alumni who have contributed to the benefit of the Seton Hall University community continue to make a difference. The full exhibit will be on view in the Archives & Special Collections Center Reading Room from January-March, 2017. For more information please feel free to contact Alan Delozier, University Archivist via e-mail at: <Alan.Delozier@shu.edu> or by phone: (973) 275-2378

Winand Wigger and 19th Century Conciliar Connections

The life and legacy of Winand Michael Wigger (1841-1901), the third Bishop of Newark and first of German extraction was elevated to leadership of the largest Catholic see in New Jersey by 1881 at a time when the Diocese of Trenton was formed to serve the faithful in southern New Jersey. On a wider scale, the Church was undergoing various changes as a result of nation-wide meetings among the Catholic hierarchy known as the Plenary Councils of Baltimore held in 1852, 1866, and 1884 during the time of Bishop Wigger. Baltimore was the first Catholic Diocese of the United States (formed in 1789) and as more geographical provinces were made (Newark christened in 1853 being a part of the Province of New York established in 1808) the leadership met to discuss and adopt standard policies and “discipline” based on proper Church teaching and mission meetings and decrees that came out of Maryland would be enacted locally including the Diocese of Newark. These councils yielded interesting ties to New Jersey including the creation of a standard “Baltimore Catechism” written by Father Januarius De Concilio, a priest of the Diocese of Newark (1885) and consideration of Seton Hall as the official national “principal seminary or university” for the United States, but ultimately the Catholic University of American (founded in 1887) became the ultimate choice. Aside from these key historical footnotes on a local level Bishop Wigger working with Michael Augustine Corrigan, Bishop of New York (and second bishop of Newark previously) worked together with other church leaders within the New York Province to draft recommendations based on the Baltimore debates. Among the documents found in the Wigger Collection include the following examples include various circulars fro the spring and summer of 1886 including one from April 15th which reads in part . . .

“We, the Archbishop and the Bishops of the Province of of New York, having met for consultation to-day in the Archiepiscopal Residence, deem it advisable to address a few words of advice and counsel to you, Venerable Clergy and Beloved Laity, on the decrees of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. In accordance with the will and wish of the Fathers of the Council, and with the approval of the Holy See, these decrees have been published and promulgated by the Apostolic Delegate, the Most Rev. James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, in anticipation of their publication in diocesan and provincial synods, and they are now binding and of full effect . . . A well-adjusted start will guarantee success from the beginning, and give promise of judicious development of Church government in the future. It is our intention, therefore, to hold two or more conferences during the summer months as a help to secure the best means of giving effect to the wise precepts and injunctions of the Council, preparatory to their enforcement in diocesan synods to be held not later than the coming autumn.”

Bishop Wigger also sought to stress attention to academics throughout the Diocese of Newark from grammar school through Seton Hall College . . .

“The first chapter . . . on Parochial Schools, legislates clergy and definitely on the duty of bishops, priests, and laity with regard to the establishment and support of Christian and Catholic schools, especially of Parochial Schools, which constitute the majority of schools in which religion is not divorced from education. The question of the utility and necessity of these is no longer an open one. The great educational problem of the day, in this country as in most countries of the world, is how best to promote the establishment and permanent efficiency and growth of schools in which secular learning and religious instruction shall be combined . . . The cause of Christian education so strongly advocated in the Third Plenary Council, so fully endorsed by the Holy See, so lovingly presented to the whole world by the Holy Father in his Encyclical Letter directing a portion of the Jubilee aims to be set aside for such schools, is worth a priest’s best labors and the people’s unstinted generosity.”

These and other pronouncements issued by way of circulars to the clergy of the diocese, Seton Hall College, other institutions, and expressed to parishioners was part of the chain of messaging that kept the work and vision of the Church connected during the time of Bishop Wigger with the Councils being among the last major conferences aside from various diocesan synods and periodic intiatives that defined the American Catholic Church that arose above mission status by 1908 in the eventual wake of the Baltimore Councils. More information about the administration and legacy works of Bishop Wigger as a church leader can be found within the following collection, the Winand Wigger papers, 1864-1919.

For more information about Bishop Wigger, or other queries regarding Catholic New Jersey please feel free to contact us by e-mail:Alan.Delozier@shu.edu or via phone at: (973) 275-2378. Thank you in advance for your interest.

The First Seton Hall Medical School & Its Roots – A Retrospective Exhibit, 1915-2015

When the announcement of plans to form a new medical school at Seton Hall became public in January of 2015 thoughts of future possibilities joined with remembrances of earlier strides in curative education opportunities on campus. The original Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry was in operation within the walls of the Jersey City Medical Center between 1956-1965. As the first formal medical school established in New Jersey, and one of the few Catholic university-sponsored institutions of its kind, this institution has a notable place in the annals of academic and state history.

This display traces the evolving popularity of medical inquiry and training over the past century through early course work at Seton Hall during the World War I-era with various natural science class offerings which remained a constant and helped to inspire creation of the School (and later College) of Nursing that evolved between 1937-40 and ultimately led to early attempts at developing a medical school on campus between the 1940s-50s. Official approval was secured in 1954 and an elevated focus on health care to the community became a top priority through the development of specialized training methods, student support, and practical application which helped to sustain the school through its years of affiliation with Seton Hall. With the closure of the College of Medicine and Dentistry in 1965 and transfer to the State of New Jersey, Seton Hall has since made additional attempts to promote medical instruction on an advanced level with the creation of a Graduate School of Medical Education in 1987 and the overall School of Health and Medical Sciences which currently sponsors this, and all related programs in the field. The story of our second medical school remains to be written, but further information about the past and early planning objectives can be found within the article from the Setonian.

Featured within this exhibit are documents and artifacts borrowed from our College of Medicine and Dentistry Collection and other materials from our University Archives and affiliated holdings. Letters of support, operational reports, event programs, promotional publications, study aids, and various other documentation that traces the development of the school are presented chronologically and thematically to show how the first medical school was formed and what its mission entailed.

New Jersey's first medical-dental college, the Seton Hall college of medicine and dentistry

For more information about this exhibit and the research services offered through the Archives & Special Collections Center please feel free to access our homepage, or e-mail us with any specific questions or comments at: Alan.Delozier@shu.edu. Thank you in advance for your interest and comments.

Seton Hall’s Madison Roots

With the advent of programs like Who Do You Think You Are produced by Lisa Kudrow and Henry Louis Gates’ Finding Your Roots on PBS, genealogy research has become even more popular than before, particularly with more and more resources available online. Did you ever wonder about the genealogical history of Seton Hall?
It may seem when one looks at the campus today as if the college was always here in South Orange. In fact, according to a history of Seton Hall College written in 1895 by then President Rev. William F. Marshall, printed in that year’s catalogue, “When James Roosevelt Bayley [Mother Seton’s nephew] was appointed Bishop of the newly erected See of Newark, New Jersey, October 30th, 1853, he found the diocese poorly supplied with priests and with no Catholic institutions of any kind… save a few scattered churches and chapels.” He decided to establish a college for the education of both secular students and theological students training to be future priests. He and Rev. Bernard J. McQuaid who would one day become both a bishop himself, and the first president of Seton Hall College searched to find a proper location for the college. They settled upon Madame Chegary’s Young Ladies’ Academy in Madison. Madame was relocating her school to New York City, vacating the white frame building that can be seen in a drawing on a sizable map from 1857 that hangs just inside the entrance to the Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center in the Walsh Library.

The inset drawing seen below of the building amid trees with a horse and carriage in the foreground notes the date Sept. 1856 when the first class of students began their studies – all five of them including Leo G. Thebaud, Louis and Alfred Boisaubin of Madison, John Moore of New York City and Peter Meehan of Hoboken.

drawing of Seton Hall College, Madison, Sept. 1856

Rev. Marshall tells us, “Before the end of the month twenty additional names were registered,” clearly showing that this new college was filling a need. Bishop Bayley named the college for his aunt, now St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who preceded him in converting from the Protestant Episcopal Church to Catholicism, and who was the founder not only of the Sisters of Charity, but also of Catholic education in this country.
Bishop Bayley found traveling to his newly established college from Newark by horse and carriage too time consuming, and by 1859 the college had outgrown the small, white building in Madison. Returning from unsuccessful scouting for a new location along the South Orange and Newark Turnpike, Bishop Bayley spied a white marble villa on his right. A Catholic real estate dealer of Valisburg was commissioned to make the purchase of the Elphinstone Manor which stood where Presidents Hall does now. Formal transfer was effected on 2 April 1860, and Seton Hall College moved from Madison to South Orange. The College of St. Elizabeth now occupies the site of the original Seton Hall College where the white frame building still stands.
To see the map of Madison, please drop in during our hours, M-F, 9-5. We are the Archive for Seton Hall University and for the Archdiocese of Newark, and have an extensive collection of manuscripts, photographs, rare books and artifacts. If you have a paper or project which requires primary source material on the history of Seton Hall University or the Archdiocese, or you wish to research your family history using local Church records, please make an appointment to come in to confer with our staff and use some of the materials we conserve. Contact archives@shu.edu or 973-761-9476.