Sisters of Charity Halifax Archives (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)

Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30am-4:30pm. Closed on public holidays.
Location: 215 Seton Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3M 0C9
Contact: Mary Flynn, (902)-406-8136; mflynn@schalifax.ca
Access: Research visits are by appointment only.
Website: http://schalifax.ca/archives/

The Sisters of Charity Halifax Archives house materials and records pertaining to the history, spirit, and growth of the Sisters of Charity Halifax. This Catholic order trained nursing sisters, created schools of nursing, and founded several hospitals in Canada.

The archive houses two fonds: Sister John Mary McNeil fonds and Sister Margaret Therese Campbell fonds. The Sister John Mary McNeil fonds (1955-1970) consists of photographs of students in various nursing schools across Nova Scotia, Sisters of Charity at various missions, and the scenery throughout Cape Breton. There are 420 photographs in this collection in slide format only. Sister Margaret Therese Campbell fonds (1959-1965) consists of photographs of postulants and novices on the grounds of Mount Saint Vincent Motherhouse, Halifax. There are 59 photographs in this collection in slide format only.

The archive contains administrative records of convents and health institutions such as the Halifax Infirmary (Halifax), Halifax Infirmary School of Nursing (Halifax), Mount Saint Vincent Academy (Halifax), Hamilton Memorial Hospital (North Sydney, NS), St. Elizabeth Hospital (North Sydney, NS), St. Elizabeth Hospital (Barrhead, AB), Immaculata Hospital (Westlock, AB), St. Anne Hospital (Hardisty, AB), Seton Hospital (Jasper, AB), and Swan River Hospital (Swan River, MB).

The Sisters of Charity Halifax Archives contributes to several projects within the Halifax community, including: the Catholic Cemetery Commission, which locates the gravesites of Sisters buried in Halifax, and Community Albums, which collects and describes archival documents relating to the Halifax community.

A project of note that Sisters of Charity Halifax contributes to is the Nursing History Digitization Project, which provides information on the history of nursing schools in Nova Scotia.

This digital project includes the Halifax Infirmary and Mount Saint Vincent University Schools of nursing. The website was developed principally by the Mount Saint Vincent University Archives, and explores the history of nursing education in Nova Scotia from 1890, when the Victoria General Hospital established the first nursing school in Nova Scotia, to the late twentieth century. There were two main routes one could take in order to become a graduate registered nurse in the twentieth century.  A student nurse could either attend a hospital based nursing program, such as the ones established at the Victoria General Hospital and the Aberdeen Hospital, or they could attend a university based nursing program, such as the ones established at Dalhousie University or Mount Saint Vincent University.  Both routes developed and operated quite differently, with much debate as to which route produced the most competent nurse.  The site explores both the general history of nursing education and also the history of a number of nursing schools in Nova Scotia.  The development of the nursing schools is explored by integrating narrative text with photographs, nursing program histories, correspondence, memoranda, poems, program outlines, reports, rules, and sketches, which help to illustrate the development and impact of nursing education in Nova Scotia. The project is ongoing.                                                                   

University Based Nursing Schools:

Link to Nursing History Digitization Project

The Digitization project is also affiliated with the Canadian Nursing History Collection Online, run by the Canadian Museum of History. It is a rich repository of artifacts and documents held by the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian War Museum and the Library and Archives Canada. The collection consists of approximately 1,800 artifacts from the late nineteenth century to the 1980s, including nursing uniforms, school pins, equipment, educational materials, paintings, war medals and nursing organization memorabilia, all of which were used by nursing leaders, nursing sisters and secular nurses. In the future, materials such as photographs and documents will be integrated into this online collection.