Personal papers, documents, publications, audio/visual media, interview transcripts and other materials documenting the Catholic Worker Movement and the lives of its founders are maintained by the following organizations.
Catholic Worker Newspaper Archive
Catholic Worker Archives (Marquette University)
Other Archives
Ammon Hennacy Papers
Ammon Hennacy was a significant figure in the Catholic Worker movement. He called himself a “Christian-anarchist-pacifist”. This collection includes his papers, publications, manuscripts, and correspondence,
Ade Bethune Collection (St. Catherine University)
Ade Bethune designed the logo of the Catholic Worker and contributed countless woodcuts that enlivened the paper from its early days. She was also a world-renowned liturgical artist and social activist. The holdings consist of manuscript and printed materials, as well as a large variety of non-textual materials (graphic, sound, artifact).
William Miller and the Catholic Worker Movement Collection (St. Thomas University)
William D. Miller was the first historian to write a detailed history of the Catholic Worker in the context of American social and intellectual history. He wrote two early biographies of Dorothy Day. This collection includes his extensive correspondence with Dorothy Day and extensive research notes.
Joe Zarella Catholic Worker Papers (Bellarmine University)
Joseph Zarrella joined the Catholic Worker movement in its early days. The collection includes materials related to the Catholic Worker Movement and prominent figures in the movement, including co-founder Dorothy Day and artists for the newspaper Ade Bethune and Fritz Eichenberg.
Want to Contribute?
If you are a member of a Catholic Worker community interested in contributing your community’s records to the Catholic Worker Collection at Marquette University, reach out to William Fliss at Marquette University before sending any materials. The Marquette University archives needs each donor to sign a “deed of gift” before they can proceed with acquiring the collections.
Contact William Fliss at the Marquette University Archives here.
Below are some guidelines to consider, from William Fliss, about what sort of items the Dorothy Day-Catholic Worker Collection at the Marquette University Archives are interested in, and what sort of formats or organizations are necessary to prepare them.
Media:
- Paper correspondence
- Electronic records
- House newsletters/newspapers
- Press clippings—news stories about the house
- Photographs
- Annual reports, financial reports, house meeting minutes
- Manuscripts or unpublished writings
- Correspondence between Catholic Worker communities or from Dorothy Day, Ammon Hennacy, Peter Maurin, or other “historical” Catholic Workers
Please ensure:
- Photographs are dated, the people in the photographs are named, and a description of the event in the photograph is included.
- Videos take up large amounts of storage space, so the archives do not encourage videos, but if a local news broadcasts a segment about the community or if there are oral histories captured on video, these could be of interest. Please ensure these videos are dated and described as photos are.
- When sharing videos or photographs, please choose representative samples from an event, not all 100 photographs taken.
- Confidentiality: if your records include sensitive information about someone’s personal life, community conflicts, or other confidential or private information, discuss sharing the archives with them, Fliss recommends. Generally, if the person is deceased, then it’s okay to share, Fliss said. Fliss said that the archives can, in particular cases, restrict access to sensitive materials for 20 to 50 years.
Themes:
- If you wonder if an item is “newsworthy” or worthy of preservation, Fliss offered the following list of themes that are of interest to researchers studying the Catholic Worker.
- Does your item include one of the following:
- Examples of your values, actions, principles, issues you stand for, and groups with whom you collaborate
- Examples of a house’s decision-making process, financial structure (e.g. a 501c3, other nonprofit, partnership, LLC, unincorporated, family structure), property ownership and other processes.
- Discussions on ideas of the Catholic Worker movement: personalism, economic justice, pacifism, Christian anarchism, voluntary poverty, the Works of Mercy, Catholic Action, anti-racism, nonviolence, Catholic Worker farms and ecological justice.
- Does your item include one of the following:
Dorothy Day Center
If you or your community have material culture to donate to the Dorothy Day Center, for the purposes of education and expanding the legacy of Dorothy Day, the Dorothy Day Center will accept:
- Books inscribed by Dorothy Day, first editions or other rare Catholic Worker books,
- Religious items, clothing, mementos, or other material culture that was donated by Dorothy Day or Peter Maurin to the person or community.
Contact Kevin Ahern, Director of the Dorothy Day Center at Manhattan University.