Two nurses and two doctors demonstrate the use of a pulmotor on a patient at St. Joseph's Hospital. The hospital was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet during a cholera epidemic in 1853.
Twelve girls use the library at the St. Paul Girls' Home (orphanage), 933 Carroll Ave., St. Paul. An unidentified Sister of St. Joseph helps two of the students.
Thirteen people, some from the medical or nursing staffs, work on a patient in surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital. The other people present may be medical interns.
Young women were recruited from Ireland and Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s to join the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. (Some considered this increase in membership an unnatural growth.) By the turn of the century there were 428 Sisters of St. Joseph in the St. Paul Province to help administer and staff the schools and hospitals in the care of the community. Pictured here, according to note attached to photograph, back row (left to right): Sisters Matthew, Cuthberta, Peter, Blanda. Middle row (left to right) Sisters Oswina, Odelia, Jarleth, Illirius, Salome, Candida, Placidia, Pius. Front row (left to right) Sisters Honorata, Michael, Celsus, Lucy, St. Kevin, Victor, Erma.
Sister Antonia McHugh had experience at three educational levels: elementary, secondary, and college. She was among the first faculty appointed to Derham Hall / College of St. Catherine in 1905. From 1914-1917 she served as the first dean of the college; from 1917-1937 she served as the first president of the college. Her work brought national and international recognition of the scholastic curriculum and faculty at the college.
Sister Hyacinth Werden, an excellent educator was the first principal at Derham Hall. In January 1905, 70 boarding students from St. Joseph's Academy, St. Paul, moved out to a developing area in the southwestern part of the city, where the new school was located. This was the official opening of the College of St. Catherine. In addition to the high school boarding students there were "young ladies of uncertain age who were grouped together as 'specials.' "