Western Province Collection & Archives

Under Care of The History Museum & Research Center

This special example of records and material culture objects leave us with windows into the Catholic boarding school era. When combined with Ursuline Western Province prolific record keeping, individual and collective stories emerge. With just 12 sisters remaining and no archivists in their order in Montana, Ursuline Western Province Sisters needed to decide where to house their holdings and chose to have them remain in Great Falls while the other two provinces opted to move their collections to Boston College.

Our museum and research center has catalogued and created finding aids for a small portion of the records, and is continuing the digitizing efforts began by Great Falls Genealogy. St. Labre school hired a team of researchers to investigate Northern Cheyenne and Crow student records who attended the mission schools in their region, and several Blackfeet researchers have set appointments for personal research at our center.

Ursuline Western Province Archives are currently restricted to individuals researching family records and to tribal governments. Academics who have gone through an internal review by their university and independent researchers will be welcomed after. HIPAA and FERPA law as well as Cannon law must be considered by staff when facilitating visits. Archival boxes, acid-free folders, and other preservation materials are needed for this project as well as funding to continue the digitization work that Great Falls Genealogy began years ago.