The centerpiece of Sueltenfuss Library, Jesse Treviño’s mural “La Historia Chicana,” appears as if it were created for this space overlooking the second floor. In truth, this is the mural’s third home since Treviño painted it in 1974.
Students playing table tennis in the Student Union Building, 1970s
Treviño is a celebrated artist, his work revered nationally as well as throughout OLLU’s campus. “La Historia Chicana” is currently in a spot where it is protected but is viewable by anyone visiting campus. Would you believe the mural’s original location was not so protected? It started out in the building that now houses the campus bookstore, but in the 1970s it was the Student Union Building, a good spot for students to enjoy a game of table tennis or a cold beer!
In 1981, University leaders realized the art treasure needed more protection and moved it to St. Florence Library in what is now known as Walter Center.
Mural in St. Florence Library, 1980s
Of course, when Sueltenfuss Library was completed, Treviño’s mural was moved to its current position of honor. In the following 2001 Lake Currents feature, you can see Treviño supervised the installation himself.
Mural relocated to Sueltenfuss Library, 2001
To learn more about artist Jesse Treviño and his connection to Our Lady of the Lake University, visit University Archives in Providence 6A or contact Archivist Anna Beyer, 210-434-6711 x2338, abeyer@lake.ollusa.edu .
Sister Elizabeth Anne Sueltenfuss, photographed on June 14, 1963, the day she left for her first trip to Europe.
Among the archived files of former OLLU President Sister Elizabeth Anne Sueltenfuss (1921-2009) are transcripts of notes she kept during nearly 30 years of travels across the world. At the time of the following trip to Europe, Sister Elizabeth Anne had just graduated with a Ph.D. in microbiology from Notre Dame and was traveling with her mother. She was 42 years old. In these three short excerpts – spanning only 10 days — you see a snippet of what Sister Elizabeth Anne experienced on her first visits to Ireland, England, and France.
June 15, 1963
It took us from 9:45 to 1 p.m. to get to Dublin – everytime I saw something I wanted to keep forever on film Father obligingly stopped the car. We had a time finding just the typical Irish homes, but when we did see what he thought I should have we took the picture. I got some good shots of Irish gypsies, milk wagons, yellow furze flowers, thatched roof houses, typical country store and adjacent waiting station. This was old Ireland – and we were soon to find a real contrast to the new Ireland growing out of Dublin.
June 21, 1963
On reaching Cambridge – the English countryside was beautifully peaceful, low and rolling – we took a bus into central Cambridge. Then took a taxi to the Department of Veterinary Medicine where we planned to visit Professor Beveridge and Muriel Rose. He was gone to the farms and she was in London taking exams. We were interested because Dr. Pollard had worked with him, and Mrs. Rose had been employed in our laboratories as a technician for some months. At any rate Marguerite McKean showed us the laboratories and we had coffee and English biscuits. Mr. Downe from there took us to the back of the Cambridge colleges – as we were getting into the car he told us that white smoke had been seen from the Vatican and that we had a new pope. But at this time we didn’t know who.
June 25, 1963
Mass at St. Medard. Went to the Louvre–closed since it was Tuesday. Surprised at the number of men at early mass and the participation of the laity in the mass prayers. A layman read the epistle and gospel in French. Walked in the Tuileries garden. Had a French lunch of raw mushrooms–everything came in courses. This was France. Rode later to St. Chapelle in the Palais de Justice. Ferme. Not our day. Jean Claude would hardly believe us when we told him these places were closed, and he was ashamed of Paris, he said. Returned to the Cathedral of Notre Dame which is beautiful exterially but a disappointment otherwise. This is its 500th anniversary. We lighted candles again to burn as our prayers for you. I bought some slides of Paris at night since I hadn’t been able to capture any of these historical on film myself. Dinner with all the Solomons at Paul’s Restaurant–typically French Bistrot! The old Solomons were delightful and we had a gay time. Veal steaks in paper. Some kind of fancy egg roll meat entree. And a delicacy of TRIPE! Tried for some French pastry but didn’t order what was suggested-Mrs. Solomon got some kind of dessert with burning brandy to show us how it was served. Mr. Solomon had ordered a big bottle of table wine which they served in a bucket of ice. He kept turning it to make it cold. Meanwhile everyone wondered how we could be having such a good time.
Our Lady of the Lake’s basketball team, 1911-1912.
How different was life at the Lake 100 years ago?
The answer can be found partly in the 1912 Catalog and its descriptions of campus. For example, the Catalog touts the campus’ electricity and Artesian well-fed plumbing.
The Catalog also lists Disciplinary Regulations, including:
The time of recreation excepted, silence must be strictly observed, and even during the hours of recreation silence is exacted in the halls, corridors, and staircases.
No pupil is permitted to borrow or to lend any article of clothing.
Neatness of person and great care of books and clothing must be strictly observed.
No jewelry should be brought to the Academy, its use not being favored.
Particular friendships are not allowed. The pupils should cultivate an amiable disposition and a polite deportment.
Regular hours for sewing are allowed to each pupil, so that she may keep her wardrobe in perfect order.
Letters are written on Saturdays and Sundays; and communications sent or received are subject to the inspection of the Superior.
The thought of these (and many more) regulations gives me sympathy not just for the students, but for the Sisters who must have been exhausted enforcing them.
What else do we know about how the young school was growing 100 years ago? At that time, the school was an established academy for girls, but collegiate education was just beginning. The women’s liberal arts college had only been established a year earlier. In the academic year 1911-1912, Rosalie McNelly was the only college student enrolled. In 1914, Rosalie joined the Congregation of Divine Providence as Sister Presentation. The 1912-1913 Catalog lists these college-level subjects: religion, church history, philosophy, history of philosophy, English, history and social science, Latin, Greek, German, mathematics, and science. In that academic year, the freshman class had grown to three students.
For more information about the history of Our Lady of the Lake, visit the University Archives, Monday –Wednesday, 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. or contact archivist Anna Beyer at x2338.
References
Catalog. (1911). San Antonio, TX: Our Lady of the Lake.
[Our Lady of the Lake basketball team] [Photograph]. (1911). San Antonio, TX:
Our Lady of the Lake University Archives.
Our Lady of the Lake University Archives. (n.d.). Happenings year by year.
Unpublished typescript, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, TX.
Photos and campus publications in the University Archives have not only captured the history of the institution – they have captured the evolution of collegiate fashions at the Lake!
1911 — Students, seen here in uniforms and “square tops”, gathered between Mass and breakfast for morning exercises.
1929 – Golfing attire.
1933 – OLL ladies in an array of fashions.1946 – Members of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in holiday styles.
1956 – Roberta Burkholder’s dress would find more use in 21st century than her mimeograph machine.
1962 – Judy Davis and Phyllis Anderson, is it fur or faux?
(We are celebrating enduring treasures from Our Lady of the Lake University’s past throughout American Archives Month this October. Visit the Archives in Providence Hall, 6A, for a peak into history, to relive events, or to learn about the fascinating characters in OLLU’s life story. The Archives are open 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Wednesday, or by appointment. Call Anna Beyer, x2338, for information.)
The Archives contains a transcript of Sister Mary Clare’s oral history, dictated in about 1977 and transcribed in 1999. Her comments lend context and background to the items contained in her archive file. Together, these items build a story of the work Sister Mary Clare did here. Though her work culminated in a ten-year term as academic dean of OLLU, Sister Mary Clare’s academic career began with the study of zoology and botany decades earlier.
Evidence of her dedicated scientific study is found in a 1934 copy of her doctoral dissertation, A Flora of Bexar County, Texas.
Sister Mary Clare spoke about her studies in her oral history. She left Texas for the Catholic University of America to study biological sciences in 1930.
“The following June I returned home to pronounce my final vows and to begin research for my doctoral dissertation. Since my major emphasis was in systematic botany I had chosen for my problem the preparation of a flora of Bexar County, Texas. The University had allowed me to do this research away from the University in Texas and my superiors had approved. Needless to say, this research involved much field work. I was allowed to do this field work with Peter Leguchick, the convent chauffeur as driver, and Sister Maurice, usually as my companion three mornings each week.”
Sister Mary Clare collected more than 1,000 plant samples, and dried them in warming ovens in the OLL kitchen. After a year of collection, she returned to Catholic University with her samples.
“Before the year had progressed very far, a fire broke out due to faulty wiring in the herbarium in McMahon Hall at Catholic University. My plant materials were stored in a wooden cabinet next to the spot where the fire began, and among other things the cabinet and all of its contents were burned.”
Her study, she said, was saved by the speedy shipment of duplicate samples from OLL. This “catastrophe” was followed by the relocation of her major professor, the one person at Catholic University qualified to mentor her research. Bad luck turned to good luck when he suggested she seek assistance from the National Herbarium in the Smithsonian Institute: “What started out as a catastrophe proved to be the most fruitful period of my experience in higher studies.”
These excerpts represent but one small bit of Sister Mary Clare’s 17-page transcribed oral history, covering nearly 50 years of her experience at OLL.
(We are celebrating enduring treasures from Our Lady of the Lake University’s past throughout American Archives Month this October. Visit the Archives in Providence Hall, 6A, for a peak into history, to relive events, or to learn about the fascinating characters in OLLU’s life story. The Archives are open 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Wednesday, or by appointment. Call Anna Beyer, x2338, for information.)
Among the archives’ treasures are clues to the personal talents of Our Lady of the Lake founders like Mother Angelique Ayers.
Mother Angelique’s individual files in the archives contain many examples of her written work from very early in her academic career. However, some of her most tender compositions are short hand- or type-written verses. Many times, she composed verses to be printed inside Christmas cards sent out by the Sisters. Her poems are prayers or musings, sometimes sentimental, sometimes cheery, but always reverent.
Verse inside a 1953 Christmas card
Though undated, Mother Angelique may have written the following short poem on a gloomy day:
Autumn,
Do you splash
Your colors with such waste
Artist Divine must soften them
With haze?
Though not written by her, another verse in Mother Angelique’s papers sheds further light on her talents, personality, and affinity for poetry. Note the annotation “She played and sang this song.”
(We are celebrating enduring treasures from Our Lady of the Lake University’s past throughout American Archives Month this October. Visit the Archives in Providence Hall, 6A, for a peak into history, to relive events, or to learn about the fascinating characters in OLLU’s life story. The Archives are open 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Wednesday, or by appointment. Call Anna Beyer, x2338, for information.)
Among the University Archives is a single card catalog drawer holding chronological notes on events throughout the school’s history, from building projects to special guests. This week I discovered renowned poet Robert Frost spoke here on March 3, 1941. Frost is but one gem in a studded line of special visitors at OLLU. Others have included poet Nikki Giovanni, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, and actor Edward James Olmos.
According to the file, when Frost visited, he read some of his poems and “talked to the students on education ‘from spelling up and from poetry down.’” But my favorite bit draws a picture of the Pulitzer winner’s visit to campus: “In the afternoon before the lecture he walked over the campus looking at the shrubs, trees, and flowers.”
(We are celebrating enduring treasures from Our Lady of the Lake University’s past throughout American Archives Month this October. Visit the Archives in Providence Hall, 6A, for a peak into history, to relive events, or to learn about the fascinating characters in OLLU’s life story. The Archives are open 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Wednesday, or by appointment. Call Anna Beyer, x2338, for information.)
Before the Colbert Report, before Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, and before Saturday Night Live, as the United States wrenched its socio-political way through the tail end of the Johnson Presidency and the start of Richard M. Nixon’s term in office, there aired a prime time comedy/variety show that grabbed the rug under this country’s status quo and gave it a firm, playful tug. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour wasn’t enough of a tug to cause a bone-breaking fall, but it was enough to rock its balance.
And rock, it did. In 1967, Tom and Dick Smothers were a couple of clean cut young men noted for their comedy/folk song stand up routines, so CBS felt safe in signing them into a slot opposite NBC’s wildly popular Western, Bonanza. With writers such as Steve Martin, Rob Reiner and Roger Mason and top quality guests such as The Doors, The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Harry Nilsson, Jonathan Winters, Liberace, Judy Collins and Donovan; The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour proved to be far more popular than CBS believed it would be, and continued through the spring of 1969.
The Smothers Brothers surprised CBS in other ways too. Back in those days, it was rare to see African American musicians perform on prime time television. Racial segregation was enforced in the US Southern States until 1965 and the civil rights movement battled to protect people of color all through the 1960s. Against CBS’ counsel, the Smothers Brothers repeatedly featured black artists such as the Ike and Tina Turner Review, Ray Charles, Harry Belafonte and Nancy Wilson. The Smothers Brothers regularly challenged bigotry, closed mindedness, the Vietnam War and underfunding for education. They passionately supported comedian Pat Paulson’s 1968 Presidential bid.
Censorship was a constant challenge for the Smothers Brothers. As a child, I remember my family gathering in the living room to watch their comedy hour. We would be enjoying one of David Steinberg or Pat Paulsen’s stand up performances, only to hear it interrupted by a blaring “be-e-ep.” I’d turn to my Dad, who would roll his eyes and mutter, “Nixon” under his breath. These comedians weren’t censored due to swearing—but due to their political and social commentary.
The Smothers Brothers, their guests and writers fought back against the CBS censors. Roger Mason, the show’s lead writer and composer and performer of the instrumental hit Classical Gas, recited his poem The Censoron the show, sitting on a stool, cradling his guitar and pointing a pair of scissors directly at the camera.
In the monologue that led CBS to cancel the program, David Steinberg discussed the Biblical story of Jonah. He said, “as they have been known to do from time to time, the Gentiles grabbed the Jew by the Old Testament and threw him off the boat.” This thinly veiled double-barreled reference to male genitalia and historical persecution of the Jews during prime time was the final straw for CBS. That episode did not air, and the Smothers Brothers show was canceled.
If you would like to see that and some of the other fine (uncensored) episodes from the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour’s third and final season, just come to the Sueltenfuss Library where you can check out the four volume DVD set, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, PN1992.8.C66 S66 2008. You will not only be entertained, but you’ll truly taste the flavor of the 1960s.
The computer lab on the 2nd floor of the library will be closed all day Friday, July 2, 2010 for maintenance. Please use the 24 hour lab on the 1st floor of the library.
Sueltenfuss Library announces WT Cox Subscriptions JOURNAL FINDER. JOURNAL FINDER gives you access to all full-text electronic and print journals, newspapers, and magazines that the OLLU Library subscribes to. In addition, JOURNAL FINDER also provides over 11,000 open access titles — open access meaning free journals found on the Internet.
As an example of the enhanced features provided by JOURNAL FINDER, you are now able to link from a citation in one database to the library catalog or to the full text article in another database or publisher site.
Journal Finder was created, designed and has been maintained by the librarians and library technology specialists at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In other words, Journal Finder was developed by librarians who are most familiar with how students seek information.
Other than the new look and logo, you should not encounter any major changes to how you have obtained abstracts, full-text articles and interlibrary loan requests in the past. If you have any questions about the services provided by JOURNAL FINDER, don’t hesitate to contact an OLLU librarian at library@ollusa.edu .
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