Archives

Preserving History

The Archives of the Sisters of Mount Carmel are located on the third floor of the Motherhouse in New Orleans, Louisiana. Documents stored there go back to our beginnings in 1833 and there are even a few French documents dated earlier than that. These were, for many years, kept in Lacombe, Louisiana. The devastating floods of May 1995 left them sitting in several feet of water for many days before being rescued. With the help of many New Orleans archivists and especially Dr. Charles Nolan, the documents were sent to Texas to be freeze-dried. On their return they were transferred to the Motherhouse where they were put in new boxes and new folders. Sr. Hyacinth Breaux, then archivist, was able to save more than 85% of our documents.

In 2014 our archivists, Sisters Therese Gregoire and Germaine Lauzon, decided to share some of the items relating to Mother Thérèse Chevrel, our foundress, as well as items connected to our early history by creating a Heritage Room near the chapel, a sort of mini-museum.