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The south campus of UMBC, which is about two miles from UMBC’s main campus, is not only home to the technology center; it is located next to the motherhouse for the oldest order of African-American nuns in the world. Known as The Oblate Sisters of Providence (O.S.P.) the order began in Baltimore City, in 1829.

”I fell in love with the Oblates, the history and the work. They treat me wonderfully and appreciate everything that I do,” says Sharon Knecht, a UMBC historical studies ’03 M.A. graduate, with a concentration in public history. Knecht is now a paid archivist with the O.S.P. She works at the motherhouse, which serves as the order’s headquarters. Although there are also missions in downtown Baltimore, Washington D.C., New York and Costa Rica, it is the motherhouse that contains all of the O.S.P.’s archival records.

Contrary to the times, the early Oblates were a highly educated group of women. Although they were subordinate to a male clergy, the sisters were highly independent and, as Knecht writes, “the best educated and most accomplished of 19th and early 20th- century women.“ Their records reveal, among other things, the experiences with the religious hardships and busy schedule of being an Oblate, as well as the profound influence they had on the children they took care of and adopted into the order.

Knecht’s research on the sisters came about suddenly. Originally, Knecht was going to look at 19th-century women immigrants to the United States. “Immigrants have always fascinated me,” says Knecht. “For someone to pick up and move so far is fascinating, especially among women.” As it turned out, Knecht spent a semester in 2002 interning for the O.S.P. She soon became very involved in helping the sisters arrange their records. Her charge was to create a finding aid (which helps researchers find what they are looking for in a particular archive) for the order’s mission records.

”At the time their records were in wide disarray,‘ says Knecht. ”What complicates this is that the women who work there also live there.” As a result, the sister’s records and personal lives were intertwined. Knecht spent all of last summer working on “untwining” their business and organizational records, starting by creating an inventory of all of the documents. The records have now been placed into different groups, including, among others, administration, congregation and missions. As an example, the missions group alone contains 42,000 items, ranging from the years 1863 to 1996. This grouping has laid the groundwork for processing the documents in an organized manner.

The overall mission of the O.S.P. has always been to provide childhood education. ”Their mission has been to teach children,” says Knecht. Indeed, part of the missions records include valuable information on how these children, who often came from neglected family environments, were cared for by the sisters. This makes the collection a rich primary resource for sociologists as well as historians.

Sadly, the Oblates are an aging order. ”They once had 300 in their order. Presently, there are about 100 members either living at the motherhouse or out on mission,” says Knecht. Knecht suspects that much of this exodus from the order may be related to increased social reform for women in the 1960s. As society continued to open up more opportunities for women, the order began to lose members. Religious life became only one opportunity among many.

Knecht says that one of the most challenging aspects of the archiving process has been getting the members of the O.S.P. to realize the value of their collection to secular researchers. ”Sometimes, the sisters are so concerned with helping the poor and with education that they don‘t realize what a treasure they have!”

Over time, the order has gathered, among other items, an extensive collection of 19th- and 20th-century photographs depicting African-Americans, over 600 rare books, Catholic African-American periodicals and an ongoing oral history project. These materials and others are of great interest to a variety of scholars (both academic, religious and local), genealogists and students.

Mentors to Knecht have included O.S.P. Archivist Sister Reginald Gerdes; UMBC History Professor Kriste Lindenmeyer, her primary advisor; and Marcia Peri, the UMBC archivist. “Each mentor played a distinct role in helping me complete my project. Sr. Reginald was extremely valuable in answering my questions about the Oblates and their rich history and Dr. Lindenmeyer certainly guided me in doing historiography,” recalls Knecht. “[And] if it wasn’t for the help of Marcia, I wouldn’t have been able to do this at all. She trained me well, and if I had archiving questions, she was always there to help.”