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St. Joseph Academy Palladium yearbook collection connects us to our history
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July 8, 2020"Knowing the history of a place helps us to better appreciate what we have now. There is a rich history here at Saint Joseph Retreat & Conference Center. From the stories that 'the walls could tell' of students and sisters who walked and lived here, to the beauty of the buildings, the cemetery, and the landscape, there has been a rich deposit of faith being lived on this site since the early 1900s." Father David Huemmer, Chaplain & Spiritual Director
To that end, Father Huemmer has worked diligently to keep the history of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the St. Joseph Academy alive on our campus. He maintains several binders of yearbooks, historical accounts, newspaper clippings and photographs—many shared with us by alumnae and friends of the Sisters—in our St. Jerome Library. Guests may look through these binders during any visit. While we have many yearbooks, we are missing 14 years—and Father Huemmer is always on the lookout to complete our set!
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton were established March 15, 1888 on the invitation of Father Lentz of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Tipton. They established a school right away, but the St. Joseph Academy on this campus was formally opened in September of 1904 and blessed November 15, 1904.
The Academy years ran from 1904 to 1972, but the oldest yearbook we have is the 1909 Palladium. It is interesting to see how over the years the yearbook moved from a literary magazine, where each student was required to submit at least one piece, to a record of the year’s activities to more and more photographs of students and sisters on campus.
While we have 50 total St. Joseph Academy Palladium Yearbooks, most of those are photocopies. Father Hummer has spent many hours at the Tipton County Library making photocopies of every yearbook in their facility. Then, he’s copied other books that have been shared with us, but not donated. Below is a list of the photocopied yearbooks. They are organized by decade in binders.
Photocopied SJA Palladium Yearbooks—36 1909 1941 1910 1942 1913 1943 1914 1944 1915 1945 1917 1946 1918 1947 1919 1948 1920 1949 1921 1950 1922 1951 1924* 1952 1927* 1959 1928 1960 1930 1970 1931 1971 1932 1972 1938 *incomplete 1940
Guests are welcome to visit and look through the binders of photocopied yearbooks. Our staff regularly checks the binders too for stories, prayers and event dates. We have such a rich history here!
Our 14 actual Palladium yearbooks are kept securely in Father’s office—but he’s copied all of these for the binders as well. Some of these yearbooks were donated by alumnae and others have been purchased online. They may be seen upon request.
Actual SJA Palladium Yearbooks at SJRCC—14 1926 1954 1929 1955 1933 1956 1935 1957 1936 1958 1937 1963 1953 1964
The following list is the missing yearbooks—we don’t have a copy or an original.Missing SJA Palladium Yearbooks--14 1911 1961 1912 1962 1916 1965 1923 1966 1925 1967 1934 1968 1939 1969
While we welcome donations of actual SJA Palladium yearbooks, we also welcome the opportunity to photocopy a missing yearbook and add it to our binders in that form. We also love stories and photos from St. Joseph Academy alumnae, the community, associates and friends of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Please contact Fr. David Huemmer at fr.dhuemmer@dol-in.org to share your St. Joseph Academy or Sisters of St. Joseph history with us!
