About the Archives

History

In the Summer of 1974, Sr. Joel Read, then Alverno College President and a historian by training, asked Sr. Joanne Barras (1916-1990), a retired business education instructor, to become the first Alverno College Archivist. Then Sr. Joanne went through extensive training. The Archives was officially established in January 1975 with a campus-wide memo from Sr. Joel and a Winter Institute presentation by Sr. Joanne both outlining the program in considerable detail. In October 1978, the Archives became a unit of the Alverno College Library. Sr. Joanne retired in the spring of 1987 and Sara Shutkin became the college's second Archivist and first Records Manager.

Sara served as both Archivist & Records Manager in the Archives and as a subject liaison librarian in the Alverno College Library until her retirement in the spring of 2025. In February 2025, a Syllabus Archive containing over 15,000 syllabi for courses taught at Alverno beginning in 1975 officially became a permanent and ongoing collection maintained by the Alverno College Archives.

Profile

Did you know...
Alverno once had a tennis court?
Tuition used to be $50 per semester?
Who Sr. M. Providencia was?

Answers to these questions and more can be found in the Alverno College Archives. A unit of the Alverno College Library, the Archives houses college records of enduring historical, administrative and legal value in a variety of formats including paper, photographs, microforms, audiotapes, videotapes and digital formats.

Collections of note include those documenting the Research Center on Women (RCW) and Alverno's unique ability-based curriculum.