Dates

• Majority of material found within 1890 - 2019

Extent

3 boxes Linear Feet (The first Newman Center was founded in the 1890s at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Newman Center Club was named for Cardinal John Henry Newman (February 21, 1801-August 11, 1890) who was a “scholar, educator, and friend of youth.” Newman Clubs began to spring up on many campuses as more and more Catholic students attended colleges and normal schools across the country. The Newman Clubs provided Catholic students with opportunities for Catholic centered social and educational growth. Since the number of Catholic students attending Indiana State Normal School (ISNS) began to grow, on Sunday, October 2, 1927, Father McNelis and Father James Brady and about one hundred Catholic students and faculty from ISNS gathered at Saint Bernard’s Church to organize a Newman Club. The Newman Club’s stated purpose was “to better acquaint Catholic students with the heritage of their religion and bind them together in friendship.” The Newman Club grew with the College, and by 1948 the club was one of the leading religious organizations at Indiana State Teachers College (ISTC). The Newman Club held regular Communion breakfasts featuring spiritual speakers and held fall and spring outings at the College Lodge. In 1958, the Perfetti Noodle Company was purchased and converted to a temporary center through the efforts of Bishop Hugh Louis Lamb (October 6, 1890-December 8, 1959) the first Bishop of the Greensburg Diocese, college officials, and Father James Brady and Father James Miller of Saint Bernard’s Parish. Sometimes referred to as Saint James, the center opened for mass and community activities during the 1960-1961 school year. The mission of the new facility continued to be to “instill deeper appreciation of their common faith and opportunity of fellowship among students.” In addition to services and educational session, social activities such as “dances, sometimes chaperoned by cardboard monks and nuns” were held in the new hall. The first Newman Center became an integral part of the campus. In the 1960s, the college’s enrollment continued to grow, and there was a clear need for larger, more permanent facilities. In December 1965-January 1966, Indiana State College (ISC) was officially designated Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), and in May of the same year, ground was broken for a new Newman Center. The Vatican II style church was completed after Christmas in 1967. Bishop William G. Connare (December 11, 1911-June 12, 1995), Bishop of Greensburg, named the new center in Indiana, Pennsylvania, in honor of the martyred Saint Thomas More (February 7, 1478- July 6, 1535), and in 1969 Bishop Connare declared that the Newman Center was a “personal parish” with membership limited to IUP students and their families. For more than 50 years, the Church has offered students and the wider community opportunities for spiritual and intellectual development from a wide variety of classes on religious topics and the moral issues of the day. For the first three decades of its existence the Newman Center depended upon a subsidy from the Diocese, but by the end of the 1990s, it achieved independent status and welcomes all members of the community to join. This collection contains photographs and documents from the Newman Center at Indiana State College, which became Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Material is included that documents its first building, the building of the Newman Center in 1968 and religious and social life in the late 1960s through the 1980s. Also included are the constitution and by-laws of the St. Jerome Guild. The collection dates from 1968 to 1997.)

Language of Materials

English