By Barb Sommers, Cathedral Archivist
From 2011 to 2024, Dr. Raspanti diligently wrote a weekly article, “Voices from the Archives,” for the Cathedral parish bulletin. Each article described a person or an event whose story touches on Cathedral history. These are now assembled in the Archives Collections.
An early Voices from the Archives highlighted Archbishop Ireland’s time embedded with the Minnesota regiment in Corinth, Mississippi, during the Civil War, a mere six months after he was ordained.
Other topics range from
- John Angel, the sculptor of the Four Evangelists,
- Emmanuel Masqueray, the Cathedral architect
- Church architecture
- Designs for the chapels
- Stories about Archbishop John Ireland and his successor Cathedral archbishops, bishops, and archbishops and bishops
- Information about Cathedral paintings and artwork.
- Stories depicted in the stained glass windows and the saints portrayed in them
To improve access to the Voices, the Cathedral Archives, supported by grants from the CHF, and aided by Archive volunteers Kevin Duchschere and Ron Schlangen, developed two documents. Ron Schlangen organized a digital copy of a full set of the Voices, keyword searchable and arranged chronologically by week, month, and year. Kevin Duchschere created an itemized index, arranged alphabetically and keyword searchable. Both documents now help support Archives researchers by offering increased access to the Voices and the information they contain.
