Liberal Arts and the Love of Learning

Yesterday St. Catherine University initiated 19 new members into Phi Beta Kappa. It's one of the nice things about working here--being able to share a love of the liberal arts with other like-minded people who recognize the importance of lifelong learning. Among the values highlighted in St. Kate's Mission Statement is the integration of liberal arts and professional education. And this year the University is celebrating the Year of the Liberal Arts in conjunction with the last week's launch of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences.

How does all that relate to this blog and the Ade Bethune Collection? In this way: Ade Bethune was continually educating herself all throughout her life--when faced with something new, she would devote time to learning all she could about it.

Here are some examples:

• In the 1930s she taught art at Portsmouth Priory School (now Portsmouth Abbey School) in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. One year she was asked to teach mechanical drawing, a subject she knew nothing about. Using the class textbook, she taught herself, making sure to always stay one lesson ahead of the class. The knowledge of mechanical drawing she acquired proved beneficial later on, when she began working as a liturgical consultant. It allowed her to draft plans for church buildings, and to understand architectural drawings. The textbook she used is in the Ade Bethune Collection.
• While Ade Bethune had created art using a variety of media, she had not done much with metal until she began working with the Terra Sancta Guild in 1965. Terra Sancta, based in Philadelphia, partnered with a metal shop in Israel to produce and sell religious items cast in bronze. Bethune recognized that she needed a fuller understanding of the metal casting process in order to create appropriate designs. So she traveled to Israel in the summer of 1966 for that purpose. She met the men working in the shop, and learned from them, communicating through drawings and bits of Hebrew and German. Among other things, Bethune realized the process of sandcasting does not allow small details to be clearly visible, so her designs needed to incorporate simple shapes and lines. In the Ade Bethune Collection are multiple examples of work she did for Terra Sancta Guild, including a "Tree of Life" candleholder, the first piece she designed for them.
• As Bethune became more active as a liturgical consultant, the scope of work she performed broadened. In addition to providing artwork for churches she became involved with choosing church furnishings, lighting selection and placement, and making recommendations for the design and layout of church spaces. And it wasn't just the visuals--she paid attention to how music would sound in a church. She viewed singing as an important group activity, and it was necessary for the sound to fill the space, so everyone had a sense of the music they were singing together. Among the that Ade Bethune gave to St. Catherine University are one on acoustical engineering and another on music, acoustics and architecture. There is no way to know how much use she made of them, but it isn't difficult to imagine that the woman who taught herself mechanical drawing would also educate herself about how sound travels through space.

New Resources Online

We've been busy the past few weeks making more information and resources about the Ade Bethune Collection available online. There are new additions to the Library's Digital Collections of articles written by Ade Bethune and published in Catholic Art Quarterly. Digital versions of 8 typescripts in various forms of draft and one manuscript are now accessible online for viewing. The full text of the articles can also be searched.  Take a look!

Titles of the articles are:

• Font and Altar: Footnotes on Sacred Architecture (1954)
• Revising our Conception of the Communion Rail (1958)
• Some Suggestions on Teaching Design (1947)
• Symbols of the Spirit (1954)
• Version 1
• Version 2
• The Person and the Industrial Counter-Revolution (1940)
• The Raising of Lazarus: a play (1949)
• The Tabernacle and the Altar Facing the People (1959)
• Version 1
• Version 2

The article "The Person and the Industrial Counter-Revolution" may be of particular interest to the St. Catherine University community.  It is based on a speech she gave in 1939 at the 3rd meeting of the Catholic Art Association, which was held on the St. Kate's campus.

Finding Aids Available

Finding aids to three series in the Ade Bethune Collection are now on the Collection web site.  Work on the remaining processed series is in progress, and we hope to make them available over the summer.

Ade Bethune's Writings
The collection includes about 100 published articles in both manuscript (some typed) and printed forms. There are about 17 booklets or books in various forms of draft and print as well as roughly 44 unpublished articles or notes. There is also correspondence with various editors and publishers about Bethune's work. Materials span the years from 1933 to 1998 with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1940s to 1960s.

Bethune published articles in about 37 different journals, with most being in Orate Fratres, Liturgical Arts, and Catholic Art Quarterly. She also wrote a series of 5 articles for Church Property Administration on the need for church architecture to support the liturgy.

Catholic Worker Materials
These materials cover the Catholic Worker movement, from its beginnings in New York to its international presence. The collection spans most of the 21st century, though the bulk of the materials fall between 1940-2000. It includes correspondence; Catholic Worker publications, such as pamphlets, newspapers, and newsletters; other writings both by and about the Catholic Worker movement; and some of Ade Bethune’s artwork for the paper. This collection contains both personal materials illustrating Bethune’s relationship with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker as well as more generic materials relating to the social movement in general.

Items of particular note include correspondence between Ade Bethune and Dorothy Day, correspondence she held with other Catholic Workers, especially Mary Paulson and Hazen Ordway, and materials relating to the first large Catholic Worker conference held on the 50th anniversary of the movement’s founding.

Personal Correspondence
The collection includes personal correspondence with more than 150 individuals: handwritten and typed letters, photographs, postcards, and greeting cards, also any enclosed materials, such as print samples, informal sketches, or other items, that Bethune kept with the correspondences.

Especially of note is the over 30 years worth of correspondence she had with Arthur Graham Carey. Bethune and Cary discussed matters such as art commissions, personal affairs, and John Stevens Shop or Catholic Art Association business, as well as more general thoughts on the theory and philosophy of art.

It appears from the breadth of this collection that Ade Bethune faithfully saved all the letters that she possibly could. Often times, correspondence was with church community figures (such as Sister Peter Claver Fahy or Rev. Frederick R. McManus) or admirers from all over the world. Topics included informal art and design advice, discussions on liturgy, religion, or other personal matters. Letters to news editors, television hosts, and political leaders are somewhat common. She also corresponded with other successful artists such as Leandro Locsin, Alfonso Ossorio, and Fernando Zobel.

Catholic Research Resources Alliance meeting

The Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA) had an All-Members Meeting on March 30 at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Ade Bethune Collection curator, Deborah Kloiber, was one of approximately 30 people attending--it was the largest CRRA meeting to date. The morning session was devoted to two aspects of growing the "Catholic Portal" to make it more useful to researchers.

• The "recipe" for adding records of rare, unique, and uncommon materials to the Portal, and for updating them as necessary
• Discussion about digitization so researchers could find, read, and use the materials online directly in the Portal

Attendees feel these two items are the highest priority for moving the Catholic Portal forward.

In the afternoon, focus was given to how the Portal works. Several member libraries will be doing usability studies between now and the end of the year, testing the functions and ease of use of the Portal. There should be time after each study to make recommended improvements before the next study is done. This allows for continuous improvement.

No items from the Ade Bethune Collection are in the Portal yet--the first finding aids should be added later this year or early in the summer. But the Portal does contain materials related to Bethune and her work from other libraries. And approximately 74 other items from the St. Kate's Library have been added.