Vincentiana Collection at DePaul University Special Collections and Archives hosts a collection of over 1000 Vincentian Postcards. This pictorial history documents the spirituality and mission of the Vincentians.

St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) founded the Congregation of the Mission in 1625 in France, a society of priests and brothers dedicated to preaching the gospel. The Company of the Daughters of Charity was founded in 1633 by StVincent and St. Louise de Marillac (1591-1660) to minister to the sick and poor. In 1809, St. Elizabeth Seton (1774-1821) founded the Community of the Sisters of Charity in the United States which was dedicated to teaching and nursing.

Spanning 200 years, these postcards reflect the heritage of the religious orders, the growth of social institutions, advancements in technology and changes in urban environments.

The images in this collection include institutions such as hospitals, churches and seminaries. Some highlights of the collection are French postcards relevant to St. Vincent’s life, the residence of Estelle Doheny who was a patron of the Vincentians, and posed scenes of models acting out the work of Daughters of Charity in France.

The original postcards were scanned on an Hewlett-Packard 7490c scanner. Resulting 600 dpi raw TIFF files were retained for archive copies and were resized to 300 dpi JPEG files. Some manipulation of the JPEG files was done to present the clearest possible digital image. Resulting access files were approximately 640 x 480 pixels and thumbnails were 144 x 96 pixels. The image files were imported into the CONTENTdm digital media management software and uploaded to the library’s Web server.

The information for the Vincentian Postcard Collection was researched and prepared by the DePaul University Libraries Archives and Cataloging staff. Dublin Core was used as the metadata scheme. The site is regularly updated.