Maryland Province Archives

Researchers interested in the Maryland Province Archives may wish to review previously published print and digital works to help orient themselves to the history of the Maryland Jesuits, identify key archival sources, and become familiar with existing scholarship.  The following resources are only a few of the projects that have resulted from research with the MPA, and are either freely accessible online or through Lauinger Library.

Digital Projects Featuring MPA Materials

Georgetown Slavery Archive - GSA curators have digitized and transcribed many of the key documents pertaining to slavery in the MPA, as well as related material from other collections at Georgetown and elsewhere.

Jesuit Plantation Project - This project, curated by Dr. Sharon Leon of Michigan State University, focuses on the lives and experiences of those individuals enslaved by the Jesuits of the Maryland Province.

Genealogical Projects

The Georgetown Memory Project - This independent organization researchers the history of the GU 272, focusing on identifying descendants.

Related Lauinger Library Sites and Research Guides

Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation: Lauinger Library Resources

Maryland Province Archives News

Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections (LibGuide)

Georgetown University Archives (LibGuide)

Catholic Studies (LibGuide)

Related Archival Collections at Georgetown

Catholic Historical Manuscripts Collection

Holy Trinity Church Archives (Collection 1 and Collection 2)

Joseph P. Mobberly, S.J. Papers

Woodstock College Archives

Since the early 1900s, researchers have published works based on their study of materials in the Maryland Province Archives.  The following works may be particularly helpful for gaining background knowledge on the Maryland Province and the many themes this collection contains.

Recent Historical Scholarship

Flanagan, Charles M.  The Sweets of Independence: A Reading of the "James Carroll Daybook, 1714-1721."  Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, 2005.

"Jesuits and Slavery." Special issue, Journal of Jesuit Studies 8, no. 1 (Winter 2021).

Masur, Laura E.. "Symbol or Presence? Archeology and the Materiality of Catholic Devotions." U.S. Catholic Historian 28, no. 2 (2020), pp. 1-21.

Masur, Laura E..  "A Spiritual Inheritance: Black Catholics in Southern Maryland."  Engaging Sources: The Tradition and Future of Collecting History in the Society of Jesus (Chestnut Hill: Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, 2021).

Masur, Laura E.  "Plantation as Mission: American Indians, Enslaved Africans, and Jesuit Missionaries in Maryland."  Journal of Jesuit Studies 8, no. 3 (2021): pp. 385-407.

Lenik, S. T., & Masur, L. E. (2021). "Introduction: The Archaeology of Jesuit Sites in the Americas."  Journal of Jesuit Studies 8, no. 3 (2021): pp. 341-354. 

Mendoza, Elsa Barraza.  "Catholic Slaveowners and the Development of Georgetown University’s Slave Hiring System, 1792–1862."  Journal of Jesuit Studies 8, no. 1 (Winter 2021): pp. 56-80.

Pyne, Tricia T. "Ritual and Practice in the Maryland Catholic Community, 1634-1776." U.S. Catholic Historian 26, no. 2 (Spring 2008): pp. 17-46. 

Rothman, Adam. "Georgetown University and the Business of Slavery." Washington History 29, no. 2 (Fall 2017): pp. 18-22.

Older Scholarship

Beitzell, Edwin Warfield. The Jesuit Missions of St. Mary's County, Maryland. Abell, Md., 1959.

Hardy, Beatriz Betancourt. Papists in A Protestant Age: The Catholic Gentry and Community in Colonial Maryland, 1689-1776. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, 1993.

Jesuit Writings

Woodstock Letters. Woodstock, Md.: Woodstock College Press, 1872-1969. Digitized and available through Boston College's Jesuit Online Library. Articles by Joseph Zwinge, S.J. relate to his work with the collection, especially his research on Jesuit plantations and slavery. 

Curran, R.E., J.T. Durkin, and G.P. Fogarty. The Maryland Jesuits, 1634-1833.  Baltimore: Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen, Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, 1976.

Murphy, Thomas Richard, S.J. "Negroes of Ours": Jesuit Slaveholding in Maryland, 1634-1838. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1998.