Jewels from Jane, November 24

St. Louis Post-Dispatch November 24, 1929

WORLD CURIOS IN MUSEUM AT CARONDELET CONVENT
Eagle, Stuffed and Mounted, Which Survived 36 Civil War Engagements, Is Chief Attraction

"'Old Abe,' who went through 36 engagements in the Civil War unscathed as mascot of the Eighteenth Wisconsin Infantry, perches today, stuffed and mounted, near the ceiling in a museum in the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph, 6400 Minnesota Avenue.

"'Old Abe' was a golden eagle, and is now the principal exhibit in the unusual collection of bird life which is the feature of a collection of curios gathered from all parts of the world by the Sisters of St. Joseph since the founding of the convent in Carondelet 88 years ago.

"The story of the founding of the museum has been forgotten, according to Sister Lucida [Savage], who is now in charge of the exhibits. Soon after the original convent was built in 1841--at that time it was a one-room [two-room] log cabin--a small bunch of wool, sheared from a lamb near Jerusalem, was received from a man visiting the Holy Land, and since that time the collection, entirely gathered by the nuns, has increased until an extra room soon will be needed to hold all the exhibits.

"Besides the collection of bird life, the museum contains a collection of wood specimens and marbles, two large cases filled with specimens of Indian basket weaving, and exhibit of corals and semi-precious stones, a stamp collection, relics from the Holy Land and oddities from various parts of the world.

"One of the most interesting exhibits is a three-foot lattice-work cross, made entirely of pieces of cigar boxes, which was made by a convict during his two-year incarceration in Joliet, Ill. Prison.

"Another featured curio is a 200-year-old altar-bread iron, reputed to have belonged originally to a family by the name of Wilhelm, which for many generations supplied altar bread in the diocese of Speyer, Germany. It is said that in the sacking of the town by French soldiers in 1792, when thye attempted to take the iron, its metal claws caught in the crevices of the wall and resisted all attempts to pull it loose.

"Another interesting wood specimen is 10-inch oak cross, a copy of the famous Muiredach Cross, the original of which is in Monasterboice, Ireland.

"Most forest trees of North America are represented in the wood collection. Bits of their bark surround a small piece of wood from the chapel built by Pierre Marquette at St. Ignace in 1671. Other odd bits include a splinter from one of the beams which supported one of the guns at the old Spanish fort in New Orleans; a wooden pin seven inches long and one inch in diameter which was used in place of a spike in the building of a frame house in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., about 1820, and a piece of bark from a coffee tree planted by Thomas Jefferson on the grounds at Mount Vernon.

"Among the marbles is a small [?] on a base of unpolished quartz.

"A copy of Raphael's 'Madonna of the Fish,' carved on a small piece of hardwood, is a featured curio. Every feature of the painting is perfectly reproduced in the carving. It was given to the Sisters by the Marchesa Ferrari."


The Museum was located on the third floor of the 1891 classroom building - West wing, Minnesota Ave.
Note picture attachments.
Also attached is a more detailed description of the Museum.