One of the fun things about working at an archive is the great variety of people who send in reference requests. However, often times the reason for their requests remains a mystery. So, when the State of Maryland and Historical Collections Division got a reference request last December for pictures and newspaper articles from the Baltimore News American newspaper about a murdered nun, I didn’t think much of it. Another student worker pulled materials from our photograph collection, and using the dates found on the photos, I went through the microfilm to find related articles. We sent the photos and articles to the patron and I didn’t think much more about the request.
However, a few months later in early May, my supervisor told us that that patron had made a documentary about the murder and the show would be on Netflix! The show is titled “The Keepers” and it investigates the murder of a nun, Sister Catherine Cesnik, in Baltimore in 1969. It is comprised of seven, one-hour long episodes. I was quite excited to hear this news and binged-watched the series as soon as I could. I’ll admit that I kept my eyes glued to screen, trying to spot if any of the articles that I had found would flash across the screen. Also, I watched the credits and paused them to take a photo when the Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries appeared on the screen.
It was very fun to watch a show that I helped, in a very small way, contribute to. It didn’t hurt that the documentary told a very gripping tale that I am glad I had the chance to learn more about, outside of a few newspaper articles. It is always exciting to see how our patrons use our collections, and I hope that this documentary helps encourage others to come use our great collections.
Explore more from our Baltimore News American Photograph Collection or visit us in the Maryland Room to view the Baltimore News American newspaper on microfilm!
Harrison Gage is a second year MLIS student in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. She works in the State of Maryland and Historical Collections at UMD’s Special Collections and University Archives.
Special Collections & University Archives 
I found this info interesting;however, it did not tell me how I could become connected here at home! I would have liked to have been provided with a url of some sort. Thank you. Mildred Harris
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Hello Ms. Harrison. We are so pleased to hear of your interest. Unfortunately, we do not have portions of the New American collection available online at this time. The photos and newspapers are only available for browsing on site. You can learn more about the collection by consulting the finding aid, http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/4591
Can you tell me how to find out who the detectives are in the photography picture?
Thank You