Abstract
The Sister Rosemary Lynch Photograph Collection contains color photographs featuring or pertaining to Sister Rosemary Lynch participating in nuclear weapons protests at the Nevada Test Site and in international locations (approximately 1980-2002).
Finding Aid PDF
Date
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Scope and Contents Note
The Sister Rosemary Lynch Photograph Collection contains color digital images and photographic prints featuring or pertaining to Sister Rosemary Lynch participating in nuclear weapons protests at the Nevada Test Site (approximately 1980-2002). Also included are her international travels to peace activist events and conferences. International locations include Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, England, Denmark, and Jerusalem. In these photographs, she is pictured with friends, associates of her Pace e Bane organization, other activists, and religious leaders and members partaking in protests and meetings advocating world peace, disarmament, and an end to the testing and use of nuclear weapons.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
These materials are organized into two series:
Series I. Anti-Nevada Test Site activism, approximately 1980-2002;
Series II. International anti-nuclear testing and world peace activism, approximately 1980-2000.
Biographical / Historical Note
Sister Rosemary Lynch was a Catholic nun, teacher, and social activist who advocated for world peace, disarmament, and an end to the testing and use of nuclear weapons.
Born March 18, 1917 in Phoenix, Arizona, Sister Rosemary Lynch attended St. Mary's parish schools as a child. She later became a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity community in 1932, and took her vows as a Franciscan Sister in 1934. After working as a Catholic school teacher in Los Angeles, California and principal in Montana for a combined twenty-six years, she was elected to the administration of the Franciscan Sisters, spending fifteen years in Rome, Italy as a representative for her congregation. While there, she was active during the Second Vatican Council and met many communities impacted by war and poverty internationally, including congregations in Indonesia, Mexico, and throughout Africa.
In 1977, she returned to the United States and joined the Franciscan Center in Las Vegas, Nevada with her friend, Sister Klaryta Antoszewska. She took part in many events promoting peace and justice and co-founded the Pace e Bene (Italian for "peace and good") Nonviolence Service. Sister Rosemary Lynch also co-founded the Lenten Desert Experience, later known as the Nevada Desert Experience (NDE), to protest nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site. The first Lenten Desert Experience protest was held to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the previous Nevada Test Site protest in 1957, as well as a remembrance of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan during World War II.
Sister Rosemary Lynch remained an active protester until her death on January 9, 2011.
Sources:
Valley, Jackie. "Sister Rosemary Lynch, 93, founder of group against violence, dies after car hits her."
"Sister Rosemary Lynch OSF."
Ryan, Zoe. "Sr. Rosemary Lynch, teacher of nonviolence, dies."
"History." Nevada Desert Experience. 2011. Accessed November 14, 2019. http://
nevadadesertexperience.org/history/history.htm
Preferred Citation
Sister Rosemary Lynch Photograph Collection, approximately 1980-2002. PH-00176. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated periodically to University Libraries Special Collections and Archives; accession number 2001-67.
Processing Note
Materials were inventoried UNLV Special Collections staff in 2012. In 2019, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Jimmy Chang wrote the finding aid and entered the data into ArchivesSpace.