On May 30th, 1896, thousands of people gathered on Khodynka Field in Moscow for a fête to celebrate the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. As part of the festivities, authorities planned to give out gifts that included a bread roll, a piece of sausage, a gingerbread biscuit stamped with the tsar’s image, and a small cup, all wrapped in a commemorative headscarf.
The organizers drastically underestimated the numbers that would attend and the fête ended in tragedy when thousands were killed or injured in a crush as people rushed to get the gifts.
As a high school student, I was always fascinated by this tragedy and the dramatic sweep of events that surrounded the Romanovs and the early days of the Russian Revolution. However, no book that I read nor film that I watched about those events had anything like the impact of a single item contained in a travelling exhibition about the Romanovs that came to Mobile, Alabama, many years later.
The item? One of the headscarves given out at Khodynka. On it were faded blood stains. When I saw it, it rooted me to the spot, in tears.
The power of originals
Maybe you’ve experienced something similar when poring over original documents or artefacts in a library, archive or museum. It’s extraordinary to discover that an old postcard or a letter or a piece of cotton can bring you to tears or hit you with a gut punch or make the hairs on your arms prickle.
I’ve witnessed the Sr. Helen Prejean Papers at DePaul University have such an effect on students, staff and researchers who make their way to the archives. I’ve witnessed the power, the preciousness, and the vulnerability of the items in the collection; and their ability to make things real.
When we decided to create a graphic version of Dead Man Walking, I knew this collection in the archives would be a core resource.
More than paper
The Prejean Papers occupy 110 linear feet in the DePaul archives. ‘Papers’ is a little misleading: As well as correspondence, postcards, newspaper and magazine clippings, newsletters, posters and other paper-based documents, the collection also contains video tapes, cassette tapes, plaques and awards, and movie props and costumes.
You can get an idea of the scope of the collection by perusing the Finding Aid. Or take a guided tour of a curated selection of the material via the online exhibit, In Deeds and Words: Sr. Helen Prejean’s Ministry Against the Death Penalty.
Meticulousness in action
Over the years, Sister Helen and I have made many trips to the archives, and the archivists have come to New Orleans on multiple occasions to box up items for transport to Chicago.
It’s been an education to observe the meticulous care with which the archivists work, and I’ve learned a lot from my time with Jamie Nelson, who is Head of Special Collections and Archives, Morgen Macintosh Hodgetts, Senior Archivist and Coordinator of Archival Operations, and Derek Potts, the Instruction and Outreach Archivist.
I asked Morgen to recommend a couple of items to share with you. She chose these two, saying:
I think the execution warrant and Pat Sonnier’s letter to Sr. Helen, written after the execution was delayed, are some of the most powerful items in the collection — and really help researchers/students bear witness to a person’s thoughts/feelings — Pat’s humanity.
These are two of the resources we used in creating Graphic Dead Man Walking. Many of Pat Sonnier’s letters contain hand-drawn images, which made them particularly helpful for a graphic adaptation.
Letter from Patrick Sonnier to Sr. Helen Prejean 1983
Execution warrant for Elmo Patrick Sonnier, 18th July 1983.
On the long road
There’s one more document—a photograph—I’ll share with you in this post
In 2023, the entire board of the Ministry Against the Death Penalty paid a visit to the archives. One of the members of our board is Barbara Crain Major, long-time community activist and co-author of Deconstructing Racism: A Path Toward Lasting Change.
Barbara Crain Major with Professor Emeritus (and fellow MADP board member) Susanne Dumbleton.
Barbara and Sr. Helen’s lives have intertwined for many years after they met when Helen moved into the St. Thomas Housing Projects in the early ‘80s.
In the archives is the photo below, showing the two of them marching side by side on the trek from New Orleans to Baton Rouge for the Pilgrimage for Life in October, 1984. Forty years on, they’re still marching side by side.
