The Glacier Priest

Imagine Mass celebrated on a glacier. That is just one of the remarkable feats of the subject of our current archives exhibit, Father Bernard Hubbard, S.J., a missionary and explorer to Alaska in the 1930’s and 40’s.

Archives intern, Josh Slater, was inspired to create this exhibit through his work indexing the student newspaper, The Rambler. He was surprised to find the phrase “The Glacier Priest” several times during this project. This was enough to pique his interest.

When he wasn’t exploring Alaska, Fr. Hubbard toured the continental U.S., speaking at colleges about his travails. He was a pioneer in multimedia presentations, showing photos and film of his team’s endeavors and demonstrating mountaineering equipment. The dashing priest spoke at Rosemont five times. His presentations generated much excitement at the college particularly when he announced that he’d named an Alaskan ridge “Mount Rosemont."

Josh was impressed with Fr. Hubbard’s:
“...determination and enjoyment of his expeditions. He did not have to keep returning to Alaska, and did not have to research it. Even when the scientific community stated that he had accomplished little of value, he continued to travel and speak on it, because he wanted others to know just how amazing it was.”

Come see for yourself how amazing it was. Visit the Archive’s Exhibit Case by the Main Floor Stacks.

Bonus: The exhibit contains 2 original copies of The Rambler, one of which shows a photo of Patricia Kennedy (of the Kennedy family) as a tennis champion.