The Catholic University of America students enrolled in the history course, Digital Humanities Practicum, have brought you this digital project surrounding The Recollections of My Life and Reflections on Times and Events During It: A Memoir by Father W. J. Howlett.  The intent is to bring this rich original text to the public, but also to provide more resources that enrich the experience.

       The memoir of Father W. J. Howlett reveals great insights into the life of a person in the mid to late 19th century and into the early 20th century.  As a Catholic priest on the western frontier, mostly in Kentucky, he has a unique perspective of rural life and that of a pioneer priest.  The memoir covers his childhood, his entrance into priesthood, and his adult life as a priest.  While his memoir offers insight into a spiritual man, it does not dwell on Catholicism, but rather on the events of his life and the emotions connected to memories as he grew older.  Father Howlett wrote candidly about his life on a farm, his unexpected entrance into seminary, and the practical parts of being a priest in rural parts of the United States.  It is often surprising how many people he remembers and speaks fondly of, even if he only met them once.  As one contributor, Thomas Lynch, aptly noted, Father Howlett is like the Forrest Gump of his time and in the Catholic community.  He wrote of his time in Europe with great fondness, but not conceit in his ability to travel there.

       Father W. J. Howlett’s memoir should appeal to people with varying interests: Catholic history, 19th century American history, and lessons from elders to name a few.  The format on Scalar has allowed us to keep the text true to itself.  It also enabled us to provide you with other interactive formats of the information in the memoir combined with other material we have found about Father Howlett.  We hope that you find this work as fascinating as we did and that our efforts help you to easily engage with the text and learn something new.

How to navigate our project on Scalar:

       A Table of Contents allows for easy access to any of the pages. 

       We have endeavored to keep the text as true to the original as possible, only adding grammatical correction in parentheses.  Every page has a link at the bottom to an image of the original text.

       This memoir refers to numerous significant people and events that may be recognizable and also some that may only be noteworthy to those with specialized knowledge.  We have endeavored to provide opportunities to familiarize the reader with some particularly significant people and events.  Some words or phrases have hyperlinks that take you to a separate page providing a brief description or discussion of that subject.  Additionally, we have created an index for all of the names in the text for your convenience.

       There are a few other pages we created to enrich your exploration into this text, including a timeline, a page of other works by Father W. J. Howlett, and a family tree. All of this information can be located in the Table of Contents.