An exhibit documenting 122 years of health care ministry by Catholic sisters in the Pittsburgh region has been donated to the Heinz History Center and will be displayed at the same time as the Vatican Splendors exhibit this fall.

The "Sisters in Healthcare History Project" documents the work of 16 local orders from 1847 to 1969.

It features artifacts ranging from 19th-century habits to a crutch used by a soldier wounded in the Civil War. It shows the sisters as medical pioneers who built the region's first hospital, invented life-saving devices and made health care available to the poor. It is also a story of regional disasters, as the sisters responded to epidemics, floods and battles of the Civil War.

It had belonged to the Slippery Rock University Foundation, and is the creation of John Bavaro, who teaches health care administration at the state school. He worked for many years in Catholic hospitals, and was distressed when they began to close without acknowledgment of the sisters' critical role in regional health care.

"We gifted it to the History Center because, as a Smithsonian-affiliated museum, it is the proper place to honor the sisters' dedication for generations to come," he said. "Our current heath care system in Western Pennsylvania and across the nation owes a great deal to the foundation created by these sisters."

The exhibit was displayed for a month last fall at Slippery Rock. Gordon Ovenshine, senior public relations writer for the school, watched visitors file through in amazement at what they learned.

"The sisters themselves don't really toot their own horns. That's part of the issue. It's not that they're not proud of what they do, but part of their life is to be humble about things," he said. "This is really John Bavaro's crusade to tell their story."

Anne Madarasz, director of the museum division at the Heinz History Center, was aware of the collection when it was little more than a dream. Dr. Bavaro had consulted her about creating a traveling exhibition. Once the collection was complete, she said, he realized that it needed professional, full-time curators.

"I find it appealing as a story of women's history," she said. "These women evolved into very sophisticated providers of social services. ... They were innovators and leaders in the field of health care."

"Sisters in Healthcare" will be in the center's fourth floor community gallery Oct. 2-Jan. 9, paralleling a major exhibition of Vatican art and artifacts. After that, Ms. Madarasz expects parts to remain on display.

"Probably we will integrate some parts of the story into our special collections and other long-term galleries, so that there is always some piece of it on permanent display," she said.

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