The history of the IHM is inextricably linked to the history of Catholic Education in the United States. As early as 1598, little more than 100 years after Columbus came to the New World, Catholic clergy were operating schools which included requisite religious training in what is now New Mexico and Florida. In the 19th century, however, particularly in the decades between 1840-1860, there was a phenomenal growth in the number of what we now know as parish schools. This trend was spurred on by the exhortations of the Bishops who met in the Plenary Councils of Baltimore: the first in 1852.

The early Catholic Schools in our country were staffed by lay teachers or members of religious orders founded in Europe whose members migrated here for missionary work. Eventually, distinctively American orders, or communities, were established. Among the earliest of these was the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, (IHM).