These records contain memorials and petitions that were submitted to the General Convention, via either the House of Bishops or the House of Deputies, between 1853 and 1949. Memorials and petitions urge the Church to commend or commemorate a person, event, or other matter, or to take a stance on an issue that could result in official legislative action.
General ConventionThis minimally processed collection is the archive of the Society of St. Margaret. The historical records of the Society are strongest in representing activities in several areas: the mother house in Boston, its governance and daily work routines, the work of St. Monica’s Home (including annual reports and other records), the Haiti mission in post-WWII years, the Duxbury convent and summer camp, and several of the houses and missions in other cities. There are also correspondence and diaries of individual sisters as well as a large photographic collection reaching back to St. Margaret’s Infirmary and the Children’s Hospital, both in Boston, and including many photos of the sisters both in portraiture and activities. The arrangement represents basic groups of records, but the collection has not yet been arranged into fonds and series.
Society of St. MargaretThe papers of Joseph Talbot document his time as Missionary Bishop of the North West and as bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Indiana through his death in 1883. The collection consists mainly of a set of pocket diaries kept by Talbot over the period 1856-1882 which gives insight into his daily activities. Also included is a typescript copy of Talbot’s journal of a trip to Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada between May and December of 1863. It offers a reasonably detailed description of travels in the American West at a time when transportation and accommodations were primitive or even dangerous.
Talbot, Joseph CruikshankThe House of Bishops Committee Records comprise Standing Committee and ad hoc Committee reports, records, and miscellaneous materials. Also included is a bound volume of the minutes of the Commission of Bishops on the Mexican Branch of the Catholic Church.
House of BishopsThe records of the Trustees of the Board of St. Paul’s Church comprises charters in both English and Italian, correspondence, property records, and financial records. Materials related to a major renovation of St. Paul’s in the mid-1970s round out the collection.
Trustees of the Board of St. Paul's Church (Rome, Italy)The records of the Girls’ Friendly Society in the United States of America (GFS-USA) provides an impressive historical record of the organization. Minutes and reports of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and Coordinating Board, as well as financial ledgers and audits document the organizations governing bodies and fiscal responsibilities. The relationship between the national headquarters of the GFS-USA and local chapters as well as the Department of Christian Education of the Executive Council is also well documented.
In addition, a large collection of publications provides a thorough history regarding the activities and mission of the GFS-USA from as early as 1878.
Girls Friendly SocietyThe Philadelphia Divinity School (PDS) archive comprises minutes, reports and memoranda, correspondence, financial records, publications, photographs and slides, microfilm, and some artifacts that describe the corporate history of the seminary from its founding in 1857 to its merger with the Episcopal Theological School (ETS) in 1974 to form the Episcopal Divinity School (EDS).
Philadelphia Divinity SchoolRecords of the school include its charter (1867) and initial agreement with ACI (1906), Board of Trustees' meeting minutes and President's reports (1931, 1940, 1947-1954), and documents relating to building programs (1929, 1947). Financial records include audit reports almost complete (1936-1967), correspondence (1939-1951), and budgets and salaries (1949-1954, 1957-1958). Correspondence is present between St. Augustine's president and the Home Department director (1948-1954), as well as the ACI director's correspondence (1919-1943). This series also includes a survey report of the school by the George Peabody College for Teachers (1946). Some documents dating from 1938 to 1941 relate to the Bishop Tuttle Training School, a Christian social work and religious education institution administered by St. Augustine's from 1925, including the school's bulletin and a survey report.
St. Augustine's CollegeThe Allin Papers rank as the most comprehensive archive of personal papers of any primate in The Episcopal Church. The archive documents each of the venues in which Allin practiced his ordained ministry and, equally importantly, closely reflects the relationships he developed in his vocational life.
The archive concentrates on Allin’s 1974-1985 term as Presiding Bishop but provides substantial evidence of his service to the Church in ordained ministry, as well as personal pursuits after his retirement. The collection includes sermons, correspondence, photographs, and audio and video recordings. Allin’s life prior to his election as Presiding Bishop is documented by personal calendars, correspondence, and photographs.
Allin, John MauryThis record group comprises eight scrapbooks of clippings on various subjects and activities as well as pictures of clerics and other persons involved in church affairs that were collected by Rev. William Edward Hooker. The last scrapbook (volume 8) contains personal correspondence and other papers of Hooker, in addition to miscellaneous clippings on various subjects. The collector donated the materials in 1938 to the Church Historical Society.
Hooker, William EdwardThis small collection of materials collected by William Ives Rutter includes genealogy, photographs, and research notes, as well as minutes, correspondence, and member lists for the Church Historical Society and original poetry and writings. Rounding out the collection are glass plate negatives of various historical figures, including Charles Dickens and Sir Henry Hobart, and photographs of the Rutter family.
Rutter, Jr., William IvesHenry Forrester’s working papers primarily document his domestic missionary activity in New Mexico and include four bound volumes of correspondence sent and received beginning with the final months of his rectorship in Terry, Mississippi (1874), through his early services in Santa Fe, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque. Also represented in the archive is a scrapbook volume titled “Forresteriana,” which covers the period 1871 to 1880 and includes clippings on topics of concern to him, news items on his work, published letters, and tracts written by Forrester for his work with the Spanish speaking population of the territory.
Forrester, HenryThis collection is primarily composed of bound volumes and single issues of The Living Church magazine. The bound volumes, which begin with Volume 3 (May 6, 1880-April 30, 1881) and continue through Volume 245 (July-December, 2012), were bound for and explicitly donated to the Archives as preservation copies by The Living Church Foundation. Single issues begin with Volume 246, number 1 (January 6, 2013), and continue through the present day. The Archives also holds Volume 1 (November 2, 1878-October 30, 1879) and Volume 2 (November 6, 1879-May 6, 1880) on microfilm only.
Living Church Foundation, TheThe Records of the Board of Foreign Parishes are an accumulation of documentation created or collected by officers of the Board and bear the stamp of several Board members, primarily Lindley M. Franklin, Jr., Jeffrey Hill, and Conner Fay. The nearly complete archive includes financial records, minutes, property records, by-laws, charters, estate records, printed material, and insurance records.
Of particular interest in the collection are the business and financial records, notably the correspondence. Other records reflect the administrative involvement of the Board including charters, minutes, estates and real property documents.
Trustees of the Board of Foreign ParishesThe records of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew contain organizational and financial records, printed material and publications, training materials, and correspondence, as well as a complete run of St. Andrew’s Cross, the Brotherhood’s publication.
Brotherhood of St. Andrew