Collection is open for research.
Purchased from Charles Apfelbaum in January 2005 (Lib. Acc. 25866).
Although Episcopalian services were held in what would become Oregon in the 1830s and 1840s, the first official Episcopal missionary in the region was William Richmond, who came to Oregon in 1851 and established congregations in Portland and Oregon City. Soon after, Episcopal churches were founded in Salem, Lafayette, and Milwaukie. In 1854, Thomas Fielding Scott became the first bishop of the Diocese of Oregon.
Source: "Dictionary of Oregon History," second edition, 1989, edited by Howard McKinley Corning.
Materials by and relating to Oregon Episcopal bishops, Coll 998, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Other materials at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library that relate to Episcopal bishops of Oregon are located in the Episcopal Church collection, Mss 88.
The collection consists of letters and clippings of portraits of Episcopal bishops of Oregon. These materials were originally collected by the John Gordon Wright Library of the Episcopal Theological School (later the Episcopal Divinity School) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Many of the materials are glued to scrapbook pages, which also have handwritten information about the bishops' names and consecration dates. On the opposite side of some pages is material relating to bishops in locations other than Oregon. Oregon bishops represented are: E. W. Barton, James W. F. Carman, Benjamin B. Dagwell, Hall R. Gross, Benjamin Wistar Morris, Robert L. Paddock, Charles Scadding, and Walter T. Sumner. Some of the letters are addressed to Elizabeth Hodges, a librarian who appears to have been in charge of collecting these materials, while others are addressed to Bishop William Lawrence of Massachusetts. There are three letters from Benjamin Wistar Morris in the collection, including a 12-page letter to Lawrence, dated 1900, that complains about recent cuts to the missionary budget for Oregon.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.