Episcopal Bishops of Illinois. Letters, 1871-1963 and 2005

This collection consists of letters from bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. The letters were created in response to a handwriting sample collection project by the Episcopal Theological School.

The Episcopal Theological School, predecessor to the Episcopal Divinity School, was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1867. The collection of handwriting samples of bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States was an ongoing project by the Episcopal Theological School's library.

The collection contains letters and notes written in response to an ongoing project by the Episcopal Theological School to collect handwriting samples from bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The majority of the collection dates from 1903 to 1963. Although most bishops submitted only a short signed note, others wrote letters, some of which discussed the work of the church, sermons, and other bishops past and present. A letter from Bishop John Chanler White describes a contract of sale for Abraham Lincoln's Springfield home in his possession. These replies, which were addressed to Bishop William Lawrence, Bishop W. Appleton Chambers, librarians of the Episcopal Theological School, and others, were mounted in scrapbooks. Letters are accompanied by notations indicating the diocese each bishop served, their consecration date, and whether the bishop was a suffragan (suffr.) or a bishop coadjutor (coadj.). Some letters are also accompanied by printed photos of the bishops.

The scrapbooks were eventually disassembled by a private dealer who sold the pages in groupings according to the bishops' state of residence. The Library acquired the Illinois pages in 2005.