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Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas Records Now Open
Although it is not as prominent as the Baptist or Methodist Churches in Arkansas, the Episcopal Church with its fifty-plus congregations holds a significant place in the history and culture of the state. Recently the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies has made its collection, the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas records (BC.MSS.10.27), available to researchers.
The Episcopal Church began with the establishment of the Church of England under King Henry VIII in 1534. With the American Revolution, congregations of the Church of England in the United States adopted the name Episcopal Church, creating a tension between administrative independence from England and membership in a worldwide Anglican Communion.
In 1835, the year before Arkansas became a state, leaders of the Episcopal Church discussed mission work to the western territories of the United States, but the first Episcopal missionary to serve in Arkansas, Leonidas Polk, did not arrive until 1838. Christ Church in Little Rock was the first Episcopal congregation to be formed in Arkansas. The congregation first met in the home of Chester Ashley until it could construct a church building in 1841-1842.
While its office in Little Rock maintains the official records of the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, many records have been given to the Butler Center to benefit researchers. These include official diocese publications and administrative records, along with the parish registers and other records from roughly twenty Arkansas congregations. A large series of the records contains materials from the Episcopal Church Women in Arkansas. The collection also includes many photographs, most of which come either from Camp Mitchell on Petit Jean Mountain or from St. Michael’s in west Little Rock.
Along with these Episcopal records, the Butler Center also holds many other collections that document the role of religious groups and communities in Arkansas. These include many photographs, as well as documents from some Arkansas congregations of various denominations.
More references to religious life can be discovered scattered through many other collections, including family and individual collections and those of organizations as diverse as the American Red Cross of Arkansas, the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
The Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas records can be accessed in the Research Room of the CALS Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art; visiting information is here. The finding aid for the collection is available online here.
By Steve Teske, archivist at the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies/Roberts Library
