Oppenborn, Carolyn Potter

Papers Relating to Jonathan Myrick Daniels

(AR 1745)

Jonathan Myrick Daniels was born in 1939 in Keene, New Hampshire. A graduate of Virginia Military Institute, Daniels was enrolled at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts when he traveled to Alabama in 1965 to work with a voter registration drive in Selma. After the Selma to Montgomery March Daniels began work with the Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Lowndes County. He was arrested along with other civil rights demonstrators in August 1965. After six days in jail in Hayneville the demonstrators were released. Daniels and three others approached a store in Hayneville to buy soft drinks. A local white man, Tom Coleman, ordered the group away from the store. When Daniels questioned the order Coleman shot and killed Daniels. Six weeks later an all-white Lowndes County jury found that Coleman had acted in self-defense. Carolyn Potter Oppenborn, who gathered the material in this collection, was born in 1913 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Oppenborn worked as a secretary in Washington, D.C. for the National Recovery Administration and later was employed by the Jefferson County, Alabama Personnel Board and by the Birmingham Museum of Art. This collection contains correspondence, clippings, photographs and other material relating to Jonathan Myrick Daniels. This material was gathered in preparation for and as a result of the program "A Weekend to Remember … The Thirtieth Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Jonathan Myrick Daniels." The Program was held at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama, September 12-13, 1995 and included a number of participants who had known and worked with Daniels. Smaller programs recognizing Daniels were held at the church in subsequent years.

Size: 1 box

Postcard Collection

(AR 1081)

The Postcard Collection contains thousands of postcards from throughout the United States and from around the world. The cards showing Alabama scenes have been indexed. The collection includes postcards showing some Alabama Episcopal churches.

Size: 1,946 postcards (Alabama images)

Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Birmingham

Records, 1914-1980

(AR 197)

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church is located on Birmingham’s Southside near the campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Begun in 1902 as a mission of Church of the Advent, St. Andrew’s current building was began operation in 1915 and was consecrated in 1920. The women of the parish established a tea room downtown to raise funds for the parish. Through its first decades St. Andrew’s was a church of white middle class families. In more recent years the parish has embraced the evolving community on Southside and offers services for the homeless and students of UAB. This collection includes minutes of the vestry, parochial reports, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, records of the Women’s Auxiliary and other material.

Size: 20 boxes

Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Ensley at Birmingham

Records, 1895-2000

(AR 1761)

Industrial development in the Ensley and Fairfield areas of Jefferson County led to the development of residential areas nearby. With the new residential developments came the need for a church for the Episcopalians living in the area, and St. John's was first recognized and given a Vicar in 1893. St. John’s acquired the land on which the church still stands in 1898. The first church building was established within the same year and St. John’s was admitted as a parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama. A new church building was constructed in 1951 on Ensley Avenue, and this structure remained in use until the parish closed. This collection includes vestry minutes, registers of church services, church bulletins, minutes and agendas from the annual parish meetings, and miscellaneous files concerning different groups within the church (especially women’s groups), and general correspondence.

Size: 20 boxes

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Birmingham

Records

(AR 1931)

At the request of members of Birmingham’s African American community, Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church was established with an 1891 meetings of eleven congregants in a downtown Birmingham office building. In 1892 and 1893 a mission was established and the present name adopted. A brick church was constructed in 1897 and a brick school building in 1897. Saint Mark’s School was considered one of the best schools for African Americans in the Birmingham area. Today the parish is located on Dennison Avenue in the southwest section of Birmingham. The collection includes parish registers, vestry minutes, financial ledgers, photographs relating primarily to St. Mark’s School and funeral programs.

Size: 3 boxes

Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Birmingham

Records, 1973-

(AR 1895)

Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church was established in 1973 with twenty-one original congregants. As the parish grew and prospered, Saint Stephens played an active role in the establishment and growth of other parishes, including Saint Francis of Assisi in Shelby County, Church of the Epiphany in Leeds, and helped to raise funds to relocate Saint John’s for the Deaf to a site near Saint Stephens. Rev. Douglas Carpenter, Saint Stephen’s first rector, served until his retirement in May 2005. At that time the parish had grown to more than 1,500 baptized members. The records of Saint Stephen’s include vestry minutes beginning in 1973; parochial reports; office files containing correspondence and subject files on various parish activities; a set of church history files compiled by Rev. Douglas Carpenter; and records of affiliated groups, Episcopal Church Women and the Boy Scouts.

Size: 8 boxes

Trinity Episcopal Church, West End at Birmingham

Records, 1948-1958

(AR 1402)

The Trinity Episcopal Church records contain business receipts for the years 1954 through 1958. Also included are property and insurance documents, yearly budgets and financial reports and a small amount of miscellaneous correspondence. Additional records for this parish are found in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama Records (AR 1046).

Size: 1 box

Walter, Francis X.

Selma Inter-Religious Project Files, 1965-1972

(AR 1044)

The bulk of this collection concerns the first seven years of the Selma Inter-religious Project under the direction of the Rev. Francis X. Walter. The files mainly contain correspondence to and from supporters of SIP and the various projects with which Walter and his staff worked during the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and early 1970s. The collection also contains business letters, bank books, Walter's personal and business papers, newspapers and newspaper clippings, and a few photographs of Walter and his staff and a quilt sale in Wilcox County.

Size: 3 boxes

Wilmer, Richard Hooker

Papers, 1873-1904 and 1956

(AR 1595)

Richard Hooker Wilmer served as the second Episcopal Bishop of Alabama. Born in 1816 in Alexandria, Virginia, Wilmer graduated Yale College in 1836. He entered Virginia Theological Seminary and was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1840. He served at parishes in Virginia and for one year as rector of St. James’ Church, Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1862, he was consecrated Bishop of Alabama, the only Episcopal bishop consecrated in the Confederate States during the Civil War. Wilmer died June 14, 1900 in Mobile. The papers include correspondence and sermons by Wilmer as well as biographical information generated after his death.

Size: 1 box

<previous go to page 1 2 3