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Peter Trimble Rowe letters and portraits

Guide to Peter Trimble Rowe letters and portraits
undated, 1898-1920

Collection number: HMC-0796.
Creator: Rowe, Peter Trimble.
Title: Peter Trimble Rowe letters and portraits.
Dates: undated, 1898-1920.
Volume of collection: 0.01 cubic feet.
Language of materials: Collection materials are in English.
Collection summary: Autographed letters and portraits of the Episcopal Bishop of Alaska from 1895 to 1931..

Biographical note:
Peter Trimble Rowe was born in 1856 in Meadowvale, Ontario. He was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1878. In 1895, Rowe was elected Bishop of the Missionary Diocese of Alaska. During his tenure as bishop from 1895 to 1931, he was involved in establishing several churches, missions and hospitals throughout Alaska. Bishop Rowe made his home in Sitka until 1914, where he was involved in the construction of the local church, St. Peter’s by-the-Sea, completed in 1899. In 1905, he also built his own family residence in back of the church. Bishop Rowe died in 1942. Reverend Thomas Jenkins wrote Bishop Rowe’s biography, The Man of Alaska, which was published in 1943.

Collection description:
The collection consists of three signed letters by Bishop Peter Trimble Rowe, and copies of his oil and photo portraits. The first letter, undated, is to a fellow bishop in acceptance of a dinner invitation. The second letter, written from New York on November 1, 1898, is addressed to a Miss Loring, declining an invitation to an engagement in Boston. The third letter, written from Sitka on January 24, 1903, thanks a fellow bishop for sending him a biography of Roger Wolcott, and mentions that he had arrived home to Sitka shortly before Christmas. The fourth letter, written from Seattle on December 13, 1920, is a Christmas greeting to a fellow bishop. The two color copies of Rowe’s oil portrait, one of which is signed by the bishop, was painted by artist Neale Ordayne in 1937. The copies are accompanied by a printed description of the portrait from the Episcopal magazine, Alaskan Churchman. The black and white photo portrait is a clipping of an earlier likeness of the bishop. Included with the signed letters and portraits is a cover sheet with the number 177, the bishop’s name, his diocese, and the date of his consecration, November 30, 1895.

Arrangement: The collection is arranged by type of material.

Digitized copies: This collection has not been digitized. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.

Rights note: Archives and Special Collections does not own copyright to the collection.

Preferred citation: Peter Trimble Rowe letters and portraits, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Related materials: For letters by other Alaska bishops see John Boyd Bentley autographed letters, HMC-0797 and William J. Gordon, Jr. letter, HMC-0798.

Custodial history: The materials in this collection were originally part of a collection of autographed letters of bishops assembled by the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts..

Acquisition note: The collection was purchased by the Archives on eBay in 2005.

Processing information: This collection was described by Jeffrey Sinnott in 2005. The guide to the collection was converted to current standard by Gwen Sieja in 2015.

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