Edwin Warriner papers and photographs
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Abstract
The bulk of the Edwin Warriner (1839-1898) papers and photographs includes the research notes and related materials gathered during the last decades of the nineteenth century in preparation for a planned, but never completed, encyclopedia of Methodism on Long Island, New York. Warriner's files concern Methodist ministers, churches, circuits, and locales throughout Long Island. The collection includes correspondence, transcriptions, draft manuscript entries, clippings, and photographs, such as cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, and tintypes. Warriner's files also include some original documents dating from as early as 1791. The collection also includes printed material dating from the twentieth century that was added to the Warriner files after his death in 1898.This material consists mostly of special anniversary publications and other such documents that include historical notes on various Methodist churches.
Biographical / Historical
Edwin Warriner was born on January 19, 1839, in Ellisburg, NY. He was born into a religious family; his father, Solomon J. Warriner, was a farmer and local Methodist preacher. By the time he was fifteen, Warriner was teaching public school and had obtained a license to be a Methodist preacher. He went on to study theology at the Biblical Institute of Concord, New Hampshire, from which he graduated in 1861. Warriner then began his career in the ministry in South Meriden, Connecticut. At the beginning of the Civil War, a regiment of soldiers was garrisoned there and he began to minister to them. Warriner was appointed as chaplain to the regiment and traveled with them for three years during the war. Afterwards, he settled in Brooklyn as a Methodist minister.
By 1880, Warriner was Secretary of the New York East Conference Historical Society. His two published books, The Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church of Brooklyn, NY, published in 1885, and The Warriner Family of New England Origin, a history of his family from 1628 to 1898, show his passion for both history and genealogy. Warriner died in 1898, shortly after finishing the Warriner Family manuscript, which was published a year later. Warriner's purpose in collecting the documents forming most of this collection was to write an encyclopedia of Methodism on Long Island. He died before producing a written manuscript based on his research. The bulk of the letters in this collection, in which Warriner asks for information about a certain church or reverend, dates from the 1870s-1890s, indicating that he had been collecting information about Methodism on Long Island for the last 30 years of his life.
Arrangement
The collection is organized in three series:
The collection is organized in the following three series:
Missing Title
- Notes and Ephemera
- Photographs and Other Images
- Later Additions to the Collection
Scope and Contents
The bulk of the collection includes the research notes and related materials gathered by Reverend Edwin Warriner during the last decades of the nineteenth century in preparation for a planned, but never completed, encyclopedia of Methodism on Long Island, New York. Warriner's handwritten notes concern Methodist ministers, churches, circuits, and locales throughout Long Island. African Methodist Episcopal (AME), German and Norwegian churches are included. Warriner's files include correspondence in response to his inquiries for information; transcriptions of church records, histories and other documents; draft manuscript entries; newspaper clippings; and photographs, such as cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, and tintypes. Warriner's files also include some original documents dating from as early as 1791.
The collection also includes printed material dating from the twentieth century that was added to the Warriner files by the Methodist Historical Society and donated with the collection to the Long Island Historical Society (now Brooklyn Historical Society). This material consists mostly of special anniversary publications and other such documents that include historical notes on various Methodist churches.
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Conditions Governing Access
The donor of the collection restricted its use to research in biography and church history. Nonetheless, to ensure against unwarranted denial of access to the collection, Brooklyn Historical Society interprets the scope of these subject areas broadly.
Conditions Governing Use
The donor of the collection applied a restriction that the collection was not to be copied in its entirety, except by Brooklyn Historical Society, if necessary for preservation.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Edwin Warriner papers and photographs, 1977.255, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
In 1955, the collection was initially placed in "permanent custody" with the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society) by the New York East Annual Conference of the Methodist Church, through Reverend Robert H. Dolliver, Secretary of the Methodist Historical Society in the City of New York. Extant records suggest that, in 1958, the Conference agreed to change the status of the collection, making it a gift to the Brooklyn Historical Society.
Other Finding Aids
There is a record for the Edwin Warriner papers and photographs collection in PastPerfect, Brooklyn Historical Society's image database. That record is indexed with the names associated with images found in Series 2 of the collection. However, no images from the collection can be viewed in Pastperfect.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The collection was processed in May 2009 by Amanda Farley, under the supervision of Chela Scott Weber. At that time, the collection's arrangement was returned to its original order, following Warriner's numeric sequencing, which had been disturbed over time. Also, photographs and other images previously separated from the collection were returned and now form Series 2. In 2011, Larry Weimer updated the collection description, principally to accommodate input to a collection management system, Archivists' Toolkit.