John H. Hopkins Papers

Collection Summary

Repository: University of Vermont Libraries Special Collections Burlington, Vermont 05405-3596
Creator: Hopkins, John Henry, 1792-1868
Creator - Contributor: Hopkin, Edith
Title: John H. Hopkins Papers
Dates [inclusive]: 1825-1925
Quantity: One Carton
Shelf location: Special Collections, Bailey/Howe Library.
Language: English
Abstract: Artist, lawyer, ironmonger, muscian, architect, theologian and first Episcopal Bishop of Vermont, John Henry Hopkins was born in Dublin, Ireland on January 22, 1792. The John H. Hopkins Family Papers consist largely of miscellaneous manuscripts of Bishop Hopkins and his great-granddaughter, Edith Hopkins.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of item] John H. Hopkins Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

Publication Rights:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Manuscripts.

Artist, lawyer, ironmonger, muscian, architect, theologian and first Episcopal Bishop of Vermont, John Henry Hopkins was born in Dublin, Ireland on January 22, 1792. Raised in Philadelphia, Hopkins tried a variety of professions before accepting the position of rector at Trinity Church in Pittsburgh. Elected Bishop by Vermont's first diocesan convention in 1832. Hopkins remained head of the Green Mountain episcopate until his death in 1868. In those thirty-six years he established the Vermont Episcopal Institute in Burlington and became one of the nation's most noted (and controversial) clergypersons, with more than fifty books and pamphlets published between 1833 and 1868.

His son, John Henry Hopkins, Jr. was born in Pittsburgh in 1820 and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1839. Ordained to the Episcopal Church at the age of 30, he founded and edited the "Church Journal" and served as a priest in Plattsburgh, New York and Williamsport, Pennslyvania. His publications included a lengthy biography of his father, volumes of poetry and theology, and numerous hymns and carols--most notably, the "Song of the Magi," better-known as "We Three Kings of Orient Are." John Henry Hopkins, Jr. died in Hudson, New York in 1891.

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Socpe and Content Note

The John H. Hopkins Family Papers consist largely of miscellaneous manuscripts of Bishop Hopkins and his great-granddaughter, Edith Hopkins. The Bishop's papers include notes for sermons, texts of theological writings, and posthumous material on his funeral and the monument erected in his memory at Rock Point. Edith Hopkins' manuscripts are primarily school papers from Burlington High School in 1915-1916 and Russell Sage College in 1924. The collection also contains a variety of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Hopkins family photographs and four John H. Hopkins, Jr. volumes of German translation work.

For other manuscript material relating to Bishop Hopkins and his family, see the Thomas H. Canfield Papers and the St. Paul's Episcopal Church Papers at UVM. The Vermont Historical Society also has some Hopkins papers among its manuscript holdings.

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Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

Episcopal Church. Diocese of Vermont.

Family Name(s)

Hopkins family

Genre(s)

Notes
School records
Photographs
Sermons
Writings

Subject(s)

Theology
Religion--Vermont

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Additional Information

Note

Mrs. Bradley's gift also included a full set of the flower lithographs that the Hopkins family printed in the 1840s. These lithographs are filed under Hopkins in the Views and Prints drawers of the Special Collections map cases.

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