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Diocese created in 1843 with William Quarter as its first bishop. Quarter was succeeded in 1848 by James Oliver Van de Velde; in 1854 by Anthony O'Regan; in 1859 by James Duggan and Thomas P. Foley, who served as coadjutor to the mentally incapacitated Duggan from 1870-79. Chicago was then raised to an archiepiscopal see and Patrick A. Feehan was consecrated archbishop in 1880. Feehan's successors in the 20th century were James Edward Quigley (1903-1915), George William Mundelein (1916-1939), Samuel Alphonsus Stritch (1940-1946), Albert Gregory Meyer (1946-1965), John P. Cody (1966-1982) and Joseph Bernardin (1982- ).
Occasional letters from Bishops Quarter, Van de Velde, O'Regan, Duggan, Foley, Feehan, and Quigley, and from Auxiliary Bishop Alexander J. McGavick and Bishop John McMullen, vicar general (1877-1879) and administrator (1879-1880) of the diocese; manuscripts by Bishop O'Regan, including a sermon on Immaculate Conception and a Biblical exegesis; and photostats of letters from Chicago received by Edward Sorin, CSC.
Also pamphlets, parish histories, clippings, and material on the Catholic contribution to the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Collection was begun by James Edwards in the 1890s. Photostats of the letters to Edward Sorin are from the Provincial Archives. The O'Regan exegesis was a gift of James J. McGovern.
CACH