Isaac O. Stringer (1866-1934) received a B.A., 1891 from University College, Toronto, and B.D. from Wycliffe College in 1892.  He was ordained deacon in 1892, priest in 1893 and then stationed at Fort McPherson in Peel River from 1892-1897 as a Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) missionary.  In the summer of 1895, Stringer took a leave of absence for a year, returning to Ontario for deputation work and to marry Sarah Ann Alexander (Sadie), March 10, 1896.

After graduation from high school, Sadie studied shorthand and later worked as a secretary in New York City.  She received a diploma in nursing from Grace Hospital in Toronto and studied at the Toronto Anglican Women’s Training School.

After spending a year together at Fort McPherson, the Stringers moved to Herschel Island in the Arctic Ocean and lived there among the Eskimos from 1897-1901.  Suffering acutely from eyestrain, Stringer took his family back to Ontario in the fall of 1901.  In 1903, Bishop Bompas of the Diocese of Selkirk called him to serve as a  C.C.C.S. (Colonial and Continental Church Society) missionary at Whitehorse, Yukon.  Eventually, Stringer became Bompas’ successor in the Diocese which changed its name to Yukon, Dec. 17, 1907, serving until 1931 when he became Archbishop of Rupert’s Land.  He died suddenly on Oct. 30, 1934 at Winnipeg.

 Prof. F.A. Peake collected most of the Stringer papers in his research for Stringer’s biography “The Bishop who ate his boots”, and donated them to the Archives in 1966.

Scope and Content:

Fonds consists of correspondence, manuscript books, sermons, photographs, scrapbooks and miscellaneous manuscript and printed items accumulated by the Stringers during the latter part of the nineteenth century into the mid-fifties.

The fonds is arranged in the following series:

• Series I. Isaac O. Stringer, 1884-1961
• Series II. Sarah Ann Stringer, 1896-1954
• Series III. Collected materials, 1872-1967
• Series IV. Photographs, 1872-1934
• Series V. Scrapbooks

Title based on contents of fonds.

Includes tin types and glass slides, 24 postcards, 471 photographs, an album of photographs of the North and 13 safety film copies of nitrate negatives.  The photographs from the Stringer family fonds are located in P7517.  Finding aid available.

See also entries under this heading in the classified catalogue.