Bishop Pinkney's career is thoroughly documented, beginning with his rectorships of Somerset Parish, Somerset County, 1835; St. Matthew's and Zion Parishes, Prince George's County, 1836-1857; and Ascension Parish, Washington, D.C., 1857-1872. Long a member of the Standing Committee, his papers are full of its business, especially concerning the clergy. After his election as Assistant Bishop, in 1870, Pinkney reported regularly to Bishop Whittingham on visitations throughout the diocese, recording much about parochial affairs during that decade. In 1879 he became Bishop of Maryland, and later correspondence increasingly shows Pinkney's activity as a convinced but moderate Low Churchman. In addition to diocesan and clerical matters, the Pinkney papers deal with such subjects as canon law, organizational problems, lay discipline, relations with the Methodists, collaboration and friendship with Bishop Whittingham, and family affairs. There are many reflections and sermons on conditions and events in the U.S. Correspondence about Civil War troubles includes Pinkney's refusal to give thanks for Union victories, 1862, and occupation of the Church of the Ascension in Washington by the Federal government. The archives also have printed sermons, addresses, and pamphlets by Bishop Pinkney, and his official journals, 1872-1883. Two record books concern examinations for orders, ordinations and institutions of clergymen, depositions, laying of cornerstones, and consecration of churches and burial grounds, one for 1870-1877, the other for 1870-1889 (continued by Bishop Paret).