Alexander Walker Wayman, a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote his Cyclopaedia of African Methodism in 1882. It provides entries for over 1,000 significant people and places of the denomination and was intended for members and non-members alike. Beginning chronologically with biographical sketches of Church bishops, Wayman often uses quotations from or anecdotes about the people he describes, sometimes including information about their missionary activities or slave backgrounds.