More Primary Sources

Primary sources, especially visual ones like these from the Library of Congress digitized collections and audiovisual material like the recording below from the Southern Baptist Women's Missionary Union digitized collection, can inspire generative research questions:

How did missionaries depend on their co-religionists at home to fund their missions? How did they communicate with those supporters? Were many of their supporters women?

How did the Women's Missionary Union function within the Southern Baptist Church? How did ideas about race and gender show up in these meetings?

Where would songs such as the "Woman's Foreign Missionary Society Extension!" be sung? How did missionary women build community around music and other media?

Find further physical and digital primary source collections listed below.

Archival Collections at Harvard Libraries

The Papers of M. Madeline Southard, ca. 1878-2016

This collection, held by Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute includes journals, correspondence, writings, photographs, and audiovisual materials of Southard, a Methodist missionary active in the 20th century in the Philippines and India. Southard brought forward the petition to grant full clergy rights to women in the Methodist Church in 1924.

Few materials are digitized, including these journal fragments.

The Papers of Mae Chapin, 1885-1972

This collection, held by Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute includes correspondence, diaries, and photographs of Presbyterian missionary Mae Chapin, active in China and the Philippines. Chapin wrote many of the reports for the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in the 1930s and 1940s. No material is digitized.

The Papers of Ida Pruitt, 1850s-1992

This collection, held by Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute includes correspondence, writings, photographs, and other papers of Ida Pruitt, a Baptist missionary in China. Pruitt was a prolific writer--of both fiction and nonfiction, poetry, and even recipes. Pruitt was born China to Southern Baptist missionaries.

The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Foreign Missions records, ca. 1833-1911

This collection, held by Houghton Library includes the records of Presbyterian missions to China and India. Much of Pruitt's notes on her travels to China in the 1950s are digitized.

The Ruth G. Downing Papers, 1926-1941

This collection, held by Harvard Divinity School Library, includes diaries, correspondence, and reports on Downing, a Universalist missionary and minister. No material is digitized.

The American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions China, India, and the Near East

These collections, held by Harvard Divinity School Library include pamphlets, reports, and correspondence for the most important American missionary organization of the 19th century. No material is digitized.

Other Digitized Collections

Mission History

This collection, held by the Presbyterian Historical Society includes scrapbooks, photographs, letters, posters, manuscripts, audio visual material and pamphlets related to Presbyterian missionaries in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The entire collection is digitized and publicly accessible online.

History of Missiology from Boston University School of Theology

This website includes some digitized material, and a large alphabetized list of missionaries with accompanying biographies.

Abbie G. Sanderson Collection

This collection, held by Yale Divinity School Library, includes material on Sanderson, an American Baptist missionary in China 1908-1937.

Other Online Sources

United Methodist Church Missionary Biographies

United Methodist Church Women's History Timeline

United Methodist Church General Commission on Archives and History

Thousands of digitized materials, keyword searchable

United Methodist Church Digital Galleries

Digitized scrapbooks and photo albums of missionaries, sorted by location. Many albums include transcriptions of photo captions.

Southern Baptist Church Missionary Photo Albums 1934-1948

Southern Baptist Church Women's Missionary Union Journals 1906-1978