Founded in 1929 as the Christian Literature Bureau it became, in. 1953, part of the International Missionary Council. In 1957/8 its operations were transferred to
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SOAS Library www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives 1 SOAS Special Collections Guides : Missionary Sources Relating to Africa This guide offers an overview of archives and published sources relating to missionary activity in Africa held at SOAS Library and eslewhere Missionary Sources SOAS is a major centre for the study of the Western missionary movement and its interaction with the peoples of Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the West Indies. SOAS Library holds an estimated 750,000 original documents, some 70,000 photographs and many thousands of published works comprising histories, memoirs, annual reports, missionary magazines, bible translations and hymnals. Research sources can be divided into two categories: archives or primary source material, and published or secondary source material Missionary collections provide some of the earliest documentation of contact with overseas communities, their first recorded histories and often the first forms of written language as they attempted to translate the Bible and other works into the local vernacular. They are a rich source for the soc ial, medical, educational and political history of these regions. Contents : Primary Sour ces : Archives p.2 Missionary Archives at SOAS p.2 Mi ssionary Archives Held E lsewhere p .3 Secondar y Sources: Published Works p.5 Missionary Libraries at SOAS p. 5 Contact Details: p.6 Khama III, Chief of the Baman g wato and Sir Albert Spicer, London Missionary Society Treasurer, in Serowe, Bechuanaland Protectorate [Botswana], 1907
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SOAS Library www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives 2 Primary Sources: Archives The archives of missionary societies are a great source of information since missionaries were expected to send regular letters and reports on their progress to the mission headquarters a nd these ha ve survived to a large extent. Missionary A rchives at SOAS Lists of archives and manuscript collections can be consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room, and many of the archive collections have also been catalogued on – line at http://archives.soas.ac.uk/ Cal mView/ However, be aware that the on – line catalogue is not fully comprehensive yet, and will often need to be supplemented by reference to the hard copy catalogues in our Reading Room. The main missionary organisations relating to Africa whose archives are held at SOAS are listed on the following pages. Conference o f British Missionary Societies/ International Missionary Council (IMC/CBMS) The following is a summary of the main serie s that comprise this collection Please note, a lthough t here is a wealth of material held in this collection, it suffers from a lack of comprehensive cataloguing and is therefore not that easy to use. Over the next few years we hope to improve access to the collection, but its substantial size mean s that this will be a slow job. Joint CBMS/IMC Archives These relate to co – operative missionary endeavours in Africa from 1910 – 1945. 135 boxes Conference of British Missionary Societies (now the Conference for World Mission) Archives 1912 – 1960 Minutes and papers of the stan ding committee, the Home Council its committees; area files; files on literature and medical work and files on contacts with other missionary bodies. 621 boxes International Committee on Christia n Literature for Africa (ICCLA) Founded in 1929 as the Christian Literature Bureau it became, in 1953, part of the International Missionary Council. In 1957/8 its operations were transferred to Africa. Minutes, accounts, correspondence and reports dated c.1920 – 1957 and sets of works pub lished. 45 boxes ‘The Zambezi Rouser’, fever cure by David Livingstone, London Missionary Society, 1860
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SOAS Library www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives 3 Council For World Mission Incorporatin g the London Missionary Society a nd Commonwealth Missionary Society (CWM/LMS, CWM/CMS) By far the largest collection held at SOAS and the most heavily used, these archives, dated 1795 – 1970, relate to the work of the London Missionary Society (LMS) in the South Seas, Australia, Papua New Guinea, South East Asia, China, Southern and Central Africa, Madag ascar, India, the West Indies and to a lesser extent in North America and Europe. The collection includes minutes, correspondence, reports, personal papers, an estimated 30,000 photographs and a number of collections of personal papers. It also comprises records of the Commonwealth Missionary Society, formerly the Colonial Missionary Society, which worked in Australia, North America, New Zealand, So uth Africa and the West Indies. c. 3,000 boxes Methodist Missionary Society (MMS) The archives (1798 – 1955) document the work of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, the United Methodist Missionary Society, and the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society in Europe, North America, and the West Indies, Africa, India, Burma, Sri Lanka and Australia. The societ ies united in 1933 to form th e Methodist Missionary Society. 1,400 boxes Please note that only archives up to 1945 are open to research ers and that the material i s only available on microfiche. United Society For Christian Literature Incorporating the Religious Tract Society (USCL ) surviving records of the Religious Tract Society, founded in 1799, and the Christian Literature Society for India and Africa, founded in 1858 as the Christian Vernacular Education Society fo r India, and include minutes, letter books, miscellaneous papers, reports 1799 – 1976. Very little original correspondence survives and there are gaps in publicatio ns held. 370 volumes, 40 boxes Missionary Personal Papers There are a considerable number of private collections of missionaries from various societies or operating as independents, which have either been deposited separately or are Portrait of Rev. William Napoleon Barleycorn, African PMMS missionary, Fernando Po [Bioko]. c.1880. Building the first church in the Liendwe Valley, Northern Rhodesia [Zambia], c.1900.
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SOAS Library www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives 4 kept w ith the archives listed above. Papers of missionaries working in Africa include those relating to Dora Earthy, Thomas Birch Freeman, Andrew Hake, J. T Hardyman, David Livingstone, Albert Lock, William Millman, Robert Moffat, John Philip, Charles Richards, Margaret Sabin, Alexander Sandilands, James Sibree, Mabel Shaw, Isaiah Shembe, Edwin Smith, Kenneth Maltus Smith and John Thomson. Locating other Missionary A rchives relating to Africa The Mundus Gateway to Missionary Collections enables researchers to locate the archives of missionary societies across the UK. To search the database go to http://www.mundus.ac.uk A regional search using the SOAS and other institutions that relate specifically to Africa, or regions within Africa. You may also find these publications useful: Missionary Encounters: Sources and Issues ed. by Robert A. Bickers and Rosemary Seton [see Appendix], Curzon Press, 1996. British Archives (3rd ed) Janet Foster and Julia Sheppard, Macmillan, 1995 The missionary archives on the following page are particularly substantial and may be use ful to your research on Africa: Baptist Missionary Society Archives held at: Oxford OX1 2LB The History of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792 – 1992 by Brian Stanley, Edinburgh, 1992. Church Missionary Society Archives held at: University of Birmingham Library, Special Collections, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT SOAS holds a number of finding aids to the CMS archive: Register of Missionaries from 1804 – 1904 Missionary Registers 1813 – 55 (chiefly CMS) Church Missionary Intelligencer 1864 – 93 (incomplete) United Society For The Propagation Of The Gospel a nd Archives held at: Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies, Rhodes House, S outh Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RG British & Foreign Bible Society Archives held at: Cambridge University Library , West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DR Scottish Foreign Missions (Church of Scotland, United Free Church of Scotland, Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church) A rchives held at: T he National Library of Scotland, Manuscripts Division, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EW National Library of Scotland, Catalogue of MSS, Vol VI, Scottish Foreign Mission Records 1827 – 1929. C ompo under in the medical dispensary, Ilesha MMS Hospital, Osun, Nigeria
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SOAS Library www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives 5 Secondary Sources: Published Works Published secondary sources can often be the best starting point for researching the history of a particular region of missionary work, mission station or missionary, providing context and orienting the researcher before they attempt to locate specific so urces archival collections. Types of published material to consider will include mission histories and other published accounts, annual reports and periodicals. Mission Libraries at SOAS SOAS holds two large and important mission libraries, which were depo sited along with the archives. The Council for World Mission Library comprises c.13,000 books, pamphlets, serials and a small selection of manuscripts. The Methodist Missionary Society Library comprises c. 7 500 books and pamphlets. In addition to histories, biographies, reports and periodicals of the societies, they contain material on all aspects of Christian mission in addition to the geography, history, natural history, anthropology, religion, philosophy, language, literature, sci ence and medicine of the peoples with whom the missionaries were in contact. The collections also contain translations, dictionaries and grammars, and the earliest imprints of many Asian, African and Pacific languages. For some languages these missionary publications provide the only known record. – line catalogue at https://library.soas.ac.uk/ . Searches can be refined by keyword, and can also b e searched using the subject index. Mission H istories SOAS has copies of histories for many of the major missionary society collections held here, which detail historical developments by geographical region. The most useful of these include those for the London Missionary Society and Methodist Missionary Society: The History of the London Missionary Society, 1795 – 1895 by Richard Lovett, London, 1899 ( 2 vols). History of the London Missionary Society 1895 – 1945 by Norman Goodall, OUP, 1954. Lists missionaries working between 1895 – 1945 but without biographical details. Gales of Change: The Story of the London Missionary Society 1945 – 77 ed. by Bernard Thorogood, London, 1994. The History of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society by G.C. Findlay and W.W.Holdsworth, 5 vols. London, 1921 Annual Reports Complete sets of annual reports for the London Missionary Society, Colonial Missionary Society, and the various elements of the Methodist Missionary Society (Wesleyan, Primitive and United Methodists) are available in the Special Collections Reading Room. These volumes are a useful starting point for the study of missions for specific regions at The London Missionary Society prin tin g press, Antananarivo, Madagascar, c.1930
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SOAS Library www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives 6 particular times. In addition to giving a summary of the work of the missionary society for that year, including financial and statistical information, the reports give a report for each individual mission station in each region, often with the names of the missionaries worki ng at that station and sometimes numbers of local preachers, teachers, evangelists and converts. Periodicals Most of the missionary societies published monthly periodicals containing lengthy extracts from letters and reports. These are bound into indexed annual volumes and are invaluable as a source of information on society activities, on progress in the mission stations and on the movements of individual missionaries. Many of these publications can be consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room; others are available by r equisition from the mission libraries. Full details of these – line catalogue at https://library.soas.ac.uk/ . Biographical S ources You may want to find out more information about i ndividual missionaries and converts. Most of the more accessible information concerns European missionaries, though you may also be able to find material relating to indigenous pastors, teachers and bible women. We are currently working on a guide to Findi ng your missionary ancestors which will be mad e available on the Web shortly. Contact Details Special Collections Reading Room Library School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG Telephone: Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4180 Email: docenquiry@soas.ac.uk Web: www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives Map of the chief mission stations of the WMMS in West Africa, 1926
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