Collections : [Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary]

This series contains the papers and records of Sister Aisha al-Adawiya, co-founder and executive director of Women In Islam, Inc., documenting her various efforts relating to Islam, gender equity, conflict resolution, cross-cultural understanding, and social justice, as well as Muslim and Black community life in New York City, interfaith organizing for social justice causes in New York City, small scale Muslim women's publications (newsletters, magazines); and local and small scale Muslim newsletters across North America. Includes correspondence, administrative and organizational materials, published materials, mixed media, and personal materials. Correspondence includes handwritten, typed, and printed email correspondence, including from Muslim listservs. This collection also contains material from al-Adawiya's husband, Aziz Rahman, including manuscript drafts and research material on halaal and haram, and personal correspondence and materials; as well as material on other business ventures in which al-Adawiya participated, including World Trade Forum, Inc. and Anglo-Arab Trading Corporation.

This series contains a lecture in German titled "Goethe: His Personality and Work" given by Schweitzer in July 1949 at the International Goethe Convocation in Aspen, Colorado (this was the only time Schweitzer ever visited the United States). The lecture is recorded on two vinyl 78rpm records, with an introduction by G. A. Borgese and translation by Thornton Wilder. This series also contains a booklet from the Albert Schweitzer International Convocation held in Aspen in May 1966. The convocation continued the work that began with Schweitzer's visit to the United States in 1949, and was divided into seven sessions with multiple scholars discussing topics including Schweitzer's humanitarian contributions, his contributions to music and the arts, and his contributions to theology and philosophy.

This series contains correspondence, signature and catalogue cards, a pamphlet for Frame's memorial service, and provenance materials.

This series contains records of the All Africa Christian Conference that illustrate the early organization, composition, and goals of the Conference, as well as other directed programs such as Urban Africa, and Religion and Education in Africa. Records include correspondence, photographs, memos, publications, and meeting minutes and supplemental materials.

This series contains one folder of lectures and notes related to the history and nature of apologetic.

This series contains correspondence, committee minutes, reports sent to missionaries in the field, news clippings, photographs, and publicity materials. Correspondence, which comprises the bulk of the collection, shows the frequent sums of money being sent in small increments for relief work and acknowledgment of donations. Other details describe the experience of those in places such as Albania, Thrace, Bulgaria, and Turkey who were subject to severe disease; overcrowded hospitals from civilians and soldiers; official numbers of refugees; and the number of buildings destroyed. Telegrams asking for aid; information on other missionaries in the area; and information about Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, United States Ambassador in Constantinople, are also included. Other correspondence deals with people looking for information on the legitimacy of the Relief Committee and William W. Howard, who wrote many letters asking organizations for donations to the Committee. Howard's letters discuss his own findings when traveling across Albania.

This series contains the typed recollections of Dr. John J. Banninga, a missionary with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Madura from 1901-1942, titled, "Notes on the History of the American Madura Mission, South India, since the 75th Anniversary in 1909." Banninga wrote the document in Boston in 1944 at the request of Reverend Enoch F. Bell, concerning the history of the Madura Mission since the writing of the 75th anniversary book, "Seventy-Five Years in Madura," by Dr. John S. Chandler, 1849-1934. Banninga's recollections were designed to provide further anecdotal information. A later addition to the collection consists of two handwritten and bound sermons by the Rev. P. Thomas Pastor of Trinity Church, Tirumangalam.

This series contains material related to the American Marathi Mission, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) first Protestant mission in Western India, founded in 1813. Materials were compiled in 1962 by Louise Gliem Fisher, who had worked as a public health nurse in the Satara District beginning in 1934, and include general background information and reports on various mission stations, as well as typescript material pulled together from minutes, reports, diaries, brochures, and correspondence.

This series contains materials reflecting McGrew Bennett's activism against the Vietnam War, her feminist theology, and her involvement in the life of Union Theological Seminary, including her congressional testimony on the War in Vietnam, the 1970 Faculty Wives' party held in her honor, the text of her 1972 UTS Commencement Address (the first given by a woman), clippings, photographs, and published materials.

This series contains working papers, correspondence, clippings, and other related materials which tell the story of the ordination of eleven women as Episcopal priests on July 29, 1974, from the planning stage to the immediate responses and later anniversaries of the event, including papers relating to Women's Ordination Now.

This series contains an annotated, bound manuscript of Toynbee's lecture titled, "Christianity and the Non-Christian Faith in the Contemporary World," delivered during a visit to the U.S. and in connection with the Hewett Foundation.

This series contains sermons, bulletins, articles and clippings, photographs, and personal materials, including a diploma and poetry notebooks. There is significant overlap in many of the years of the sermons, which are annotated and were likely given at different times and occasions. Documents related to the specific places where Brown preached, such as the Maadi Church in Cairo, are also included, as are documents pertaining to the schools where he taught, including American University in Cairo (AUC), American University in Beirut (AUB), and Bates College.

This series contains a 381-page handwritten English translation, completed in 1944 by D.D. Chandekar, of Arunodaya. The Autobiography of Bãbã Padmanjí, containing a description of his former life as a Hindu and the causes which led to his conversion. Originally printed by the Anglo-Vernacular Press in Bombay in 1888 and in Bãbã Padmanjí's native language, Marathi, the book gives a brief history of his life as a Hindu, his conversion to Christianity, and details the religious, political, personal and familial struggles he endured as a result. Included in this volume are a short newspaper clipping, photograph, and list of important dates in the front cover. This copy also transcribes the letters of recommendation for Bãbã Padmanjí, which were in the original autobiography, as well as an epitaph for Rev. George Bowen, a former Union Theological Seminary student (class of 1847), Bombay missionary, and editor of the Marathi publications of the Bombay Book and Tract Society. (It should be noted that printed versions of the autobiography may not contain all that Bãbã Padmanjí originally wrote; Rev. M. P. Davis, member of the Foreign Mission Board for the German Evangelical Synod of North America and editor of the autobiography print version called My Struggle for Freedom, mentioned in his forward that "numerous unimportant incidents related by [Bãbã Padmanjí] in the original Marathi version" had been removed.)

This series contains a transcription of Ashbel Green Simonton's journal, requested by his wife Helen Murdoch Simonton, covering his years at Princeton Seminary and his first years as a Presbyterian missionary in Brazil.

This series contains a book of tribute entitled, "An Appreciation," by the Student Christian Movement of India, Burma, and Ceylon, for which Ram served as General Secretary from 1928 to 1947. In his 1955 "personal report" as Executive Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Christian Council, Ram lists the many organizations he worked with and positions he held from 1953-1955. The first page of an undated letter describes a visit with the Metropolitan and details Ram's travel plans. Additional correspondence and research and writings are also included in this series.

This series contains copies of thirteen typewritten reports from Swiss and German Basel missionaries who were captured and held captive during World War I by British and French troops. Captured while stationed in Cameroon in September and October 1914, these missionaries were held captive until 1915. The reports were recorded in German in 1915 in Basel, Switzerland and Berlin and Connstadt, Germany, and include detailed description and dates of events and names of other missionaries. The thirteen missionaries are Friedrich Bärtschi; J. Bührer; Chr. Gehr.; J. Gutbrod; Philipp Hecklinger; Johannes Ittmann; Johannes Köngeter; Johannes Leiberspeiger; G. Lorch.; Johannes Georg Meier; Robert Schwarz; H. Stahl; and Karl Wittwer.

This series contains records from the Basel Mission relating to its educational work on the Gold Coast (Ghana), West Africa, including practical manuals given to missionaries as standards for teaching at the primary and middle school levels, and a pamphlet on its educational approach.

This series contains diaries, address books, expense records, photographs, a copy of the 1946 Anglican Bishops Report from the Diocese of Rangoon, and other personal items relating to Davis's life before, during, and after her missionary work in Burma from 1899-1931. The bulk of the collection is diaries. Earlier diary entries (1892-1899) reveal the details of her final years at Franklin College, her announcement to her father of her intention to become a foreign missionary, and her entrance into the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Union's training program in Chicago. There are only two brief diaries from her time in Burma: one from February 1900, and a later entry on scrap paper from July 22, 1916. These entries, however, contain information including the weather in Burma, descriptions of the villages, relationships between Protestant and Catholic missionary stations, and folk tales from the Karen people, an ethnic group in Southern Burma. Most of the diaries in the collection document Davis's life after returning to the United States; spanning from 1932 to 1940, they discuss her life traveling locally and participating in various church-related activities, as well as the details of her family relationships, and records of the weather with great consistency and detail. In addition to diaries, the collection contains nine address books, six ledgers of Davis' expense records that date from 1916 to 1937, and three memo books containing a combination of addresses, expenses, notes, and diary entries, some of which relate to her time in Burma. The collection also includes an undated account of Davis' memories from childhood, some correspondence, a Longmans' Burmese Primer from 1933 with language exercises in Burmese phonetics, an undated class grade record, and a document entitled "Ecclesia Resurgens: Bishop's Report for the half year ending 31st Dec. 1945." Printed in 1946, this report was compiled by George Algernon West, Anglican Lord Bishop of Rangoon, who was one of the first British civilians allowed back into Burma after the defeat of the Japanese in World War II. It details his experience of post-war return, including an account of rebuilding his cathedral, which had been converted into a distillery for Japanese occupiers, the process of re-establishing the diocesan administration, and stories of Christian victory and persecution during wartime. There is also scrapbook of photographs, some of which are presumably from her time in Burma.

This series contains six 3 by 5 inch microcards that contain Mugrauer's entire 239 page dissertation, "A Cultural Study of Ten Negro Girls in an Alley," published in 1950. Bibliographic information is included at the top of each card.

This series contains one 46 page bound manuscript handwritten in English by an unknown author, describing the activities of the Netherlands Missionary Society (Nederlands Zendeling Genootschap) by geographic region and sub-regions (including Indonesian Archipelago: Amboina, Timor, Ceram, Banda, Celebe, Boono, Java; Hindustan: Palliacatta, Sadras, Chinfurab; South Africa; and Suriname) and covering the period of 1823-1825. This series also contains an index and supplementary material of the Old Missionary Archives of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Netherlands Reformed Church (Raad voor de Zending der Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk). The index was compiled in Dutch by Rev. F. Slump in 1963 in an effort to publicize the materials held within the organization's archives. The index alphabetically lists materials found in the records of Dutch missionary corporations from 1797-1927, the papers of Professor Hendrik Kraemer, 1921-1947, and the records of women's missionary work from 1928-1958. The supplemental material is written in Dutch and includes a list of corrections to the original index and indexes to the papers of influential missionaries: Hendrik Kraemer, Dr. Albert C. Kruyt, Rev. J. Kruyt and Rev. I. J. Kijne. Additional material includes correspondence written in English between the Board of the Foreign Missions of the Netherlands Reformed Church and the Missionary Research Library/

This series contains correspondence and organizational records related to the Bureau of Missions. Correspondence primarily includes letters of Edwin Bliss and his successor Dr. Henry Otis Dwight, as they write to missionaries and missionary organizations around the world to garner interest in the newly formed organization, sell Bureau-produced materials, and acquire information and documents for the museum and library. There are also a few letters from Bureau President Alexander Maitland. Organizational records include extensive bylaws, meeting minutes, publications, newspaper articles, and charters.

This series contains individual letters as well as correspondence and other materials of missionaries and related persons doing mission work throughout the world, largely dating from the 20th century. See detailed content notes for futher description.

This series contains two albums: an African Missionary photograph album, dating from approximately 1900-1910, and including 60 photographs chiefly depicting missionary activities in Sub-Saharan Africa; and a Mennonite African missionary photograph album, dating from approximately 1955-1965, and including approximately 350 photographs chiefly depicting missionary activities in Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, and other unidentified locations likely in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This series contains photographs and a booklet documenting aspects of African American church history and life in New York City.

This series contains material related to Allen Wright (Kiliahote), a Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation (1866-1870) and the first Native American graduate of UTS (class of 1855), including biographical material, as well as correspondence about and programs for ceremonies honoring Wright at the Capitol in Oklahoma City and at UTS.

This series contains minutes of the Young Ladies Missionary Society of Orono (Maine), as well as a small section of the personal diary of Hannah L.W. Penny, a member of the society and daughter of Deacon John Penny (1770-1846); a minute book of the Women's Foreign and Home Missionary Society of Fisk, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, recording its various social and missionary activities; a minute book of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society associated with the Hobart Memorial Methodist-Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, recording information about the membership of the society as well as meeting activities; and a minute book of the Women's Missionary Society of the First Baptist Church of Jamestown, New York, describing society activities and including detailed annual reports.