Collections : [Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary]

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 an account of the Roman Catholic bilateral conversations with Christian Churches in the United States from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. The Churches involved in the conversations include the American Baptist Convention, Anglican, Disciples of Christ, Lutheran, Methodist, Eastern Orthodox, Presbyterian, and Southern Baptist. Some of the papers and official statements included in the collection are drafts and have revision notes and marginalia. Several contain anthologies that cover multiple years. There is a minimal amount of correspondence; a few letters detail the agreements and disagreements that occurred during the conversations. An example of this is contained in a copy of the letter between Athenagoras Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople to Reverend Iakovos Archbishop of North and South America, which details a plea for the correction of a misconception held by Orthodox Christians that due to ecumenical conversations they could now confess and receive communion from Roman Catholic priests. Intercommunion between the Orthodox and other churches did not exist at this time. A booklet about these initial attempts at ecumenism is also in the collection and documents the nullification of the anathema (excommunication) of 1054, which was necessary in order to begin bilateral conversation between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. The arrangement of the material is alphabetical according to the Christian church the Catholics were in conversations with, then chronologically according to the date of each meeting.

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 first of the three packets of papers recovered by W. W. Rockwell from different scattered sources. The first packet contained the small group of records of the American Institute of Christianity (AIC), formerly known as the Institute for the Advancement of Christian Knowledge until fall in 1923. This series includes records of the 1923 meeting, a "Minute book of the Corporation which tried to publish the American Encyclopaedia of Christianity, 1923-26" including financial reports from the Institute, a sequence of Executive minutes, and a group of Historical Church Papers form a survey of denominations across America (these were the work of Professor Williston Walker 1860-1922, American Church historian at Yale University).

This series contains correspondence, editorial minutes, plans and drafts, and promotional items. Rockwell's replies to letters may be found among the correspondence files. The series begins with the second and third groups of papers received by Rockwell concerning the work towards production of the Encyclopaedia recovered from other members of the committees. Rockwell's own files as secretary to the Editorial Board follow these initial sections and are retained in the alphabetical order which was his personal method of file arrangement. The correspondence also includes carbon copies of replies by Rockwell and his annotations on letters received.

This series contains material related to the Conference on American Relations with China held at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1925, and focused on issues such as extraterritoriality and tariff autonomy. Materials include correspondence, bulletins, notes, reports, outlines, transcripts, bibliographies, and draft material, including a draft of the published report of the conference. Some material retains handwritten notes and annotations.

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 Board Records of the Prudential Committee, which was the Executive Committee of the ABCFM; bulletins and correspondence related to ABCFM missions throughout the world. The bulletins were sent to members of the ABCFM discussing their major objective with foreign missions; what the American board was asking of its constituency; goals and other financial figures for 1932. The correspondence entails further financial matters; the list of materials relating to ABCFM held by the Missionary Research Library and their geographic locales; and which newspapers will run articles on ABCFM matters. The Department of Missionary Education includes notes on missionary materials; books and their authors. The Prudential Committee records include reports on staff vacancies; administrative year information, and reports on the speaker's bureau.

This series contains correspondence and reports concerning ABCFM missions in Asia, including China; Eastern and Central Turkey; European Turkey at the Samokov Station in Bulgaria; Japan; and India; and missions in the Philippine Islands. All discuss in detail their experiences with the local population, the current living situations, and other missions in the area. The missionaries speak of when Communists took control in China in 1949-1950. The missionaries in Japan include details about the country's recoveryfrom World War II and the Japanese feeling towards Americans. Those in the Philippines include details from the medical missionaries involving the types of diseases and people receiving medical treatment. The missionaries in Turkey detail the massacres which took place in the late nineteenth century and the Russian army occupation, including the interaction with Turks, Bulgarians and the missionary groups themselves. The European Turkey Mission reports include those from the Collegiate and Theological Institute in Bulgaria, and the Girls Boarding School. Much of the material is either mimeographed or carbon copy. The reports from the European Turkey Mission are handwritten mission or school copies and include annotations and corrections.

This series contains one volume (211 pages) handwritten by Hezekiah Waterman Ripley and titled "Sketch of the History of the American Home Missionary Society." Pages 1-132 contain newspaper clippings pasted over the handwriting. The newspaper clippings pertain to the New School Presbyterian Church and Assembly, the Old School General Assembly, and other Presbyterian Church information. The Assemblies contain detailed material on sessions and meetings in 1869. Some pages have been removed. Page 133 begins the section titled, "Documents in regard to the origin of the Home Missionary Society," which include handwritten copies of correspondence, letters to the editor, and chapters from books. Many of these refer to Rev. Nathaniel Bouton; another name of note is Hiram Chamberlain, graduate of Princeton and Andover Theological Seminary, and one of four missionaries who intended to go west under auspices of the United Domestic Missionary Society of New York. This section continues unbroken to page 211. Ripley added notes throughout this section and signed certain sections with "Compiler. Although the clippings date to 1869 and the history section date to the 1860s, it is unknown when the book was officially assembled.