This finding aid is made available for public use following the Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons designation.
This collection is open for research.
Onsite storage.
This collection was assembled from records in the Missionary Research Library before its 1976 closure. These records were accessioned by the Burke Library at the time of the MRL's closure in 1976.
This collection is organized in one unarranged series.
The Missionary Research Library was created by John R. Mott in 1914 after the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1910. It was created to be a resource for missionaries and to document the missionary movement, and was initially funded by John D. Rockefeller. It was located at the Madison Avenue headquarters of the Foreign Missionary Conference of North America. By the 1920s, funding was becoming scarcer; therefore it was moved to the Brown Tower of the Union Theological Seminary, New York City in 1929. The Library was an important center of information and research. Active missionaries would consult the material of the Missionary Research Library while on furlough. Much of the Library's success was due to the director and librarian, Charles H. Fahs. Upon his retirement in 1948, the MRL's financial difficulties continued until it was finally integrated as one with the Burke Library's collections in 1967. In 2004, the Burke Library was fully integrated with the Columbia University Library System.
Missionary Research Library Archives: MRL7, Japan
Item description, MRL7: Missionary Research Library collection on mission work in Japan, 1902-1981, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. The finding aid was created by Brigette Kamsler in 2014 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2022.
This collection contains materials compiled by the Missionary Research Library that largely document mission work in Japan during the 20th century, including information on missions and religious work, education work, subject files, committees and reports, photographs, and scrapbooks.
Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.
This series is open for research.
This series is unarranged, though roughly grouped by topic.
This series contains materials compiled by the Missionary Research Library that largely document mission work in Japan during the 20th century, including information on missions and religious work, education work, subject files, committees and reports, photographs, and scrapbooks.