This finding aid is made available for public use following the Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons designation.
Finding aid available
This collection is open for research.
Onsite storage.
Formerly part of the independent Missionary Research Library (MRL), these records were accessioned by the Burke Library at the time of the MRL's closure in 1976.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) established their first foreign mission with the American Marathi Mission in Bombay on December 21, 1813. It was the first protestant mission in Western India and spread into hundreds of villages. The mission center moved from Bombay to Ahmednager in 1831 because it was closer to the center of Marathi County. By 1911, Christian converts were attending church and school and learning academic subjects, practical farming, and basic medicine and industry including carpentry and weaving. The mission's aid for famine and plague victims and establishment of a women's Bible training school increased the goodwill towards the Marathi Mission. The Marathi Mission also founded colleges and a theological institution, an institution for care of the blind, and a leper colony at Sholapur throughout the late 1800s to mid-1900s. Although the number of Christians was growing, caste prejudices and the scarcity of Christian leaders continued to be an issue for the organization, and the move for Indian independence led to a downturn in relations between Indian Christians and missionaries. In 1922 the Marathi Mission created an Indian Mission Board to help give locals more independence over their Christianity.
Louise Gliem Fisher was born in Saint Clair, St. Clair County, Michigan on October 27, 1889, to Charles A. Gliem and Mary Elizabeth Meyer Gliem. She married Henry Wellen Fisher in 1926, and worked as a public health nurse in the Satara District with the American Marathi Mission from 1934 through 1959. Fisher died on August 28, 1976.
Missionary Research Library Archives: MRL3, South Asia
Item description, MRL3: American Marathi Mission records, 1813-1962, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Reports and documents were cataloged by Lynn A. Grove on 1988-07-18. Metal clips and staples were removed from materials and folded items were flattened. Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. Acidic items were separated from one another by interleaving with acid-free paper as needed. The finding aid was created by Brigette Kamsler in 2011 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2020.
MRL 12: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions records, 1878-1958, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
This collection 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.
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 collection is arranged in rough alphabetical order.