This finding aid is made available for public use following the Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons designation.
This collection contains some restricted material. Restrictions related to specific material are listed in the detailed contents list.
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.
Margaret H. Brown was born in 1887 near Tiverton in Kincardine Township, Ontario, Canada. She worked as a teacher for about four years before travelling to Henan 河南, China in 1916 under the auspices of the Women's Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. In 1925 the WMS had twenty-nine missionaries working in the province. In 1929 Brown was appointed to the staff of the Christian Literature Society 廣學會 in Shanghai 上海 and worked there as an editor. While there she published a number of books in Chinese, including Stories of Jesus 神人異蹟 and Mrs. Wang's Diary 王夫人的日記, which was published in English in 1936. In 1941 she was supported by a fellowship from Union Theological Seminary, New York. Brown retired in 1956, after which she devoted her time to researching, writing, and lishing an account of the life and work of the Canadian Presbyterian missionary Donald MacGillivray in 1968. She died in 1978 and is buried in Tiverton, Ontario.
Missionary Research Library Archives: MRL6, China
Item description, MRL6: Margaret H. Brown papers, circa 1940-1969, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Metal clips and staples were removed from materials and folded items were flattened. Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. Items were separated from one another by interleaving with acid-free paper. Some fragile acidic sections were replaced with acid-free photocopies in 2010. The originals are retained in box 3 of the collection. The collection was reorganized, and any former folder numbers are noted in square brackets following the folder description, e.g. [f14]. The finding aid was created by Gregory Adam Scott in 2010, updated by Brigette C. Kamsler in 2014 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2021.
FINDING AID 3037, FONDS 3037, MARGARET H. BROWN FONDS. United Church of Canada Archives.
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 numerical order by chapter.
This collection contains a typewritten manuscript by Margaret H. Brown entitled "History of the Honan (North China) Mission [Presbyterian] of the United Church of Canada," compiled over a period spanning the 1940s to the 1960s. The work chronicles the history of the Canadian mission to central China, first under the Presbyterian Church and later as part of the United Church of Canada, from the 1880s to 1951 when the mission was forced out. The chapters each center on a particular theme, and though they are presented in a roughly chronological order, subsequent chapters will often jump back to begin the narrative from an earlier date. There is also an appendix with a list of missionaries who served in the mission.
This file is restricted due to physical condition.