Missionary Research Library collection on mission work in Australia and Oceania, 1840 -- 1956

Creator:
Missionary Research Library (New York, N.Y.)
Abstract:
This collection contains materials compiled by the Missionary Research Library that document foreign mission work in Australia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, largely during the early 20th century, including reports, minutes, correspondence, publications, and a sketchbook.
Extent:
2.75 linear feet (2.75 linear feet; 3 boxes)
Language:
English .
Scope and content:

This collection contains materials compiled by the Missionary Research Library that document foreign mission work in Australia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, largely during the early 20th century, including reports, minutes, correspondence, publications, and a sketchbook. The majority of materials relate to the Philippine committee of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America (FMCNA), of which E. K. Higdon was chairman. The sketchbook was kept by Rev. Anthony Wilson Thorold, Bishop of Rochester and later Bishop of Winchester, while on board the S.S. Australia and S.S. Parramatta, and includes views of Van Dieman Land, North Cape, Bay of Islands, Cape Brett, and Auckland, New Zealand; Honolulu, Diamond Head, and Waikiki, Oahu; the Suez Canal; Botany Bay, New South Wales; a missionary house in Samoa; Golden Gate, San Francisco, and more. The Report on the Progress of the Gospel in Polynesia is a 14 page folio manuscript in the hand of A.B. Putnam; it is his transcription of a speech by P.C. Colgrove given before the Society for Inquiry on December 7, 1840, and reports on atrocities but with emphasis on how missionaries have managed to convert many of the natives and how education and Christianity have spread.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

Onsite storage.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

Item description, MRL11: Missionary Research Library collection on mission work in Australia and Oceania, 1840-1956, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Location of this collection:
Burke Home Page
Before you visit:
Researchers must book an appointment at least 5 business days in advance to view special collections material in the reading room. To make the most of your visit, be sure to request your desired materials before booking your appointment, as researchers are limited to one item per hour of appointment time.
Contact:
burke@library.columbia.edu