Mount Holyoke College Missionaries Collection: Scope & Contents of the Collection

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Mount Holyoke College Missionary Collection brings together a wide range of publications, documents, and photographs relating to missionary work of alumnae and others throughout the world from about 1841 to the present. These materials are arranged in the following series: Books, Articles, and Other Writings; Correspondence, Lists, Notes, and Memoranda; Missionary Work by Country; Records of Contributions Supporting Missionary Work; a song called the Missionary Call; and an Autograph Album.

Books, Articles, and Other Writings (circa 1880s-present) consist of a variety of published and unpublished materials. These items include books and articles about the work of missionaries, an atlas containing information about mission stations, and reports and other publications issued by the ABCFM and other organizations.

Correspondence, Lists, Notes, and Memoranda (1876-present) concern the work of Mount Holyoke alumnae missionaries. Many of these documents reflect the research of Bertha E. Blakely (1893) after her retirement as director of Mount Holyoke's library in 1936.

The Missionary Work by Country series (circa 1878-present) contains reports, correspondence, articles, a dissertation, a student paper, notes, historical sketches, biographical information, lists, and photographs concerning the work of Mount Holyoke alumnae and other missionaries in different countries. Many of the notes were prepared by Anna C. Edwards (1859). The series includes publications by several mission boards and societies. Most of the materials concern mission work in Africa, China, Hawaii, India, Japan, and Turkey and with Freedmen and other African Americans and Native Americans in the United States.

Records of Contributions Supporting Missionary Work (circa 1841-1902) document the financial support provided by that Mount Holyoke administrators, teachers, and students. Records for 1871-1890 also include summaries of the "Religious state" of the school during that period.

The Song (1847) consists of words and music for "The Missionary Call" that students sang at a meeting of returning missionaries held at Mount Holyoke on June 30, 1859.

The Autograph Album (1859-1887) contains signatures of those who attended meetings of missionaries at Mount Holyoke. Other signatures were clipped from letters and pasted into this volume.