Christian Missions in Africa: Primary Sources - Mission Records

75 reels. Research Publications, 1982.
Microfilm. OCLC 9712074: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid : Online, Gale Cengage web (Africa content starts at p.18).
Index by missionary name : Online, Gale Cengage website.
Detailed finding aid (for original collection:) Online, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Contains:
• ABC 15.1 Western Africa, 1838-1960.
• ABC 15.2 Western Africa. Woman's Board, 1897-1920.
• ABC 15.4 Southern Africa, 1834-1960.
• ABC 15.5 Southern Africa. Woman's Board, 1903-1927.
• ABC 15.6 East Africa, 1930-1960.
• ABC 15.6.01 Rhodesia. Supplementary, 1886-1955.
• ABC 15.6.1 East Central Africa, 1890-1906.
• ABC 15.6.2 Zulu East Africa, 1891-1905.
• ABC 15.9 Africa. Miscellaneous documents, 1834-1873.

Online. Gale Cengage.
In : Slavery and Anti-Slavery : A Transnational Archive.
Digitized from holdings of the Amistad Research Center, this duplicates the two microform sets below.

228 reels. Amistad Research Center.
Microfilm. Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm 4335.
Finding aid: Online, Gale Cengage website.
Author and added entry catalog of the American Missionary Archives. 3 vols. Greenwood, 1970. Van Pelt Microtext: Z7817 .A45
Includes:
• Foreign Papers: Barbados etc. Inc., Egypt (312 MSS), Gambia (5 MSS). various dates. 1 reel.
• Foreign Papers: Liberia etc. Inc.,Liberia (12 MSS). 1861-1869. 1 reel.
• Foreign Papers: Sierra Leone (6,205 MSS). 1836-1882. 11 reels.

[This is identical to: American Missionary Association manuscripts, mostly written 1839-1882. Includes some reels missing from that set.]
261 reels. Amistad Research Center, 1983.
Microfilm. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, Center for Research Libraries.
Includes:
• Reel 226. Egypt (312 MSS) , Gambia (5 MSS). various dates.
• Reel 233. Liberia. 1861-1869. (12 MSS)
• Reels 234-244. Sierra Leone. 1836-1882. Additional letters, mission accounts, etc. (6,205 MSS)

Online via Adam Matthew Digital.
1859 ed. Online via HathiTrust.
7th ed (1887-1895)
Earlier editions (from 1857) treated the CMS only. Starting with the 7th ed. (1887), the atlas covered missions and missionary stations of other societies.

Online. Adam Matthew.
Searchable page-image fulltext for the magazines, newsletters, and journals of the Church Missionary Society, 1804-2009.
• Reference works: Register of Missionaries (1804-1928). Church Missionary Atlas (8th ed., 1896). Gleaner Pictorial Album (1887-1888).
• Major periodicals: Church Missionary Gleaner (now Yes). Church Missionary Intelligencer. CMS Annual Report. CMS Historical Record.
• Specialist periodicals: Regional magazines, e.g., Ruanda Notes. CMS medical journals. Periodicals from the CMS's Asian missions.
NB. The CMS medical journals are also held in microfilm: Church Missionary Society archive. Section 3, Central manuscript records. Part 5, CMS medical journals, 1892-1940. Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm 4468, Reels 46-62. Finding aid: Online, Adam Matthew website

Online. Adam Matthew.
Digitized microfilm of the records of the CMS, 1799-1959, held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham. Covers Africa, Americas, East Asia, India, Middle East Missions as well as Central Records, Home Papers, and General Secretary's Papers. The last three will have Africa-related content, including biographical registers of missionaries, minute books of Corresponding Committee meetings, and correspondence.
Africa Missions module include incoming and outgoing correspondence, letter books, mission books, and original papers (including missionaries' papers) for :
• West Africa (Sierra Leone), 1803-1880, 1881-1934.
• Nigeria : Yoruba, 1844-1880, 1880-1934.
• Nigeria : Niger, 1852-1882, 1880-1934.
• Nigeria : Northern Nigeria, 1900-1934.
• West Africa (Sierra Leone) Mission and Nigeria (General, Yoruba, Niger, Northern Nigeria) Missions, 1935-1949.
• Egypt Mission, 1889-1949.
• Sudan Mission (Egypt and Sudanese Missions, including Upper Nile), 1905-1949.
• South Africa Mission, 1836-1843.
• Kenya Mission, 1841-1888, 1880-1934, 1935-1949.
• Nyanza Mission, 1876-1882, 1880-1886.
• Tanganyika Mission, 1990-1934.
• Rwanda Mission, 1933-1934.
• Uganda Mission, 1898-1934.
• Uganda, Tanganyika, and Rwanda Missions, 1935-1949.
• Mauritius, Madagascar, and the Seychelles Missions, 1856-1929.
• Africa General, 1935-1949.
Finding aids - called Catalogues - for these series are included in the digitized archive.

Microform. Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm 4499
Finding aid: Online. Adam Matthew website
Reels 284-314 of this very large collection.

A complete run of CMS archival records for African missions, to 1914, commissioned by CAMP for CRL.
Finding aid: Online, CRL website

Continuation of CMS archival records for Africa missions up through 1949, at CRL. Microfilmed by Adam Matthew.
Finding aid: Online, CRL website

Microfilm. Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 4376.
Contents:
Reel 1. Indemnity dealing with massacre, 1898-1910. Correspondence to U.S. consulate. Minutes 1911-1912.
Reel 2. Minutes 1912-1918.
Reel 3. Minutes 1918-1924.
Reel 4. Minutes 1924-1928.
Reel 5. Minutes 1929. Reports and correspondence 1929-1936. Women's Missionary Association reports.
Reel 6. Women's Missionary Association reports. Notes on proceedings.
Reel 7. Notes on proceedings, Diaries. Scrapbooks.

1910-1970. 7 reels.
Periodical on microfilm. Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm cont 724.
The official periodical of the United Brethren of Christ in Sierra Leone.

1885-1892. 1 reel.
Microfilm. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Semimonthly newspaper of the UBC Mission in Bonthe, Sherbro, Sierra Leone.

153 reels. EP Microfilm Ltd, 1978.
Microfilm. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, CRL website.
Much of this material is in old German handwriting, but English and German transcriptions make the set friendly to modern readers.
Contains:
• Series D-1. Incoming Ghana correspondence, 1829-1914. Also includes selected German typescript transcriptions; English-language reports, ca.1880-1914.
• Series D-3. In and out correspondence, Ghana, 1914-1917.
• Series D-12. English transcriptions of documents in Series D-1., 1828-1898.
• German transcription of documents in Series D-1.
• Series D-6-3. Jahresrechnungen (Annual accounts), Ghana, 1842-1916.
• Series D-10. Remainder category, Ghana: Miscellaneous Mss in European languages (selection).
• Selected Africa materials in Basel Mission periodicals, 1827-1918 = German transcriptions of documents in Series D-1. Annual reports from missions and from missionaries (inc. Basel-trained missionaries serving in other missions),

Digitized extracts from CRL's microfilm set (above).
Contains:
• Series D-1.11. Incoming Ghana correspondence, 1860, reel 11 (to Akropong 39).
• Series D-1.26. Incoming Ghana correspondence, 1874, reel 32 (up to Akropong 202).

12 microfilm reels. Walter Rentsch, 1977.
Microfilm. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Materials from the Basel Mission archives. "A large part of this collection is the contents of [J.G.] Christaller's study of Ghanaian languages". Contains:
• Series D-20. Miscellaneous MSS in Ghana vernaculars.

Images, maps, sketches, plans from Basel Mission activities and programs, and archival descriptions of documents held by the BM Archives.

28 microfilm reels. Adam Matthew, 2009.
Microfilm. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, Adam Matthew website.
The set is subtitled, "The Rev Dr Robert Laws and missionary activity in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia from the Scottish Foreign Missions Archive at the National Library of Scotland."

2,336 fiches. IDC, 1977.
Microfiche. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, Center for Research Libraries.
Contains:
• H-2000. Africa: General. (403 fiche)
• H-2001. East Africa. (426 fiche)
• H-2002. West Africa. (176 fiche)
• H-2003. French-speaking Africa. (197 fiche)
• H-2004. Portuguese Africa. (101 fiche)
• H-2005. Central and Southern Africa. (245 fiche)
• H-2006. Egypt. (57 fiche)
• H-2009. Congo Mission News. nos. 1 (1912)-190 (1960). (61 fiche)

404 p. = 8 microfiche. IDC, 1977,
Microfiche. Van Pelt Microtext: Microfiche 1203.
This is the detailed inventory of materials included in the set above.

6,272 microfiche. IDC.
Microfiche.
Finding aid: Online, Brill website.
CBMS Area Files contain correspondence with national Christian councils and with governments in regions with missionaries.
Includes:
• H-7065. Area Files: Africa, 1940-1960.
• H-7014. Christian Literature Overseas: Africa, 1950-1967.
• H-7020 to H-7023. Medical Advisory Board, 1928-1963.

As a 20th-century coordinating assembly, the IMC archives contain large amounts of material on Industrial and Social Questions, War and Missions, Missions and Government, and Religious Liberty.
Includes:
• H-10,018. Country Files: Africa.
• H-10,022. IMC Assemblies, inc. Ghana 1957/58.

2,574 microfiche. IDC.
Microfiche.
Includes:
• H-5023. Egypt and the Sudan: Correspondence, minutes and accounts re the Diocese ..., 1919-1968.
• H-5024. Egypt alone: Correspondence, 1911-1975.
• H-5025. Egypt alone: All Saints, Cairo: plans and correspondence, 1963-1975.
• H-5026. Egypt alone: Diocese of Egypt: general and administrative papers, 1937-1975.
• H-5027. Sudan alone: general correspondence, 1947-1974.
• H-5028. Sudan alone: Education, 1956-1965.
• H-5029. Sudan alone: Bishop Gwynne Appeal, Assistant Bishops, 1963-1974.
• H-5030. Sudan alone: Misc. correspondence, 1965-1975.
• H-5041. Correspondence relating to the Diocese of North Africa, 1935-1970.
• H-5042. Morocco, 1931-1975.
• H-5043. Algeria, 1909-1975.
• H-5044. Tunisia, 1930-1975.
• H-5045. Lybia, 1965-1975.

2,260 fiche (from ca 9,700-fiche set). IDC, 1978.
Microfiche. Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfiche 1025
Finding aid: Online, Brill website.
Holdings cover:
• H-2130, South Africa. Incoming letters, 1797-1927. Correspondence files (in/out), 1928-1939. Reports, 1866-1939. Journals, 1798-1892. 1600 fiche.
• H-2131, Central Africa. Incoming letters, 1876-1927. Correspondence files, 1928-1939/40. Reports, 1899-1930/40. Journals, 1877-1886. 606 fiche.
• H-2132, Matabeleland. Incoming letters, 1835-1899. 54 fiche.

ca. 9,700 fiche. IDC, 1978.
Microfiche. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, Brill website.
Africa-relevant holdings include:
• H-2111, Home and General. Board Minutes, 1795-1942.
• H-2112, Home and General. Committee Minutes (various), 1843-1954.
• H-2113, Home and General. Candidates Papers, 1799-1940.
• H-2114, Home and General. Missionary Portraits, 1798-1844.
• H-2115, Home. Committee Minutes, 1841-1936.
• H-2127, Mauritius. Incoming letters, 1835-1899.
• H-2128, Madagascar. Committee Minutes Africa/Madagascar, 1826-1868, and Madagascar, 1853-1937. Outgoing letters Africa/Madagascar/Europe, 1822-1867, and Madagascar, 1866-1916. Incoming letters Madagascar, 1774-1927. Correspondence files (in/out), 1928-1939. Reports, 1868-1939. Journals Madagascar/Mauritius, Personal & Odds, 1816-1892.
• H-2129, Africa, General. Committee minutes Africa, 1868-1941/43. Outgoing letters Africa, 1868-1914. Personal & Odds (inc. Livingstone letters).
• H-2130, South Africa - see Penn Libraries holdings.
• H-2131, Central Africa - see Penn Libraries holdings.
• H-2132, Matabeleland - see Penn Libraries holdings.

Online via HathiTrust.

Online: 1820-1906 via HathiTrust.
Print: LIBRA 241.22 M568 (1979-1898, incomplete)

Online. Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO): Europe and Africa: "Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest". Gale Cengage.
From: General Commission on Archives & History, United Methodist Church.

• The Heathen woman's friend. 1869-1896.
Online: v.1 (1869)-v.27 (1896) via Gale Cengage - offers article-level searching, viewing.
Online: v.6 (1874/75)-v.27 (1895/96) via HathiTrust.
• Woman's missionary friend. 1896-1940.
Online: v.28 (1896)-v.54 (1922) via HathiTrust.
Online: v.28 (1896)-v.36 (1904), via Gale Cengage - offers article-level searching, viewing.
• Annual report of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 1878-1918.
Online: no. 17 (1885/86)-no. 34 (1902/03), no. 42 (1911) via HathiTrust.
Prior to 1878, annual reports appeared in the July issue of The Heathen woman's friend.
• Year Book. 1919-1940.
Print, microfilm: OCLC 21927747, OCLC 47758473. Request via ILL-Books.
Regional MEC WFMS groups published their own periodicals: rusn for New York, Northwestern (i.e., Chicago), North Carolina are in HathiTrust.

2,345 fiches. Centre Aequatoria, 1992-1994.
Microfiche. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Catalogue des archives historiques, linguistiques, imprimés en langues africaines, cartographiques / Bibliothèque Æquatoria (1994). Print, Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
A collection of documents from 1897-1991 on the history, ethnology, native languages and literatures, and flora and fauna of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, primarily the former Equateur and Haut-Zaïre provinces. Also includes the papers of MSC missionary-scholars. An overview of the archives is provided by the Centre Æquatoria website: "Themes" on this website will identify specific titles, e.g., local-language books and periodicals, and provide ID numbers.
Contains:
• 1. Ecoles (microfiches E/1-E/102).
• 2. Livrets langues africaine (microfiches LAL/1-LAL/256; ALA/1-ALA/290).
• 3. Fonds Boelaert (microfiches FB/1-FB/128).
• 4. Correspondance Hulstaert (microfiches CH/1-CH/163).
• 5. Fonds province orientale (microfiches PO/1-PO/34).
• 6. Fond Aequatoria (6.0. Généralités (microfiches 0/1-0/14).
• 6.1. Linguistique (microfiches 1/1-1/395).
• 6.2. Papiers Van Goetham, ethnologie (microfiches 2/1-2/28).
• 6.3. Sociologie (microfiches 3/1-3/122).
• 6.4.0. Faune et flore (microfiches 4/1-4/35).
• 6.4.1. Mouvement religieux (microfiches 41/1-41/11).
• 6.4.2. Traductions de la bible (microfiches 42/1-42/11).
• 6.5. Ethnologie (microfiches 5/1-5/121).
• 6.6.1. Economie (microfiches 61/1-61/14).
• 6.6.2. Santé (microfiches 62/1-62/13).
• 6.7. Arts (microfiches 7/1-7/18).
• 6.9. Historie (microfiches 9/1-9/232)).
• [7.] Cartes géographiques (microfiches CG/1-CG/27).
• 8. Périodiques locaux (microfiches P/1-P/182).
• 9. Livres et brochures (microfiches L/1-L/149).

OCLC 776965512, OCLC 224845057

Online. Gale Cengage, 2010.
Finding aid: Gale Cengage website.
• Incoming correspondence from West African missions, primarily in Liberia, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon.
• Outgoing correspondence from the Board of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A, held at the Presbyterian Historical Society (Philadelphia, PA) .
Corresponds to microfilm set, Board of Foreign Missions Correspondence and Reports, 1833-1911 (Africa Missions subset) (Scholarly Resources), where each microfilm reel corresponds to a digital file.

Online. Presbyterian Historical Society.
Partially-digitized collection of materials mostly in English, including photographs, from William H Sheppard, an African American missionary active in the Belgian Congo, 1890-1910.

Online. Presbyterian Historical Society.
Papers include ethnographic accounts from Good's missionary work in Cameroon and Gabon, 1882-1896.

ca. 3,650 fiche (from a 6,350-fiche set). IDC, 1987-1998.
Microfiche. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, Brill website.
Contains:
• H-2100. Correspondance des champs de mission:
Afrique australe, 1827-1872.
Lesotho, 1873-1935.
Senegal, 1862-1935.
Zambeze, 1880-1935.
Kabylie, 1885-1894.
Congo-Gabon, 1888-1935.
Madagascar, 1894-1935.
Cameroun, 1919-1935.
Togo, 1930-1935.
• H-2100. Archives champs de mission:
Cameroun, 1936-1947.
Gabon, 1936-1947.
Lesotho, 1936-1947.
Madagascar, 1936-1947.
Senegal, 1936-1947.
Togo, 1936-1947.
Zambeze, 1936-1947.
• H-2101. Copies des lettres du comité direction au réseau et autres correspondants, 1822-1923.
• H-2102. Registre des Procès-verbaux de la SMEP, 1822-1935.
• H-2103. Rapports de la SMEP, 1833-1971.
• H-2104. Rapports du Département évangélique français d'action apostolique, Paris (DEFAP), 1972-1986.
• H-2105. Comité des Dames. Compte-Rendus, 1825-1930; Lettres-circulaires, 1847-1926.
• H-2106. Comités auxiliaries SMEP, 1884-1928.
• H-2107. Conferences consultatives, 1900-1931.

Défap holds the SMEP's archive. The Défap library website provides useful documentation on SMEP activities, including:
• A list of SMEP missionaries, with mission locations and active years.

The SMEP journal, digitized by Princeton Theological Seminary for the Internet Archive.

Online. IBM Archives web.
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Scanned page images with searchable fulltext interface from Foreign Mission Board periodicals, 1845-1970. Includes Southern Baptist Missionary Journal (1846-1851), The Commission (1849-1970), Home and Foreign Journal (1851-1874), Foreign Mission Journal (1874-1916), and Home and Foreign Fields (1916-1937). Other SOLOMON databases include FMB board meeting minutes (1845-1979), FMB annual reports (1846-1953), searchable transcripts of missionary accounts of Liberia and Sierra Leone (1846-1881), and Lottie Moon's correspondence from China.

Online. Missionary Studies (Research Source) / Adam Matthew Digital.
Finding aid : Online, Adam Matthew Digital : Parts 1-3 and Parts 4-5.
Contents :
• Part 1. Manuscript Papers, 1898-1960 from the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, New College, University of Edinburgh. Contains general correspondence with SUM field secretaries (inc. Nigeria, 1940-1969) and SUM branches worldwide (inc. South Africa Branch, 1950-1960), and reports on the work and behavior of missionaries. Much early manuscript material was destroyed during World War II bombing.
• Part 2. The Lightbearer (1905-1991). Complete run of the SUM periodical, especially useful for pre-World War II documentation.
• Part 3. Newsletters, 1940-1989; Publications and annual reports, 1908-1979. Includes annual and monthly reports from mission stations, schools and hospitals.
• Part 4. Lantern slides, slides, and photographs.
• Part 5. Publications in Hausa. Contains all the publications printed by the SUM in Hausa for use in the mission stations and churches in Northern Nigeria. They consist of books, pamphlets and beginners books all written in the Hausa language, notes on the Hausa language and literature and descriptions of the Hausa tribes. There are booklets in some other Nigerian languages.

Microfilm. Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 4582.
Finding aid: Online, Adam Matthew website
Holdings are:
• Part 4. Lantern slides, slides and photography.
• Part 5. Publications in Hausa.

14 reels. Adam Matthew Publications, 2009.
MIcrofilm. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, Adam Matthew website.
Contains all incoming letters from missionaries in Africa to the UPC Foreign Mission Committee, 1874-1928. Missions cover:
• Nigeria and Gold Coast, 1919-1928.
• West Africa, 1919-1925.
• Kaffraria (South Africa), 1885-1908.
• North Kaffraria, 1883-1904.
• Natal, 1874-1909.
• South Africa, 1919-1928.
Reels 12-14 cover correspondence concerning the return of German missionaries to the stations in West and East Africa after World War I, 1917-1926.

34 reels. Adam Matthew, 2007.
Microfilm. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, Adam Matthew website.
Minutes of the Church of Scotland Foreign Missions Committee, 1900-1964, and the periodical Missionary record of the United Free Church of Scotland, 1901-1929.
The minutes include regular accounts of activities in South Africa (Transkei, The Gold Coast, Lovedale, Kafraria, Natal, Old Calabar, the Rhodesian Copper Belt), featuring medical missions, educational work, and industrial missions.

39 reels. EP Microform, 1980.
Microfilm. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, Microfom Academic website.
Mostly correspondence, 1861-1929, with early focus on Lake Nyasa (Malawi) and River Shire, later covering much of present-day Tanzania and Zambia and parts of Mozambique; Zanzibar material focuses on the slave trade.

Covering minutes, correspondence, journals, diaries, and other materials, 1791-1948, from the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, the Women's Work Collection, and the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society.
reels. IDC, 1981-1991.
Microfilm. Center for Research Libraries: Request via ILL-Books.
Finding aid: Online, CRL website.
CRL's holdings are extensive; link above points to Africa-only content. CRL holdings include::
Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. Synod minutes and correspondence for:
• West Africa, inc. Ghana, Gold Coast, Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Fernando Po, French West Africa.
• South Africa, inc. South and North Rhodesia, Swaziland, Kenya.
Primitive Methodist Missionary Society. Minutes, foreign reports, quarterly reports, and correspondence for:
• Australasia. Fernando Po. Nigeria. South and Central Africa.

Reproduces Missionnaires d'Afrique - Chroniques Trimestrielles et Rapports Annuels. Rome: Societe des Missionaires d'Afrique. Archives. Quarterly reports (1879-1909) gradually superseded by annual reports (1905-1960) from White Fathers missions worldwide.
Also provides links to fulltext minutes and summaries of periodic SMA general chapters and general councils.

Microfilm, Gale Cengage.
Finding aid : Online, Gale Cengage website.
Africa content appears in :
• Part 2. American Lutheran Church, 1930-1960. 22 reels. Hannover Free Church Mission, South Africa; Ethiopia; Tanganyika.
• Part 6. United Lutheran Church in America, 1895-1965. Liberia, 1923-1965.

Microfilm. Gale Cengage.
Finding aid : Online, Gale Cengage website.
Africa content appears in :
• Part 1. Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church. Tanganyika, 1923-1965.