Mount Holyoke College Missionaries Collection

Use of the collection is governed by the Copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.)

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Historical Note

In an 1835 pamphlet outlining her plans for Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, Mary Lyon stated that one of the goals of the school would be to cultivate the missionary spirit among its pupils. Soon after the Seminary opened on November 8, 1837 alumnae began serving as missionaries in the United States and in other countries, where they opened and staffed influential schools, brought aid to orphans and others, and supported social reforms to improve the lives of girls and women. Alumnae were affiliated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), a Congregational Church organization founded in 1810, or with the missionary boards of other Protestant denominations. The first alumna missionary was Charlotte Bailey (1838), who worked with her husband, Aldin Grout, among the Zulus in South Africa. Other notable foreign missionaries during the nineteenth century were Fidelia Fiske (1842, Persia); Lyon's nieces Abigail Moore Burgess (1838, India) and Lucy Lyon Lord (1840, China); Charlotte and Mary Ely (1861, Armenia); Alice Gordon Gulick (1867, Spain); and Mary Otis Preston Spafford (1879, South Africa). Alumnae were also missionaries to the Cherokee and other Native Americans and to former African American slaves. Members of the Mount Holyoke community actively supported this work by raising funds for alumnae missionaries and establishing a number of organizations for students interested in missionary service, including the Student Volunteer Band and the College's chapter of the Young Women's Christian Association. Many missionaries and officials from mission boards also presented lectures and programs at Mount Holyoke.

The missionary service of alumnae continued in the twentieth century, exemplified by the work of Alice Browne Frame (1900) in China, Charlotte Allen Ward (1903) in Lebanon and Turkey, Ruth Parker White (1917) in India, Katharine Merrill (1917) in Japan, and Leila Childs Edling (1917) in Angola. Elsie Kimball (1909) and numerous other alumnae supported Near East Relief efforts in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia during and after World War I, while Grace Bacon (1918), Florence Brugger (1922), and many other Mount Holyoke women worked for the American Red Cross and other organizations during both world wars. Beginning in the 1960s, Gena Lee Reisner (1964) and other alumnae demonstrated the College's missionary spirit by joining the Peace Corps, Teach for America, and other initiatives designed to bring education and health care to those in need. Mount Holyoke students such as Sandra Nichols Ward (1965) engaged in this work as undergraduates by participating in Operation Crossroads Africa and similar programs.

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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.

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into six series:

• Books, Articles, and Other Writings (circa 1880s-present)
• Correspondence, Lists, Notes, and Memoranda (1876-present)
• Missionary Work by Country (circa 1878-present)
• Records of Contributions Supporting Missionary Work (circa 1841-1902)
• Song (1847)
• Autograph Album (1859-1887)

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Books, Articles, and Other Writings circa 1880s-present 7 boxes

These materials consist of monographs, newspaper and magazine articles, dissertations, unpublished papers, and publications issued by boards and other organizations that supported missionary work. Many of these works, such as articles published in Life and Light for Woman (1912), the Missionary Herald (1937), and the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly (1987) and a study of by Amanda Porterfield of Mary Lyon and the Mount Holyoke Missionaries concern Mount Holyoke alumnae missionaries. There are also newspaper and magazine articles about the 1908 dedication of a plaque in the College's library that honors these women. Writings that examine missionary work more broadly include Dana L. Robert's book, American Women in Mission: a Social History of Their Thought and Practice (1996) and a dissertation by Thomas Arthur Russell concerning Women's Leadership Roles in the Student Christian Movement and the Rise of the New Woman, 1888-1920 (1999). In addition, the collection contains a two-volume Encyclopaedia of Missions (1891) by Edwin Munsell Bliss and a World Missionary Atlas (1925) by the Institute of Social and Religious Research. Materials for missionary organizations include ABCFM booklets and lists of missionaries (circa 1880s-1916); annual reports of the Woman's Board of Missions for the Pacific Islands (1896-1898, 1901) describing missionary work in Hawaii, China, and Japan; and reports, leaflets, newsletters, and pamphlets (1920-1923) issued by the Women's Union Christian Colleges in the Orient. There are also reports of the Hampshire County (Massachusetts) Woman's Board of Missions (1891, 1896, 1915) and programs for meetings of the Connecticut Valley Student Missionary Conference (1904, 1911).

Arranged chronologically or by author, then chronologically.

Correspondence, Lists, Notes, and Memoranda 1876-present 1 box

These materials concern Mount Holyoke alumnae missionaries. Many of the documents reflect research into the College's missionary history by Bertha E. Blakely (1893), the director of Mount Holyoke's library from 1901-1936 who organized of the College History Collection (now Archives and Special Collections). Part of her work relates to a plaque installed in the College's library in 1908 that honors these women. Other documents consist of lists (1980-1997) of Vermont-born alumnae missionaries, missionaries who served in particularly countries, and those who worked for various Presbyterian Church boards.

Arranged chronologically.

Missionary Work by Country circa 1878-present 6 boxes

Most of the material in this series relates to the activities of Mount Holyoke alumnae missionaries in Africa, China, Hawaii, India, Japan, Turkey, and the United States. There are also materials concerning missionary work in Albania, Arabia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Ceylon, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Greece, Korea, Labrador, Mexico, Micronesia, Persia, the Philippine Islands, Siam, Singapore, Spain, Syria, and Yugoslavia.

These materials consist of reports, correspondence, articles, a dissertation, a student paper, notes, historical sketches, biographical information about and lists of alumnae missionaries, and photographs of missionaries and mission stations. Some of the notes were compiled by Anna C. Edwards (1859), who devoted many years to collecting information about alumnae missionaries and the many schools these women established. Data sheets compiled by Mount Holyoke students as part of a Winter Term project in 1979 record details about the service of many alumnae missionaries. Two booklets contain printed copies of letters written by alumna in China in 1919 and 1931. Materials about alumnae missionaries in the United States consist of lists of these women, notes about their work, and notes and an article by Ronald E. Butchart concerning the work of missionaries with Freedmen in the South from 1861-1875. Correspondence includes information about these women and references to collections of their papers at other repositories.

The collection also contains publications and other materials about the missionary work of others. These items include annual reports of the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society (1881-1890); an Occasional Letter describing the Jaffna College and Medical Missions in North Ceylon (1893); ABCFM booklets, reports, and newsletters about the work of the Japan Mission (1891-1935) and the Foochow Mission in China (1897-1926); a copy of the Board's American Zulu Mission Annual for 1900-1902; a report called Sowing and Reaping: A Year of Expansion and Ingathering in the North India Mission of the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. (1906); and a pamphlet about Medicine in China issued by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 1924. A dissertation by Charlotte Dennett Staelin concerns The Influence of Missions on Women's Education in India: the American Marathi Mission in Ahmadnagar, 1830-1930 (1977). In materials about mission work with African Americans there is a copy of The Black Belt Letter (Devoted To The Uplift of the Rural Negro) from 1928 as well as pamphlets from 1934-1935 about the Avery Institute in Charleston, South Carolina, the Cotton Valley School in Fort Davis Alabama, and Trinity School in Athens, Alabama. Another pamphlet from 1924 contains excerpts from the diaries of women college undergraduates who worked with immigrants, migrant workers, and African Americans at missionary stations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. A student paper by Janna Bauer Sibley (Hampshire College) is entitled Breaking The Bonds of Womanhood: Perspectives on the History, Ideology and Courage of American Women Missionaries (1985). Photographs are primarily of mission schools, stations, and non-alumnae missionaries or residents of other countries.

Arranged by name of country, then by form of material.

Records of Contributions Supporting Missionary Work circa 1841-1902 6 folders

These records document the financial support that Mount Holyoke administrators, teachers, and students provided to alumnae missionaries and others. These notebooks and lists record the names of individual donors and the amount of money they pledges to support missionary work. Many records show the totals of contributions for foreign and home (United States) mission work and the work of particular missionary organizations. The notebook of contributions for 1871-1890 also includes annual summaries of the Religious State of Mount Holyoke during that period.

Arranged chronologically.

Song 1847 1 folder

The song (1847) consists of words and music for a work called The Missionary Call. According to a note in the Mount Holyoke Journal Notebook for September 28, 1859, this work was sung by a small choir of students at a meeting of returning missionaries held at Mount Holyoke on June 30, 1859.

Arranged chronologically.

Autograph Album 1859-1887 1 folder

This volume is entitled Autograph Memorials of a Missionary reunion at Holyoke Seminary, June 30, 1859 (and later). It contains signatures of the individuals who attended these meetings as well as other visitors to the school. Other autographs were clipped from letters and pasted into this album. Sometimes a signer wrote the name of the country in which he or she served as a missionary; on occasion, signers also wrote short verses. The album includes signatures of Rufus Anderson, William Cullen Bryant, George Washington Cable, Thomas Chubbuck, Henry Drummond, Cyrus Hamlin, Justin Perkins, John Greenleaf Whittier, Frances E. Willard, and many Mount Holyoke trustees and alumnae.

Arranged chronologically.

Books, Articles, and Other Writings circa 1880s-present

Correspondence, Lists, Notes, and Memoranda 1876-

Missionary Work by Country circa 1878-present

Records of Contributions Supporting Missionary Work circa 1841-1902

Song 1847

Autograph Album 1859-1887