An outcome of the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910, the MRL was founded in 1914 by John R. Mott in connection with the Foreign Missions Conference of North America. In 1929 the MRL was housed in the Brown Memorial Tower of Union Theological Seminary, its Board of Trustees composed of FMC-NA (later DOM-NCCCUSA) and UTS members. In 1967 its unique collections, heritage of Ecumenical Protestantism, were transferred into the care of the UTS Library.

The MRL contains collections of named missionaries' papers and institutional records within geographic divisions:

Series 1. Africa
Series 2. Near/Middle East
Series 3. South Asia
Series 4. Southeast Asia
Series 5. East Asia
Series 6. China
Series 7. Japan
Series 8. Korea
Series 9. Latin America
Series 10. North America
Series 11. Australia and Oceania
Series 12. Ecumenical/World Mission

Note: Archival collections listed below which link to PDF Finding Aids of their contents may be accessed by researchers.
Any other archival collections without these links are awaiting processing, and are not yet accessible. 
Please contact archives@uts.columbia.edu for further details and access information for any collection before visiting the library.

Aggrey, James Emman Kwegyir, 1875 - 1927
All Africa Christian Conference, 1965 - 1970
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Basel Mission on the Gold-Coast, West Africa
Livingstone, David, 1813 - 1873 [2 items]
Lutheran Missionary Societies
Nassau, Robert Hamill, 1835 - 1921
Richards, Erwin H.
Richter, Julius
Ross, Emory, 1887 - 1973
German Missionaries in Cameroon reports

Ali, Mohammed and Badiallah
American Constantinople Relief Committee
Dennis, James Shepard, 1842 - 1914
Fisk, Pliny, 1792 – 1825
Greene, Joseph Kingsbury, 1834 - 19??
Pease, Lorenzo Warriner, 1809 - 1839
Shedd, (Mrs.) W.A.

American Madura Mission, South India
American Marathi Mission
Ballantine, Henry, 1846 - 1914
Bowen, George, 1816 - 1888
Brown, William Adams, 1865 - 1943
Bush, C.P.
Chapin, William Wilberforce, 1836 - 1865
"A Church is born"
Davis, F.G.
Fleming, Daniel Johnson, 1877 - 1969
Griswold, Hervey DeWitt, 1860 - 1945
Hard, Clark P.
Oldham, J. H.
Padamanjí, Bãbã, 1831 - 1906
Ram, Augustine Ralla
Views in Lucknow

Abdullah, Munshi
Davis, Bertha
Hume, R.E.
Laubach, Frank C.

Bashford, James Whitford, 1849 - 1919
Bates, Miner Searle, 1897 - 1978
Boynton, Charles Luther, 1881 - 1967
Brown, Margaret H., 1887-1978
Brown, Mark W., 1887 - 1934
Catholic University, Art Department, Peiping, China, 1937
China Continuation Committee, 1912-1922
China Information Committee
Christian Evangelistic and Religious Educational Posters, 1930 - 1949
Christian Scrolls and Bible verses, 1930 - 1949
Conference on American Relations with China, 1925
Corbett, Hunter, 1835 - 1920 + Harold F. Smith, 1885 - 1965
Cressy, Earl Herbert, 1883-1979
Daniels, Dr. (John) Horton + Mrs. Helen Daniels
Dodd, Samuel
Forman, Douglas Newton
Frame, Alice Browne, 1878 - 1941, (Alice Seymour Browne)
Hayes, Paul Goodman, 1890 - 1994
Headland, Isaac Taylor, 1859 - 1942
Higher Education Institutions in China
Hume, Edward Hicks, 1876 - 1957
Lew, Timothy Tingfang, 1891 - 1947
Lobenstine, Edwin Carlyle, 1872 - 1958
Lyon, David Willard, 1870 - 1949
Matthews, Harold Shepard, 1894-1971
National Christian Council of China
Phonetic Promotion Committee
Nestorian Tablet copies
Newell, George M.
Olyphant, David Washington Cincinnatus, 1789 - 1851
Rawlinson, Frank Joseph, 1871 - 1937
Sites, Nathan, 1830 - 1895
Smith, William Edward, 1864 - 1944
Student Evangelism in Government Universities
Tewksbury, Elwood G. & Donald G., 1890 - 1959
Thurston, Matilda Calder, 1875 - 1958
United China Relief, Inc.
Warnshuis, Abbe Livingston, 1877 - 1963
Whiteside, Joseph
Yates, Matthew Tyson, 1819 - 1888

Andrews, Sarah S., 1892 - 1961
Bigelow, Gertrude S., 1863 - [193?]
Christianity in Japan collections, 1927 - 1931
Condict, Cornelia A., 1835 - 1926
Dai Kokumin [The Great Nations]
Kagawa Toyohiko, 1888 - 1960

Appenzeller, Henry Gerhard, 1883 - 1902
Chinese Church of Christ in Korea
Jones, George Heber, 1898 - 1918
Korea Conspiracy Case, 1912 - 13
Korean Independence Outbreak
Korea General Collection

Congress on Christian Work in Latin America, Panama 1916
Inman, Samuel Guy, 1877 - 1965
MIAU/LAB News Service, 1969-71
Latin American Churches' Response to Social Movements, 1962-1973
Primer Encuentro Latinoamericano de Christianos por el Socialismo, Santiago, 1972
Simonton, Ashbel Green, 1833 - 1867
Latin American Miscellaneous Papers, 1925 - 1956

Dunbar, John
Edwards, Martha Letita
Eliot, John, 1604 - 1690
Lindquist, Gustavus Elmer Emanuel, 1886 - ?
Ripley, H.W.

Leigh, Samuel, 1785 - 1852

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Bureau of Missions, New York
NCCC USA: Division of Foreign Missions
Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions, NYC, 1900
Foreign Missions Conference of North America
Goucher, John Franklin, 1845 - 1922
International Missionary Council, 1921 - 1957
Laymen's Foreign Missions Inquiry
Laymen's Missionary Movement
Leber, Charles Tudor, 1898 - 1959
Methodist Episcopal Church
Missionary biographies, A - Z
Missionary Education Movement
Missionary Personnel
Missionary Research Library Records
Mott, John Raleigh, 1865 - 1955
Netherlands Missionary Society
Personnel policies of Foreign Mission Boards
Preparation of missionaries
Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions
Thayer, Clarence R. 19?? - 1986
Women's Board of Missions, New Haven Branch
World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910