Missionary Research Library Archives


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 FMCNA (later DOM-NCCCUSA) and UTS members. In 1976 its unique collections, heritage of Ecumenical Protestantism, were transferred into the care of the UTS Library.

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

Please contact burkespecial@library.columbia.edu for further details and access information for any collection before visiting the library.

Series 1. Africa

Series 2. Near/Middle East

Series 3. South Asia

Series 4. Southeast Asia

Series 5. East Asia

Series 6. China

James Whitford Bashford Diaries, 1905 - 1918
Miner Searle Bates Papers, 1927-1984
Charles Luther Boynton Papers, 1807-1976
Margaret H. Brown Papers, c. 1940 - 1969
Mark W. Brown Papers, 1908 - 1965
Catholic University of Beiping Art Department papers, 1937
China Continuation Committee Records, 1912-1922
China Information Committee Records, 1937-1939
China Planning Committee Records, 1944-1945
Christian Evangelistic and Religious Educational Posters and Christian Scrolls and Bible Verses, [1930?-1949?]
Conference on American Relations with China, 1925
Hunter Corbett and Harold F. Smith Papers, 1862-1948
Earl Herbert Cressy Papers, 1918-1960
John Horton and Helen Daniels Papers, 1919-1956
Samuel Dodd and Samuel T. C. Dodd Papers, c. 1925-2014
Douglas Newton Forman Papers, 1930-1949
Alice Browne Frame Papers, 1905 - 1971
Paul Goodman Hayes Papers, [circa 1940-1960]
Isaac Taylor Headland Papers, [1900?] - 1939
Edward Hicks Hume Papers, 1914 - 1959
Timothy Tingfang Lew Papers, 1907-1961
Edwin Carlyle Lobenstine Album, 1935
David Willard Lyon Papers, 1904-1950
Harold Shepard Matthew Papers, 1967
National Christian Council of China Records, 1919-1950
Phonetic Promotion Committee Records, 1919-1930
Missionary Research Library copy of Nestorian Tablet [c. 1937]
George Merriam Newell Papers, 1905-1960
Loren E. Noren Papers, 1962
David Washington Cincinnatus Olyphant Papers, 1827-1851
Frank Joseph Rawlinson Papers, 1924-1937
Nathan Sites Papers, 1861-1912
William Edward Smith papers, 1897-1936
Missionary Research Library collection on student evangelism, 1938-1947
Elwood G. and Donald G. Tewksbury Papers, 1872-1959
Matilda Calder Thurston Papers, 1902-1958
United China Relief Records, 1943-1949
Abbe Livingston Warnshuis Papers, 1877 - 1963
Joseph Whiteside diaries, 1899 - 1929
Matthew Tyson Yates Papers, 1878

Missionary Research Library collection on higher education institutions in China, 1857 -- 1957

Missionary Research Library collection on mission work in China, 1893-1950

Missionary Research Library collection of lantern slides, circa 1920 -- 1929

Series 7. Japan

Series 8. Korea

Series 9. Latin America

Series 10. North America

Series 11. Australia & Oceania

Series 12. Ecumenical/World Mission

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions Records, 1878 - 1958
Missionary Research Library collection of missionary autographs, 1827, 1906
Bureau of Missions Records, 1898-1914
Board of Foreign Missions of Netherlands Reformed Church Records, 1825; 1963-1971
Eastern Fellowship of Professors of Missions Records, 1932 - 1965
Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions records, 1900
Foreign Missions Conference of North America (FMCNA) Records, 1894 - 1968
John Franklin Goucher Papers, [16??] - 1962
International Missionary Council Records, 1913 - 1962
International Missionary Union Records, 1849-1932
Institute of Pacific Relations Records, 1925-1943
Laymen's Foreign Missions Inquiry Records, 1879-1940
Laymen's Missionary Movement Records, 1906-1956
Charles Tudor Leber Travel Correspondence, 1944 - 1953
Missionary Biographical Records, 1800s - 1900s
Missionary Education Movement Records, 1910-1931; 2014

Missionary Research Library collection of Missionary Personnel records, 1929 -- 1964

Missionary Research Library Administrative Records, 1851-1994

Missionary Research Library questionnaire collection, 1955

John Raleigh Mott Papers, 1904 - 1955
Missionary Research Library collection on the preparation of missionaries, 1920 -- 1963
Robert E. Speer Papers, 1795-1947
Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions Records, 1893-1946
Clarence R. Thayer Papers, 1947 - 1974
YMCA and YWCA Records, 1925 - 1945
Woman's Board of Missions Records, 1862 - 1927
World Missionary Conference Records, 1883-2010
Missionary Research Library collection on ecumenical and world-wide mission work, 1792 -- 1990
Conference on Racism and World Order Records, 1943-1944
Missionary Research Library Scrapbooks, 1892-1956