From Archives to Indonesia: Living a Luce Legacy

In January 2012, I began working with the archival collections of the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, helping to preserve, process, and make available the materials contained within the now-inoperative Missionary Research Library and William Adams Brown Ecumenical Library, both housed in Brown tower.  These collections included a large number of unprocessed rare materials […]

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World Missionary Conference Records: The Sequel

World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910. Credit to: WAB: World Council of Churches Records, series 4, box 103, The Burke Library Archives, Columbia University Libraries at Union Theological Seminary, New York. In terms of the Missionary Research Library, the World Missionary Conference of 1910 literally “started it all.” History The 1910 World Missionary Conference (WMC) was […]

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New Records from the Early Years of the National Council of Churches

Source: National Council of the Churches Website, © 2012. Accessed 28 January 2013 at http://www.ncccusa.org/.   A large collection of records from the first two decades of the National Council of Churches (NCC) has recently been reprocessed and made available again thanks to a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.  This collection is held by […]

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Something Fun – MRL May 1961

The Quintessential Librarian! While most people today do not get to see the room pictured in the above image, staff and student workers are well-acquainted with it. The Missionary Research Library, created in 1914, moved to Union Theological Seminary in 1929 after financial difficulties became too much to bear. MRL rented space from Union in […]

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Internship Expectations

I am currently in my last semester as a Graduate student at Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library Sciences program. I am also pursuing an Advanced Certificate in Museum Librarianship. I think each time I think about this being my last semester I get a little sad. I’m incredibly happy that I will be […]

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The John Dunbar Papers: Writings from the Western Frontier (1834-1836)

On May 5, 1834, Rev. John Dunbar set out with two other men for a missionary exploration of the unknown region beyond the Rocky Mountains, on behalf of the First Presbyterian Church of Ithaca, NY.  The mission was to be called "The Oregon Mission."  Eighteen days later, however, when the men arrived in St. Louis, […]

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Isabel Chapin Barrows: Love and Tragedy in the 19th Century

It was late summer.  The year was 1862.  William Wilberforce Chapin, a young seminary student at Andover, writes to Miss Katie Belle Hayes in New Hampshire: Dear Miss Hayes.  When I bode you goodbye at Andover I was expecting to spend the first week of vacation in making a tour through Vermont and Canada.  Therefore […]

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