In December 2011, Columbia University Libraries announced a new awards program designed to facilitate research access to the Libraries’ special and unique collections; it became known as the Library Research Awards Program. Each year, the Libraries award ten grants of $2,500 each to those researchers who demonstrate a compelling need to consult Columbia Libraries special […]
Tag: Missionaries
From Finding Aids to Floppy Disks
I spent yesterday and today getting acquainted with my first archival box. To learn and get experience with writing a finding aid, I’m working with materials that already have a finding aid, “The Chinese Church of Christ in Korea papers 1908-1975.” Some of what needed to be done was basic copy editing and formatting the […]
The Relevance of Reference: A Discovery
People always ask me why I want to become an archivist, and I always respond with some idealized blanket answer that references the preservation of history and provision of access to everyone. My answers are always filled with such good will that I feel as if some heroic composition should be playing as I recite […]
“These Are Bloody Times in Which We Live…”: The Journal of Mary Lewis Shedd
June 17, 1918 One of the first collections I processed at Burke was MRL2: Mary Lewis [Mrs. W. A.] Shedd Papers, 1918. This journal made an impact on me not just because of the first-hand account it provides, but also because this copy appears to be completely unique. The collection is comprised of a 42-page […]
“We will never forget this ride of terror”: Translating the Reports of German Missionaries to Cameroon Taken as Prisoners of War
Credit to: MRL1: German Missionaries in Cameroon Reports, The Burke Library Archives (Columbia University Libraries) at Union Theological Seminary, New York. One of the great benefits of interning at the Burke Library Archives last spring was the opportunity to fuse several of my skills in the various projects I undertook. One of these projects was […]
The Value of Ecumenical and Missionary Records
Credit to: WAB: Foreign Missions Conference of North America Records, The Burke Library Archives (Columbia University Libraries) at Union Theological Seminary, New York. I had the pleasure of working on the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Foreign Missions Conference of North America (FMCNA) collections this summer and the following highlights the materials that […]
The Messy Truth about Foreign Missions
Foreign missions. It's a pretty unpopular concept these days. Missionaries are associated with all the damage wrought by the project of subjugation, exploitation, displacement, and genocide of native peoples and cultures across the world. The criticisms are well-founded. Retrospect is a tricky thing though. History is often tainted by a touch of arrogance and a […]