Assignments in the Archives
Exercise # 6
Purpose of Exercise: To introduce students to the BGC Archives (including its website); to introduce the students to the materials the Archives has relevant to the study of women in missions
Description of Exercise:
0:00-5:00 Introduction, welcome to the Archives
5:00-15:00 WHL (short version)
15:00-25:00 Description of the Archives holdings: our collecting policy, the document types in the Archives (private papers, organizational records, oral histories, conference records)(Handout: Types of records in the archives), some factors in using them (their incompleteness, why they were created, the effect of the purpose and creator of the document on its' contents.
25:00-40:00 Using the Archives web page (what's new, database, Collections page, transcripts, other archives, single documents and exhibits)
40:00-55:00 Description of the Archives' holdings on the history of women in ministry
Papers and interviews of individuals (Handout, Excerpt from CN 534 T4)
WUMS
Records of other mission organizations
Presentations at conferences on women in missions and ministry to women
55:00-1:15:00 In class assignment - purpose is to introduce students to documents, get them thinking about using them for research
Distribute one folder per student. They are to spend 10 minutes looking through it, trying to determine what kind of documents it contains, what general topics the documents cover, how does the information in your folder relate to the topics you are studying in class
1:15:00-1:30:00 Discussion of the student's research assignment
Materials needed:
Digital projector
Files illustrating different types of records in the Archives
(among those used have been
6 personal files (81-24-3,14,20,21,22,24))
6 moody missions files (330-34)
6 field minutes (379-27))
6 indiviudal missionary's papers - (177-6-5, 182-1-3, 189-1-27, 189-3-4, 232-1-1, 496-4-2))
Handout - Types of Collections in the Archives
Student research assignment sheet
Transcript of Excerpt from CN 534, T4
Note:
Classes used with:
Women in Ministry (Cheri Pierson), 18 students, 10/26/99
Women in Missions (Cheri Pierson , 6 students, 1/18/00
s:\bgc\archives\forms\outreach\assignmen.wpd
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Types of Collections in the Archives
Personal Papers
Types: Letters, diaries, scrapbooks, photos
Characteristics: Heavy emphasis on the individual, intended for a small audience (oneself, family, friends), view of events from a very specific point, records created for personal reasons and perhaps to have an individual record of events
Organizational Records
Types: Correspondence, reports, memos, minutes, personnel files, publicity materials, budgets and financial records
Characteristics: Body of records the product of many viewpoints and experiences, generally the emphasis is on trends and movements, documents created to carry on the work of the organization
Oral History Interviews
Types: Interview tapes, interview transcripts
Characteristics: Interview shaped by both interviewer and interviewee, interviewee's descriptions and judgements shaped by later events, this is a document created primarily for historical purposes
Conference Records
Types: Transcripts, audio tapes and video tapes of sessions of the meeting or papers given at the meeting; planning files of the meeting, photographs, publicity materials, newspaper and magazine coverage
Characteristics: Records present the views at a particular moment of time of the ideas about certain topics, proceedings often intended to be distributed to a wider audience, conference proceedings generally concerned with ideas, strategies, and tactics.
10/99
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WOMEN IN MISSIONS CLASS
Archival Assignment
The archives of the Billy Graham Center has a vast amount of material on North American missions and evangelism, including diaries, correspondence, scrapbooks, organizational files, photos, films, audio tapes, video tapes, oral history interviews. Many of these include information on women in ministry. This assignment is intended to introduce you to the Archives and give you an experience of working with primary sources.
Briefly described below are several women for whom there is a substantial amount of documentary material in the archives. Choose one and, after browsing through the materials by and about her, write a two to three page paper summarizing her own philosophy of ministry(in her own words if possible) and indicating how her life fits into the large historical context taught in this course. In addition to the archival materials, you may also consult secondary sources. Note that items 13 and 14 are slightly different and involve looking at groups of women, rather than individuals.
You may also, if you wish, look through the archival collections and find your own missionary to write about.
The guides for all the collections mentioned below are available in the BGC Center Reading Room on the third floor of the Center. They are also available over the World Wide Web at this address: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/collectn.html
Assignment due:
1. Elizabeth Evans(1899- ) for many years was a close associate of J. Elwin Wright, who started the New England Fellowship and was instrumental in beginning the national Association of Evangelicals and the World Evangelical Fellowship. She also helped found the first accredited evangelical secondary school in New England and established a program of religious education in many public schools. In 1956 she went to Taiwan as an independent missionary, serving as an evangelist an a trainer of teachers until her retirement in 1976. Several tapes of oral history interviews with her can be found in collection 279. Additional information about her can be found in collections 338, 389 and 445.
2. Belle Sherwood Hawkes (1854-1919)was a missionary in missionary in Persia (present day Iran) in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Her major responsibilities involved teaching at a girls school and witnessing to Muslim women. Her papers are in collection 39. Additional information about her is in Collection 387.
3. Petra Galena Mae(1863-1953) was born in Norway and settled in the United States in 1884. In 1892, through the influence of the preaching of Frederick Franson, she joined the newly formed Scandinavian Alliance Mission (later the Evangelical Alliance Mission or TEAM) as a missionary to South Africa. For the rest of her life, with very few furloughs, she as an evangelist in Swaziland and other parts of the country. Collection 280 contains her papers. Collection 177 has additional information on her.
4. Debbie Seymour(1960- ) grew up in Papua New Guinea, where her parents were missionaries to the Kar and Utipia tribes. In 1983, she went to Honduras as a teacher at a private Christian high school. She was also involved in a church planting project. Her oral history interview is in collection 316.
5. Hilda Stumpf(1867-1930) was a Africa Inland Mission worker in Kenya. She served there for over twenty years and was involved in mostly administrative duties when she was murdered in 1930. Collection 81 contains the her personnel files, which document her ministry.
6. Sarah Alice Troyer Young was a Mennonite woman from the American Midwest who went to China as a missionary with the China Inland Mission in 1896. And was active in a variety of different types of evangelistic work. She and her husband John (whom she married in 1899) were murdered in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. Collection 542 contains dozens of her letters and her diaries as well as some miscellaneous other materials. Her complete collection (guide, letters, diaries, etc) is available on the web at: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/guides/542/index.htm
7. Mabel Easton Buyse (1882-1967) was a missionary under Africa Inland Mission, who served in Dungu and Bafuka, Belgian Congo (later, Zaire) before her marriage and afterwards with her husband in Aru and Kasengu, Belgian Congo; Goli, Uganda; and Opari, Sudan. She was involved with setting up, operating, and teaching in schools in each place she worked. Her papers are in collection 496 and include diaries, photographs, correspondence, and a scrapbook. Collection 81 contains additional information on her.
8. Elizabeth Carolyn (Quackenbush) Stough (1913- ) was a missionary with Africa Inland Mission in central Africa. Her oral history interviews in Collection 468 include her discussion of her parents, childhood, education, conversion, attendance at Moody Bible Institute, call to be a missionary, joining the Africa Inland Mission, travel to Africa, work in French Equatorial Africa, evangelistic field trips, her husband Paul Stough, her work among women in the Belgian Congo, the growth of the Africa Inland Church, the independence of the Congo, the Congolese civil war and Simba uprising, the place of women in missions, leaders of the AIM, and her retirement in 1976. Additional information about her is in Collection 89.
9. Sarah (Platt) Doremus (?-1877)was the principal founder of the Women's Union Missionary Society in 1860, the first organization created solely to provide a means for single women to become overseas missionaries. She served as first president of the organization. Her daughter, Sarah D. Doremus, (18?-?) followed her as leader of the group. Collection 379 contains the records of the WUMS, with additional material on its history and the Doremuses in Collection 44.
10. Sadie Custer (1911- ) served as a missionary in China and Taiwan for forty years. Collection 470 contains an oral history interview with her in which she discusses her childhood, conversion, education at Moody Bible Institute, joining the China Inland Mission, arrival in China in 1936, the Chinese language, work in Shensi province, Bible teaching, transition from missionary to Chinese leadership, the Three Self Movement, the Communist revolution in China and its effect on missions, the Sino-Japanese Conflict, work in Malaysia among Chinese, living in an area in Malaysia contested by the government and communist guerillas, work with the Paiwan tribe in Taiwan, retirement in 1976 and prayer ministry in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
11. Marian Chapman (1922- ) was a teacher and administrator with Latin America Mission in Colombia and the United States. Collection 134 contains her papers and an oral history , which include descriptions of her conversion to Christian faith, religious background, education at Wheaton College, teaching at Wheaton Academy, work with the Latin America Mission at a girls' school in Cartagena, experiences as interim field administrator and field treasurer, language training, persecution of Protestants and work in largely Catholic Colombia, LAM restructuring and Community of Latin American Evangelical Ministries, Evangelism-in-Depth, and role of women in church and mission. Additional material about her is in Collection 236 and 484.
12. Jacqueline Huggins (1949 - ) worked as a linguist and translator in the Phillippines. Collection 545 contains an interview with her in which she discusses her resistance to religion and conversion, marriage and divorce, interest in and call to missions, education at Bible school, attitudes of Bible colleges and missions toward those who are divorced, training with Wycliffe Bible Translators, working among the Kagayanen people of the Philippines on translating the New Testament and Genesis (cultural obstacles, difficult biblical concepts), racial attitudes toward African Americans among missionary colleagues, and comparison of Filipino's attitudes toward her and Caucasian missionaries.
13. Short Terms Abroad (1965-1976) was an small mission agency that existed to place North American Christian with professional or trade skills with mission agencies that could use their skills over a brief period (a few weeks to a couple of years). Collection 179 contains the records of the organization, including the files on the individual applicants. Choose five women candidates and compare and contrast their background, motivation and expectations.
14. Africa Inland Mission was founded in 1895 and since that time has been one of the major Evangelical nondenominational mission to east and central Africa. Collection 81 contains the records of the United States branch of the mission. These include the personal files of many missionaries, which include reports on their work. Select the files of two women missionaries. They can be, if you choose, from different periods of time or have served different countries or be involved in different types of work. Compare and contrast their experience and consider how their individual ministries relate to the broader themes of women in missions discussed in class.
15. Isobel (Miller) Kuhn (1901-1957) was a missionary to the Lisu people of China and Thailand and also a well known author on missionary themes. Collection 435 contains some of her papers, including letters and manuscripts. Among the topics discussed are: travel in China, work among the Lisu, Lisu culture, her marriage to John Kuhn, birth of daughter and son, cultural differences and their influence on evangelism, the advance of communist force into the Lisu area in the late 1940s and 1950s. Additional information about her is in Collections 215, 272, 314, and 315.
16. Jennie (Kingston) Fitzwilliam was a missionary to the Lisu and Kachin peoples. Collection 272 contains several hours of oral history interview with her in which she discusses her work among the Lisu and Kachin peoples in southern China along the Burmese border, recollections of Fitzwilliam's husband, Francis; J. O. Fraser and the early history of missionary work among the Lisu; life of the Lisu church and its indigenous administrative practices; the development of mission work among the Kachin; and her interment by the Japanese during World War II.
17. Diane Hawkins (1947 - ) served as a Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) worker in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe). She was particularly active in youth camp ministry. Collection 312 contains letters and an oral history interview with her which cover such topics as the languages and culture of the Shona people among whom she lived; the evangelistic, educational, and medical work of TEAM in that country; the summer Bible camp program she developed; and the guerrilla civil war that was going on in the country while she was there.
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Draft Transcript of a Portion on an Interview of Ms. Marguerite Goodner Owen by Robert Shuster. June 6, 1997
SHUSTER: From your experience, how did the mission handle personality conflicts between missionaries or missionaries who were having trouble adjusting.
OWEN: The different ways, sometimes I think they did a very good job, sometimes I think they didn't do too well. Ah, the . . . a lot depended on what the situation was about. Since all the principles are dead I can talk about it now but one of the things that hit me the hardest was in my second year in Fowyang. Mr. Gutenburg was a senior missionary and Edna Larson was sent there as a bible teacher. And she was an excellent bible teacher and her Chinese was excellent. Now, Mr Gutenburg's speaking Chinese was good but he wasn't a preacher or teacher, he was a business manager and he was very good at that and . . . .
SHUSTER: [interjects] . . . an administrator?
OWEN: administrator. And he, but he was in charge of the church at that time because there was no one else. But when Miss Larson came the Chinese just were thrilled with her language and her bible teaching and they flocked to her. And he thought, Mr. Gutenburg thought, that she was undermining him which she wouldn't have done a bit. She didn't care a bit about who was administrator or who was top but the Chinese made such a fuss over her that he became jealous. I'm sure that was it. And a man over a woman and all . . . . And when the superintendent came he gave him this whole big rut [?] that she was undermining his influence in the church and it was very . . . and a whole bunch of things. And one of the people that was most affected was Pung Ma Pung [sp?] who was our bible woman. And she was also utterly attached to Miss Larson, completely so. And so the upshot was that the mission asked, told Miss Larson to move to the Jodico Bible School [sp] and Pung Ma Pung went with her. Well in the process before that was actually done . . . .
SHUSTER: Now with something like that . . . the administrator would decide that or the senior missionaries would get together and . . .
OWEN: [interrupts] No, no, no it was, it came from headquarters. I mean the superintendent reported to the headquarters. And I went over one day before it was decided but when we knew that there was this opposition. Because I was a young missionary and the new one there the Gutenbergs tried to pump me up and I would not tell them anything that I knew 'cause there wasn't anything to tell. I went home that day from around this corner, over to my place saying "truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, truth forever" you know.
SHUSTER: What?
OWEN: "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne." That was just running in my mind. And I thought "Lord this is awful" but it turned out for blessing because she was sent to a place where she had much more scope for her teaching and Miss Pung went with her and was greatly helped there too. And they became a blessing. But the Chinese were, oh they just felt terrible and one of the things was they went to the superintendent and asked if they could keep Miss Larson. And he used this expression, in Chinese "You Chinese do it one way, we foreigners . . ." Well that was separating us, something we tried never to do. And . . .
SHUSTER: He said "You Chinese do things one way, we foreigners do it another way?"
OWEN: This way, exactly. But he made a distinction between us instead of being one body in Christ. We had tried to say we were all one. Then that summer that superintendent went home for furlough and died. The Chinese all said "it's the will of God, it's the will of God." [repeats phrase in Chinese] We felt that not proper response but that was their attitude. They felt they had been deprived of a good bible teacher for no reason that they can see. And, but it was one of the things that happened. Now many, many times they are--executives are very . . . ah, if there's a conflict they call both parties in and talk to them together or they talk to each one but they never consulted Miss Larson at all. I mean they just consulted Mr. Gutenburg because he was the superintendent talk to him, never talked to the woman part of it you see.
SHUSTER: So that was unusual way of handling for the mission?
OWEN: Yes.
SHUSTER: Yeah.
OWEN: It was, usually they don't do it that way. But, I mean, really I blame the superintendent because I mean he could have - - I don't think he ever talked to Miss Larson about it at all. In fact, as far as I know he didn't. And we were all, and of course we. . . but I realized though they got in to talk . . .
SHUSTER: You don't want to cover up the microphone.
OWEN: Oh. I realized that they had given an entirely wrong impression in Shanghai. I went down on other business in the summer and I was interviewed by one of the sweetest and most meekest of the executive and I loved him.
SHUSTER: Who was that?
OWEN: Mr. Warren [unintelligible]. And I was going to tell him all this how I felt was unjust. But he started off and said "How are things going?" and I said "Oh, Mr. Warren we four senior ladies have the most wonderful union and communion." And he jumped at me and said "Why didn't you include all the others?" I said, "Well they lived in a different house" but I said "I'm not telling anymore, I'm not saying anything 'cause I can see already that there's a prejudice against us the four senior ladies against . . . ." It wasn't, we weren't united, we weren't that way oh we just loved each other and we worked together. So, I felt that was one case where the information given to the headquarters was not accurate. And sometimes it isn't. But the mission tries to be fair, I know that, cause there a lot of times, difficulties. And they ask both parties, "what would you do about this or what would you do about that and how can you . . ."