MISSIONARY ARCHIVES IN WESTERN EUROPE: OVERVIEW AND
DEVELOPMENTS
BRITAIN
2002



Completion of work on MUNDUS, the Gateway to Missionary Collections in the
UK which comprises a web-based guide to 500 collections in 50 institutions,
Maps archives of fifty-five British missionary organisational archives and several
hundred individual collections. See: http://www.mundus.ac.uk
Funding of this project ran out in 2002 and maintenance of the site and content
depends on goodwill and informal arrangements.
The catalogue of the CMS and other missionary archives at the University of
Birmingham http://calm.bham.ac.uk/DServeA/ and a number of missionary
society archives at SOAS http://squirrel.soas.ac.uk/dserve/ are now available for
detailed online searching.
Many British Missionary Society archives are now available in microform from
http://www.idc.nl/ or from http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/. Adam
Matthew recently published the archives of the China Inland Mission which
includes the papers of James Hudson Taylor.
FRANCE
Archives générales spiritaines (Holy Ghost Fathers) fd 1703
Has worked in N&S America, Africa and Asia.
P. Vieira, Séminaire des Missions, 12, rue du P. Mazurié, F-94669 Chevilly-Larue
Informative web site at http://www.spiritains.org/qui/archives/archives.htm
DEFAP – Service Protestant de Mission (Paris Evangelical Missionary Society) fd
1822. Worked in Africa, Madagascar, Oceania.
102, Boulevard Arago, Paris, 75014 France http://www.defap-bibliotheque.fr/
To be reported on by CLARE-LISE LOMBARD AND EMILIE GAGNAT
MEP - Archives des Missions Etrangères de Paris fd. c. 1660
128, rue de Bac, 75341 Paris
Has an excellent website at http://archivesmep.mepasie.org with information in French
on the history of the society including descriptions of the archive and photographs.
GERMANY
Berliner Missionsgesellschaft (Berlin Missionary Society) fd. 1824
Missions to China, South Africa, Tanzania
Now in new centre - Kirchliches Archivzentrum, Bethaniendamm 29, 10997 Berlin,
Germany. For informative web pages in English see http://www.bgmg.de/bgmge/TheArchiveoftheBerlinMissionSociety.html
Archive being catalogued and copied onto microfiche – further funding requested.
Bremen – Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft (North Germany Missionary
Society) fd. 1836. Missions to Ghana, Togo.
The archive has been deposited in the Staatsarchiv http://www.staatsarchiv.bremen.de/
Some photographs are available online from this site.
Herrnhut - Archiv der Brüder-Unität (Moravian Missions) fd, 1732
Zittauer Str. 24, D - 02747 Herrnhut http://www.archiv.ebu.de
To be reported on by DR. RÜDIGER KRÖGER
Leipzig – Adam Jones of the University of Leipzig maintains a very useful website on
Africa in German Mission Archives http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~ifa/ma/Toc2.htm
He has also been responsible for a recent project entitled “Collecting and preserving the
records of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania in Moshi, Tanzania” for which
he was awarded funding by the Endangered Archives programme administered by the
British Library – see http://www.bl.uk/about/policies/endangeredarch/homepage.html
IRELAND
Holy Ghost Fathers (Spiritans), fd 1703
archive@irishspiritans.ie
Collects, organises, preserves and makes available records of the Provincial Archives
Web site: http://www.irishspiritans.ie
ITALY
Rome - Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI) (Society of Jesus) fd 1534
The official central archives of the Society of Jesus, Borgo S. Spirito 4
C.P. 6139 00195 Roma-Prati. Has a useful website at
http://www.sjweb.info/curia/archives.cfm. See also A guide to Jesuit Archives by Thomas
M. McCoog, SJ published in 2001.
White Fathers (Missionaries of Africa) fd 1868
Missionari d'Africa, Via Aurelia 269, CP 9078/ 00100 Roma. Has a comprehensive if
rather slow-working website at http://www.mafroma.org/.
Is due to complete a major project to conserve and computerise its archive with the
intention of making part of the archive available to the general public over the internet.
NORWAY
Stavanger – Norske Misjonsselskap (Norwegian Missionary Society) fd. 1842
Mission Archives, School of Mission and Theology, Misjonsveien 34, NO-4024
Missions to Cameroon, China, Madagascar, South Africa.
This archive is in receipt of government funding and has a well-developed and
informative webpage at www.mhs.no/arkiv. 2008 saw the departure of longtime
archivist Nils Kristian Hoimyr. He has been succeeded by Gustav Steensland.
SWITZERLAND
Basel – Mission21 incorporating Basel Missionary Society, fd 1815
missionsstrasse 21, CH-4003 Basel, info@mission-21.org
Missions to Borneo, Cameroon, Chile, China, Ghana, India, Peru, Sudan
Guy Thomas represents Mission21 at Balaton.
*************
Internet Mission Photography Archive (IMPA)
A number of European Missionary Societies – China Inland Mission, Church of
Scotland’s Foreign Mission Committee, London Missionary Society, Methodist
Missionary Society, Mission 21, Norwegian Missionary Society - are partners in the
Internet Mission Photography Archive (IMPA), an initiative led by the University of
Southern California. See: http://digarc.usc.edu/impa/controller/index.htm
14.08.2008