Housed at SOAS Library since 1973, the Council for World Mission collections are a unique historical resource for the study of evangelism and the global spread of the Christian faith over the last 200 years, used by academic researchers, family historians, churches and communities from around the world.
Documenting the work of missionaries and converts across many parts of Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean, records span the whole history of the organisation, from the foundation of the London Missionary Society in 1795, to the creation of the Council for World Mission in 1977 and into the present day. As such they trace the transition from a traditional missionary society of the colonial period, through decolonisation and the growth of independent churches, to the modern-day model of partnership between churches around the globe, where missionaries go ‘from everywhere to everywhere’.
The collections also represent an important source for the voices of the globally-distributed peoples who lived within, engaged with, responded to, and resisted colonial structures.
Archival records include those of the Council for World Mission’s predecessors and constituent parts, the London Missionary Society (1795-1966) and the Commonwealth (formerly Colonial) Missionary Society (1836-1966), in addition to the Council’s own records from 1977. The largest part of the holdings relate to the work of the London Missionary Society.
Missionaries were meticulous record-keepers, and their archives are full of observations about the places and peoples that they encountered. They comment on the work of the mission, but also the social, cultural, political and economic landscapes of the regions in which they worked, giving their records broad historical significance and interest. There is a wealth of printed and primary source material, such as correspondence, reports, minutes, journals, maps, photographs, slides, artworks and other visual materials.
Highlights include:
- original handwritten letters and reports from missionaries, indigenous converts and co-workers, and important regional figures
- personal papers of key individuals in the missionary movement of the 19th and 20th centuries, including letters and maps by David Livingstone and the papers of Robert Morrison
- a collection of early miniature portraits
- thousands of photographs, slides, filmstrips and digitised film footage (1930s-1970s)
- a reference library comprising over 13,000 published books and pamphlets, including periodicals, magazines, reports, translations and resources written for children
Work is underway to digitise key elements of this extensive collection, to make the materials more widely accessible through the SOAS Digital Library.
For more information, or,
To search the physical collections:
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Catalogue records for the CWM collections can be seen on the SOAS Library Catalogue at https://library.soas.ac.uk and Archive Catalogue at http://archives.soas.ac.uk/CalmView/ More information about the Council for World Mission can be found at http://www.cwmission.org/ |
The Council for World Mission collections are also available for consultation in the Special Collections Reading Room, SOAS Library. Please contact Here is what researchers have to say:
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“The mission archives at SOAS take you to the grass roots of the colonial encounter in vibrant detail.” “For historians, researchers and anyone interested in the history of overseas missions the CWM/LMS archive is an indispensable resource.” “Missionary records are increasingly acknowledged by historians, anthropologists, and religious studies scholars - amongst others - as invaluable sources for understanding the dramatic changes sweeping the wider world in the modern period. The Council for World Mission/LMS archives offer scholars unprecedented insight into still little-understood themes in African, Asian and Pacific history, cultures and society.” "Missionary records are vital sources for understanding local agency amidst key processes of colonization, industrialization and independence movements.”
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“It is the extent and duration of the contact between missionaries and indigenous peoples of diverse continents and countries which make the LMS Collections at SOAS a truly global resource for scholars and researchers from a broad range of disciplines.”
“The CWM/LMS Collection at SOAS is the world's best archival collection for research into British missionaries who operated during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. But this is much more than just a place to learn about Protestant missions. Because nobody wrote about their surroundings as much as missionaries, this is also the place to locate some of the Anglophone world's earliest glimpses into the cultures and societies of Asia, Africa, and the South Seas. The Collection holds within it first-hand accounts of many pioneering moments from the era of global exploration. This archival collection is simply unparalleled and is full of treasures awaiting discovery by the contemporary researcher”
last updated: 21 Februrary 2022