Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina Records, 1874-2003

ArchivalResource

Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina. Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina Records, 1874-2003

Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina Records, 1874-2003

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/60690824

The Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina Records consist of administrative records and personal materials relating to the history of the organization and its staff from 1882 to 2003. It also documents the lives of North Carolina missionaries supported by the Women's Missionary Union during their assignments worldwide. The collection is divided into three series. The Administrative Files document the activities and administration of the North Carolina Women's Missionary Union, including its component divisions - Woman's Missionary Societies, Sunbeams, Royal Ambassadors, Girls' Auxiliaries, and Young Woman's Auxiliaries. The Administrative Files were primarily created or collected by members or officers of its presiding board - the Women's Central Committee, or (after 1916) the Executive Committee. Also documented are special projects and conferences of the Women's Missionary Union, such as Interracial Institutes, Annual Meetings or Sessions, Camp Mundo Vista, the Heck-Jones Memorial Offering, State Missions Seasons of Prayer, and activities of the North Carolina State Federation of Baptist Business Women. These records date from 1882 to 2003 with the bulk dated 1905 to 1972, and are primarily comprised of correspondence, reports, minutes of meetings, financial records, and printed materials. The printed materials take several forms, especially conference or meeting programs, published reports, pamphlets, and religious literature. The Women's Missionary Union Centennial Series documents both the 1986 centennial celebrations of the Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina and its component associations and chapters at Baptist churches throughout the state. The bulk of the series dates from 1984 to 1988, when the Women's Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention celebrated its centennial; throughout this period, a primary goal of North Carolina Women's Missionary Union centennial activities was to collect and record the history of individual Women's Missionary Union chapters. Thus, the Centennial Series contains correspondence, photographs of centennial celebrations, and printed materials or typescripts of church histories, Women's Missionary Union chapter histories, and compiled association histories; these range from one hand-written draft paragraph of an older member's recollections to detailed published works, extensively researched and authored by a committee. The Women's Missionary Union Centennial Series also includes original chapter records and copies of these materials sent to the Women's Missionary Union, dating as far back as 1880. These primarily consist of printed materials such meeting programs, financial records, photographs, correspondence, and former chapter officers' personal collections. These materials were filed by regional association and intended to comprise a "Women's Missionary Union Historical Collection." The Biographical Files document the lives of North Carolina missionaries around the world, in addition to a few North Carolina Women's Missionary Union administrators and officers. The bulk of the series dates from 1974 to 2000 and is primarily comprised of correspondence from North Carolina missionaries to the Women's Missionary Union. This correspondence usually describes missionaries' efforts both in America and abroad, usually in the form of periodic newsletters from missionary families. The newsletters provide cultural and political insights into the missionaries' countries of assignment, in addition to personal information. Missionary correspondence also takes the form of Christmas cards and notes of thanks for birthday and Christmas gifts sent to missionaries from the Women's Missionary Union. Materials dating from 1956 to 1966 are primarily clippings from the Biblical Recorder or Thomasville Charity and Children. Missionaries serving abroad between 1924 and 1938 are documented through correspondence, photographs, biographical sketches and remembrances, and clippings collected in a scrapbook filed at the end of this series; notable is a substantial amount of correspondence from missionary Katie Murray to Lena Middleton, spanning over three decades. Women's Missionary Union presidents Foy Farmer and Fannie E.S. Heck are also represented in this series with materials dating from 1874.

12.7 linear feet 10 boxes.

Wake Forest University - ZSR Library, Z. Smith Reynolds Library