We are pleased to announce that Oxford researchers now have online access to 14 collections of the Anglican missionary archive, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG), via the British Online Archives platform. Previously only available in the Weston Library, the digitised material can now be accessed throughout the University and remotely with the Oxford SSO.
The USPG is a UK-based Anglican missionary organisation, founded in 1701, which sent missionaries to many parts of the world and was involved in educational, charitable and medical work as well as evangelization. The material also throws light on social conditions, travel and daily life abroad from the view point of British missionaries and their families.
The digitized material is relevant to British, Commonwealth and global history, covering the 17th to mid-20th centuries. It has been organised into 14 collections which can be found via SOLO or Databases A-Z:
- America in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1635-1928
- ‘Bray Schools’ in Canada, America and the Bahamas, 1645-1900
- Indigenous Cultures and Christian Conversion in Ghana and Sierra Leone, 1700-1850
- Colonial missionaries’ papers from America and the West Indies, 1701-1870
- The West Indies in records from colonial missionaries, 1704-1950
- Canada in records from colonial missionaries, 1722-1952
- Indian and Sri Lankan records from colonial missionaries, 1770-1931
- Australia in records from colonial missionaries, 1808-1967
- South Africa in records from colonial missionaries, 1819-1900
- New Zealand & Polynesian records from colonial missionaries, 1838-1958
- Tanzania and Malawi in records from colonial missionaries, 1857-1965
- Colonial women missionaries of the Committee for Women’s Work, 1861-1967
- Ghana in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1886-1951
- ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’: Missionaries in Asia during the World Wars, 1914-1946
Read more about the types of materials, topics covered, and geographical reach on the History Faculty Library blog post.