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The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), organized in 1810, was the first successful North American agency dedicated to foreign missions. ABCFM existed until 1961 when it merged with the Board of International Missions to form the United Church Board for World Ministries. The collection concerns missions in South Africa in Rhodesia and Zulu; missions in Asia including Turkey, India, Japan, and China; missions in the Philippine Islands; and ABCFM organization in general.

This collection contains recollections of Dr. John J. Banninga, a missionary in Madura from 1901-1942, as well as sermons by the Rev. P. Thomas Pastor of Trinity Church, Tirumangalam.

This collection contains material related to the American Marathi Mission, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) first Protestant mission in Western India, compiled in 1962 by Louise Gliem Fisher. Materials include general background information and reports on various mission stations, as well as typescript material pulled together from minutes, reports, diaries, brochures, and correspondence.

Erwin Hart Richards was a Congregational missionary for thirty-three years in South East Africa. The collection consists of correspondence from the period when Richards was treasurer of the Board of Foreign Missions for the Methodist Episcopal Church.

This collection contains correspondence, reports, and teaching materials of Frank C. Laubach, a Christian missionary and educator who played a prominent role in world literacy by establishing the "Each One Teach One" literacy teaching method and founding the Committee on World Literacy and Christian Literature (FMCNA and NCC), World Literacy, Inc., and Laubach Literacy, Inc.

Frank Joseph Rawlinson was a Baptist missionary and lecturer in China, and for over two decades served as editor of The Chinese Recorder. The collection contains notes and drafts of his lectures and research on Christianity in China and Chinese religious culture, correspondence with Abbe Livingston Warnshuis, and other materials.

George Merriam Newell had a 37-year career as a school teacher and missionary in Fuzhou 福州, Fujian 福 建 province, China. The collection contains correspondence, reports, maps, and publications.

This collection contains a 1967 typewritten manuscript history of the ABCFM missions in North China from 1935 to 1960, compiled by Harold Shepherd Matthews, an American Board missionary in China and China secretary at the ABCFM.

John J. Banninga was an American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) Missionary to India. The collection contains correspondence, reports, memoranda, clippings, and other documents related to the creation of the Church of South India (CSI), a union among Anglican, Methodist, and the South India United Churches, as well as personal papers.