Once again at the start of the new year we pause to reflect on the acquisition and processing of the previous year. “New Collections” are those materials which have been fully processed, arranged, described, conserved and made available to users. “New Accessions” are materials we received and which will eventually be processed into collections.
Continue readingWoman's Union Missionary Society
A Legacy of Women’s Healthcare in China
Across the history of global missions, evangelistic work has often been closely tied with practical or humanitarian outreach, especially care for the sick and hurting. The Wheaton College Billy Graham Center Archives holds the records of many such missionary doctors, nurses, and mission hospitals. One of the oldest mission hospitals represented in our collections is the Margaret Williamson Hospital, opened in 1885 in Shanghai, China under the Woman’s Union Missionary Society of America for Heathen Lands (commonly referred to as Woman’s Union Missionary Society or WUMS).
Continue readingO Holy Night
One of the joys of archives and archival work is the opportunity the collections offer to explore the great variety of human invention and artistry across both time and space, as well as the ways in which common ideas and images endure through different cultures and generations.
As people all around the world begin their celebrations of Advent, this month we delve into the many intriguing variations in our collections on one of the most enduring of Christmas images – the Nativity.
From the origins of the story of Jesus Christ’s birth in the world of first century Palestine, to Western Europe and North America, and across the globe in India, China, and the Philippines, a review of just a few of the images of the nativity held by the Wheaton Archives & Special Collections demonstrates the many ways the Christmas story has been reflected and reimagined in a myriad of different times and places.
Continue readingThe Language of Flowers: Clippings from Lives of Shared Ministry
Across the wide distances of global missions, a key relationship for many missionaries remains that of their connection to their homeland, supporting churches, and missionary societies. Even as missionaries forge new ties on the mission field they also reach back to the old – to share successes and failures, the wonders and terrors of new lands, and key to their work, elicit financial and spiritual support for their mission. Many materials in the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center Archives document the important ties between the mission field and the homeland, from prayer letters, to missionary cards, to photographs and films.
This month we highlight the dynamic interplay between missionaries and supporters at home by featuring a new collection added to the Archives this spring, Collection 720: The Papers of Louise H. Pierson, composed of a single scrapbook with flower pressings, pictures, newsletters, and other memorabilia from the world and work of Louise Pierson and other women missionaries in South and East Asia during the late nineteenth century.
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From the Vault 