Image: Inside church at Vava - Torres Island, Vanuatu, 1892 (Y309A/31)
The descriptions below link to online catalogues and in some cases to very detailed descriptions of individual files or photographs. Some collections have been digitised and may be viewed on Cambridge Digital Library.
Worldwide
- CMS Church Missionary Society photograph collection.
- Glass slides from the CMS collection have been digitised
Africa
These include:
- Y3045C Uganda, 1906-11 (includes photographs by missionary Charles William Hattersley, (1866-1934).
- Y305J South Africa, 1900-1910 (includes photos of the Lovedale Missionary Institution in Alice).
- RCMS 113/38 Ernest Millar collection (including Equatorial East African Mission in Uganda).
- RCMS 150 Papers of H.B. Thomas (Church Missionary Society).
- RCMS 155/10/3 Universities' Mission to Central Africa
- RCMS 155/6/1/2 Roman Catholic missionaries (in East Africa)
- RCMS 164 Ugandan mission history
- RCMS 165 Reflections of Bishop Willis (typescript; original in CMS)
- RCMS 168 Uganda letters of Lucy Clare Latham (CMS)
- RCMS 179 Autobiography drafts of Thomas Westgate (Church Missionary Society in German East Africa)
- RCMS 221 A walk to the Nyassa country (Edward Steere, 1828-1882, Bishop of Central Africa)
- Y30469G Diocese of Central Tanganyika [i.e. Tanzania] 1927-1952
- Y30469F T.B.R. Westgate Collection on German East Africa (Canadian missionary who joined the Church Missionary Society)
- Y30468P East Africa: Charles Stokes collection (Church Missionary Society)
Asia
These include:
- RCMS 90 Reminiscences of Worthington Jukes (CMS missionary in Amritsar 1872-1874 and Peshawar 1874-1890)
- RCMS 103/4/26 Recollections of Reverend Preston Littlepage Peach (American Methodist missionary teacher in Malaya, 1914-1949)
- RCMS 73 Foundation stones in Manoharpur (memoir by Gerald Dickson, U.S.P.G. missionary in India, 1910-1939)
- Y3029F Burma missionary photographs (collected by Reverend G.E.C. Knapp)
Canada
These include:
- RCMS 246 Diaries and papers of Monica Storrs (1888-1967), missionary in British Colombia
- Y3011DDD(LS) Colonial and Continental Church Society lantern slides
- Digital images of the slides from the CCCS collection
Australia and Pacific
These include:
- Y3011DDD(LS) Colonial and Continental Church Society lantern slides
- Digital images of the slides from the CCCS collection
- Y309A Views in Melanesia by Bishop Henry Hutchinson Montgomery, Rev. Dr. Henry Welchman and Rev. Arthur Brittain.
- Y308698A/9 Norfolk Island: outline of its history from 1788 to 1884. Teaching Staff and Pupils, and The Patteson Memorial Chapel, St. Barnabas' College - Melanesian Mission Station, 1885
- Y308698A/7 Norfolk Island: outline of its history from 1788 to 1884. View at St. Barnabas' College - Melanesian Mission Station, 1885
Digitised images
These may be viewed in three places:
- Cambridge Digital Library
- Slideshow
- Image galleries, where they are arranged geographically.
Help
For guidance searching for items in the Royal Commonwealth Society collections, please refer first to the RCS web pages, in particular:
For guidance in searching for official publications within the RCS collections, see:
Donations
The Royal Commonwealth Society Library is not actively collecting new archival collections, photographs or manuscripts. However, donations of small collections which complement its existing collections will be considered.
Potential donors should contact the Smuts Librarian with details of their collection including, in the case of photograph collections, approximately how many images, whether or not they are captioned, geographical regions covered, dates, and, where known, the names of photographers or collectors.
Consideration will be given to the size and condition of the collection, as well as its subject content and provenance. If the Library feels unable to accept a collection, advice about alternative repositories will be given.