ProQuest - Post Colonial Studies Catalog | Subject Catalog (PDF)

Research Collections
Thompson, Augustus Charles. The Papers of Augustus Charles
Thompson
1812 - 1901
19 th century Christian missionaries brought not just religion to their flocks in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, but
also Western culture and its often conflicting views: assumptions (sometimes demeaning) about indigenous
populations and their cultures, juxtaposed uneasily with Western ideals of equality, fraternity, and justice. The
papers of Congregational minister Augustus Charles Thompson (1812-1901) reflect his lifelong involvement in the
foreign mission movement. The 10,000 volumes of his personal collection, now housed at Hartford Seminary, include
his vast library of missionological texts and correspondence. Born in Goshen, Connecticut, Thompson graduated
from the Theological Institute of Connecticut (later renamed Hartford Seminary) and served as pastor of the Eliot
Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, for virtually his entire clerical career. He wrote and compiled a number of books,
the most famous of them his Moravian Missions (New York, Charles Scribner‘s Sons, 1890), a thorough review of the
German sect and its pioneering and widespread missionary efforts. Students of religion and history will find
treasures such as these in the collection:
The correspondence of Eleazar Lord, including letters from John Jay, Jonathan Edwards, and
Caleb Strong
Thompson‘s correspondence with many important churchmen of his day, including Rufus
Anderson, Edmund de Schweinitz, Gustave Warneck, and Jens Vahl
Holographic versions of 18 th century sermons by preachers Timothy Edwards, Asahel Hooker,
Joseph Lyman, and Gideon Hawley
Materials related to Thompson‘s service on the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, including letters describing his visits to India in the 1850s and the London
conferences of 1878 and 1888
The Thompson Papers will particularly appeal to researchers in:
Religion, especially missionology and 19 th century conservative Protestantism
This primary source material - especially the correspondence - reflects both Western cultural attitudes and everyday
details of time and place, e.g.:
A description of the devotional habits of black South African women converted by
missionaries
Thompson‘s adolescent son‘s account of a Fourth of July celebration in Connecticut
A guide, included at the beginning of the first reel, lists items as they appear on the film, followed by an index of correspondents by name; A
paper copy of the guide is distributed with the collection
8 reels 35mm
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