Tag: Canada
Primary Sources: Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961
Beginning in the 1820s, the Confidential Print series was a selection of key correspondence, orders, policy documents, treaty texts, and memoranda from Great Britain’s Foreign Office and Colonial Office distributed internally to the Monarchy, Cabinet, members of Parliament, and within their organizations. Confidential Print: North America sheds light on controversies surrounding slavery, the treatment of Canadian indigenous peoples, uprisings against colonial rule, labor unrest in the United states, Nazi and fascist activities in Latin America, and much more. The record groups included in this series of Confidential Print are:
CO 880 War and Colonial Department and Colonial Office: Confidential Print North America, 1939-1914
CO 884 War and Colonial Department and Colonial Office: West Indies, Confidential Print 1826-1961
FO 414 Foreign Office: Confidential Print North America, 1824-1941
FO 461 Foreign Office: Confidential Print America, 1942-1956
FO 462 Foreign Office: Confidential Print United States of America, 1947-1956
More details about the contents of these record groups can be found in the Nature & Scope page of the site.
Primary Sources: Colonial State Papers
The Library has acquired Colonial State Papers, a joint venture of ProQuest and the National Archives (UK) that resulted in the digitization of the Colonial Office Collection 1, Privy Council and related bodies: America and West Indies, Colonial Papers. It contains thousands of papers that were presented to the Privy Council and the Board of Trade between 1574-1757, and which relate to England’s governance of, and activities in, the American, Canadian and West Indian colonies.
Included in this database is the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies 1574-1739, a bibliographic tool providing over 40,000 descriptive records. The Calendar covers not only CO 1, but also documents from many other collections relating to the colonial past. Many of the bibliographic entries in The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies 1574-1739 are supplemented with full transcriptions, extracts or summary abstracts, all of which can be searched in Colonial State Papers.
The search box defaults to searching both Colonial State Papers and the Calendar, but it is possible to limit your search to just items that have been digitized, and those documents can be downloaded as images or PDFs. Each record also has a durable URL that can be linked to from bCourses or a website.
The quality of the scanned images is very high, which helps with the fact that the original documents and hand-written, and sometimes stained, damaged, or faded. Tools built into the database will allow you to zoom in to see detail.
Primary Sources: Additional records of and related to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to Foreign Parts
Additional materials related to the USPG contained in British Online Archives.
Archives of the Associates of Dr Bray to 1900
The body of records consists primarily of correspondence files, minute books and financial reports for the institution established by Dr Thomas Bray and his associates. It includes:
– Administrative records and letters of the Associates
– Printed books in the archive
– Rules and reports of the Associates
– Correspondence and records for schools in America
– Correspondence and records concerning the school in the Bahamas
– Correspondence on the establishment of schools in Canada
– General correspondence and records of the Associates
Journal, annual sermons and reports of the SPG, 1701-1870
This collection offers a range of documents which reveal details of the lives the missionaries of the USPG really led. Starting with the formation of the USPG by Royal Charter in 1701, the reports, letters, minutes and accounts of places like Canada in the eighteenth to nineteenth century inform the reader about the colonists’ attitudes and perceptions of American and other colonies during this period. Several documents in this collection feature commentary, directly or indirectly, on relations between the colonizers and the first nations such as the Iroquois and Algonquians. It includes:
– Founding documents of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
– Journal of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
– Appendix to SPG Journal
– Annual sermons and reports of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1701-1845
Records of the Committee on Women’s Work 1861-1967
First an autonomous body linked with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1895 this became an organization more closely tied with the SPG, and in 1904 an SPG Committee for Women’s Work was established. This digital collection currently comprises approximately two thirds of the records relating to the Committee on Women’s Work stored at Rhodes House Library, Oxford. It includes:
– Ladies’ Association for the Promotion of Female Education 1861-1895
– Womens’ Missionary Association, c1895-1904
– SPG Committee for Womens’ Work, 1904-1967
– Miscellaneous items, 1866-1960
Primary Sources: Records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) (now named the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) was organized after Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray visited the American Colonies and found the Anglican Church there in disarray. He obtained a charter from King William III in 1701 to establish SPG as an organization authorized to send priests and schoolteachers to America to minister to the colonists and to “take the message of the gospel to the slaves and native Americans.”1
The SPG quickly expanded into the West Indies, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and West Africa, and in the 19th century into India and South Africa. The Library’s access to British Online Archives includes a significant collection of SPG records from all of these locations.
American Material in the archives of the USPG, 1635-1812 Includes:
– letter books kept by the secretaries of the societies, consisting of copies of letters and papers from and to the missionaries appointed by the SPG to the American colonies and also from the colonial governors, private persons and churchwardens. Many of the originals are no longer extant.
– Index volumes for the letter books
– Published accounts of two early SPG missionaries to America
– Supplementary material from 1821-1828, which includes three volumes of copies of the most important letters (i.e., those read before the Society) and sent.
Australian records in the USPG archiveFiles relating to the establishment of the Society’s activities in the province of the Anglican Church of Australia and the development of an organization to support them. Includes:
– Unbound documents, subdivided by diocese: Adelaide, Melbourne, North Queensland, Perth, Sydney, and Tasmania.
– SPG Chapliancy services to emigrants, 1821-1864
– Copies of letters received and sent (from and to the Society in London)
– Indices to the Australian records
New Zealand & Polynesian records in the USPG archive Records relating to the early history of the Anglican Church in New Zealand and Polynesia. Includes:
– Files from the Melanesia Diocese, 1838-1958
– Files from the New Zealand Diocese, 1838-1875
– Copies of letters received and sent (to and from the Society in London)
– Indices to the New Zealand province records
Canadian Records in the USPG Archive, 1722-1952These papers chart the development of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel from its early days in Canada until its decline there. The majority of the reports included here are in fact narrative accounts submitted by members of the clergy working in various locations across Canada. Includes:
– Records relating to New Brunswick 1783-1857
– Records relating to Fredericton 1844-1860
– Records relating to Quebec 1793-1860
– Records relating to Montreal to c1860
– Records relating to Upper Canada 1788-1859
– Records relating to Toronto to c1860
– Records relating to Nova Scotia to c1860
– General records relating to Canada 1785-1864
– Reports for Canada, 1901-1950
Early Colonial and Missionary Records from West Africa
This resource comprises selected documents from microfilm collections, including: early Gold Coast records from the archives of the USPG; the papers of Thomas Perronet Thompson, the first Governor of the Colony of Sierra Leone; An account of two missionary voyages by Rev. Thomas Thompson; the letters of Rev. Philip Quaque, etc.
Gold Coast records from the archives of the USPG, 1886-1951
The period from 1903 onward is the most substantially documented in this collection. Records relating to the first 150 years are reproduced in both the Early colonial and missionary records from West Africa and the West Indies material in the archives of the USPG, 1710-1950. Includes:
– Copies of letters sent and received
– Committee of Women’s Work Correspondence
– Original letters from abroad, 1899-1933
– Missionary reports, 1906-1933
– Miscellaneous Gold Coast Papers, 1886-1951
South African archives of the USPG
United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel began its labors at the Cape of South Africa in 1821, the western division being occupied in that year and the eastern division in 1830. This collection from the Archives of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, dates from their earliest connection with South Africa. Includes records for Capetown, Grahamstown, Natal, St Johns – Kaffaria, and Zululand.
West Indies material in the archives of the USPG, 1710-1950
Includes:
– Records from 1714-1908, divided into eight sections: the general archives and those appertaining to the Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua and the Leeward Islands, Trinidad, British Guiana and Honduras (Central America and the Mosquito coast).
– Copies of letters sent and received
– The Codrington Collection, 1704-1898
– Quarterly reports from missionaries, 1901-1950
– Papers of the Barbados Committee, 1710-1842
– Miscellaneous USPG contents
South Asian records of the USPG
Includes:
– Records beginning around 1770, during the period of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK), and continue for some years after 1825, when the SPG accepted responsibility for the Danish and English missions in Tamil Nadu, as well as conducting its own work elsewhere in India.
– Copies of letters sent and received (to and from the Society in London)
– Annual reports of missionaries, 1840-1861
– Annual reports of missionaries, 1856-1900
– Selected Sri Lankan material, 1827-1867
– Miscellaneous additional materials
Primary Sources: Freely available digitized newspapers
A librarian at Bowling Green State University has created some truly excellent portals to digitized historical newspapers freely available on the web.
Historical U.S. Newspapers Online
The home page includes links to sites that provide access to newspapers from multiple states, the remaining links are organized by state.
Historical Canadian Newspapers Online
The home page includes links to National and multi-province papers, the rest are organized by province.
Historical Newspapers Online
The guide provides links to digitized newspapers from countries around the world.