CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE

Section II: Missions to Women

Part 4: The Indian Female Evangelist, 1881-1893, continued as The Zenana: or, Woman’s Work in India,

            1893-1935, continued as The Zenana: Women’s Work in India and Pakistan, 1936-1956 from

            Interserve, London

Part 5: Minutes of the Zenana, Bible and Medical Mission, 1865-1937 and the Annual Reports of the

            Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society, 1863-1879 from Interserve, London

Related Material in Section II: Missions to Women, Parts 1 to 3

Parts 1-3 of this Section contain related material for women’s studies research.

Part 3 contains the early issues for 1872-1880 of The Indian Female Evangelist published by the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society, founded in 1852. The issues for 1881-1956 are to be found in Part 4 of this section.

Part 3 also contains two Church of England Zenana Missionary Society periodicals. The CEZMS was born in 1880 out of the division of the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society into two organisations: the Zenana, Bible and Medical Misson which was interdominational and the CEZMS which was Anglican. The CEZMS periodical Homes of the East, 1910-1948, first published in 1904, contains fascinating articles on and letters from missionaries in China, India, Singapore and Ceylon. From October 1914 it incorporates Torchbearer, a quarterly illustrated paper for children. Included in this part also are issues for 1889 and 1893-1894 of the CEZMS periodical Daybreak which was begun as a magazine for young girls in 1885 and contains articles on missionaries, schools and work in the Zenanas in India, China and Ceylon.

Part 2 covers the main periodical of the CEZMS and the main source for research into the early work of the society; India’s Women and China’s Daughters, 1880-1939, renamed Looking East at India’s Women and China’s Daughters, 1940-1957. This periodical was published initially bi-monthly and then from 1892 monthly and contains articles on India and China, including history, religion, way of life, the place of women; records of missionary work, including reports from missionaries and other staff such as Biblewomen; the work at home, including the Prayer Union, associations and subscriptions, needlework and its sale, annual meetings, deputations and sermons, Girls’ Union, prize competitions, correspondence and extracts from committee proceedings, Bible study and book reviews. From Volume II there are indexes of names and subjects with an index of illustrations included for 1900-1957 and from 1884 onwards is included a list of stations and missionaries.

Part 1 covers the papers of the Society for Promoting Female Education (FES) in China, India and the East, 1834-1899.

First founded in 1834, schools for the education of women were soon established by the FES in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, India, South Africa, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Mauritius. After the closure of the FES in 1899 CMS continued their work in China, Japan, India and Palestine.

The FES was interdominational, staffed by women and employed only women agents. The society’s first missionary Miss Eliza Thornton went to Malacca in 1836.

The FES archive consists of minutes, finance and general papers, annual reports and a name index. It gives a fascinating insight into the lives of the missionaries and the women they worked among. Topics covered range from training, the opening of new schools and details of students to health and local agents. Also included are lists of teachers and schools, contributions and donations received, expenditure, questions for candidates and local helpers, maps and general rules.

The FES archive should be studied in conjunction with the CMS archive as the two societies worked very closely together. Indeed until the 1890s the CMS depended upon both the FES and the CEZMS for single women to work among women and children

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