The Formation of the Mount Holyoke Missionaries Collection: Race, Redemption, and the Early Archive

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dc.contributorSinger, Kate
dc.contributorFitz-Gibbon, Desmond
dc.contributor.advisorRenda, Mary
dc.contributor.authorCordell, Cadence
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-17T14:57:46Z
dc.date.available2023-05-17T14:57:46Z
dc.date.gradyear2023en_US
dc.date.issued2023-05-17en
dc.description.abstractWhat is an archive? Is it a place? An object or objects organized into collections? A mentality? How have the creators of archives determined what should be archived, and what ideas about history have their decisions preserved? My research centers these questions in a study of the creation, over time, of the Mount Holyoke Missionaries Collection, with its holdings related to the missionary work of alumnae from 1841 to the present. In the early years of Mount Holyoke’s history as a Female Seminary, its founders and teachers sought to disseminate Protestant values and create an alumnae body of pious teachers, mothers, and in time, missionaries. Its early archive—represented in published works, financial records, and objects sent to Mount Holyoke from missionary fields—produced histories centered on Christian action and salvation blended with colonial discourses of race and civilization that venerated missionaries’ role in saving and civilizing non-Christian peoples. At the turn of the century, once Mount Holyoke had become a college and moved to adopt more rigorous academic standards and empirical research practices, both its historical consciousness and its archive shifted. Librarians, students, and teachers reinterpreted archives as vital for understanding the human race and bringing about societal improvement. While this approach was more empirical, it reflected the religious mindset of previous generations as well as the Social Darwinism of the day. The Missionaries Collection grew to include more documents reflective of missionaries’ everyday life, such as missionary publications and newspaper articles. In doing so, it reproduced racist discourses and continued to venerate Christianity as a sign of racial and social progress. This project contextualizes the archive as a historical phenomenon that has been constructed, reinterpreted, and redesigned over time. The Mount Holyoke Missionaries Collection is a prime example of an archival collection reflecting the distinct images of its creators’ and archivists’ historical consciousness over its nearly two centuries of existence.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipHistoryen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10166/6408
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.rights.restrictedpublicen_US
dc.subjectMissionaryen_US
dc.subjectMissionariesen_US
dc.subjectChristianityen_US
dc.subjectRaceen_US
dc.subjectRacismen_US
dc.subjectArchiveen_US
dc.subjectHistory of archivesen_US
dc.subjectMount Holyokeen_US
dc.titleThe Formation of the Mount Holyoke Missionaries Collection: Race, Redemption, and the Early Archiveen_US
dc.typeThesis
mhc.degreeUndergraduateen_US
mhc.institutionMount Holyoke College

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