PHS has recently digitized and made available several collections of 19th and early 20th century missionary periodicals. Through our partners at the Lyrasis Mass Digitization Collaborative, we have added five Presbyterian serials (Missionary Reporter, 1829-1832; Presbyterian Treasury of Education, Religion and General Intelligence, 1848-1849; Presbyterian Monthly, 1867-1870; Presbyterian Monthly Record, 1869-1886; and Church at Home and Abroad, 1895-1898) and a journal of both the Congregational Church and the Presbyterian Church (The Home Missionary, 1885-1909) to the Internet Archive, accessible here.

As a sample of the rich history detailed in these serials, the first issue of the Missionary Reporter, September 1, 1829 contains communications from Kentucky and Florida (“a new country” in need of more Presbyterian missionaries), reports of mission work from synods and presbyteries all over the country, and a list of men appointed to the field by the PCUSA Board of Missions. Jumping ahead over fifty years, the September 1885 issue of the Presbyterian Monthly Record includes “recent intelligence” on Presbyterian mission work in Persia, Siam, and Chile; an article titled “Krishna Tested;” a report on the Daimachi School in Tokyo; news from the mission to the Omaha Indians; and reports on the work of the PCUSA Board of Missions for Freedmen.

A grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation enabled Lyrasis to offer digitization at reduced cost to its member libraries, including PHS. In the Internet Archive's page viewer, the end product looks like this: Click on any title in our Internet Archive collection, and at the left hand sidebar, select "read online." Let us know what you've discovered about mission history in the comments below!