Guide to the Moore Family Papers

The Moore Family Papers, 1910-1997, bulk 1920-1950, primarily document the life and work of Alfred and Marion Moore while they served as missionaries for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. North India Mission from 1911 to 1959. The majority of the collection consists of personal correspondence between Alfred and Marion Moore, their five children, and the Moore and Lockwood grandparents, created while the family was together in India, while the missionaries were on furlough in the United States, and after the Moore children moved from India to Middletown, Ohio, starting in 1929.

The collection consists of three series: Correspondence and photographs; Writings, reports, and printed matter; and Diaries.

The Correspondence series consists of two subseries of personal correspondence which primarily document the daily lives and familial relationships of the Moore family: Alfred, Louise, and Marion Moore correspondence, 1922-1943; and Moore family correspondence and photographs, 1924-1957, 1971-1973, 1984-1997.

Subseries 1 is arranged chronologically and contains personal correspondence from Alfred to Louise Moore, 1922; from Marion to Alfred Moore, 1924-1925, 1936-1938; and from Alfred to Marion Moore, 1941, 1943, during periods of separation in India.

Subseries 2 is arranged chronologically and contains correspondence between Alfred; Marion; their children; the Moore, Lockwood, and Keach grandparents; and some extended family and friends, 1924-1957, 1971-1973, 1984-1997, while the Moores were stationed throughout North India, on furlough in the United States, and after their children moved from India to Middletown, Ohio. The majority of the correspondence from the Moore children is from Margaret Moore, later Margaret Gottlieb. Correspondence between Alfred, John Moore, and Frank A. Jones, the family’s accountant, 1936-1941, documents the management of the Moore family’s real estate in Middletown, Ohio, and the funds allocated to support the Moore children while they lived apart from their parents. There is a small amount of correspondence with fellow missionaries, such as North India medical missionary Adelaide Woodward, as well as some official correspondence with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Foreign Missions. Two letters from 1971 and 1973 discuss Theodore and Jeanette’s mission work. There are a few newspaper clippings related to India and Alfred Moore’s parents, Frank Cheney Moore and Kate Marston Moore, interspersed within the correspondence. Correspondence between the adult Moore children and their spouses, 1984-1997, documents the establishment of the Moore Memorial Scholarship Fund, intended to support medical school education, as well as their reflections on their childhood in India. Also included in Subseries 2 is one folder containing photographs. Four photographs are from India, one of which depicts Alfred presiding over a communion service at Church of the Cross, Shikohabad, India, circa 1936. There are three unidentified and undated photographs, and one photocopy of a 1928 photograph of children at a mission meeting.

The Writings, reports, and printed matter series is arranged alphabetically and dates from 1916 to 1957 and from 1991 to 1993. This series includes undated autobiographical essays by Margaret Moore Gottlieb, including an essay titled, “The Anguish of India” and biographical information about Marion Moore, including an essay written by Jeanette Whittlesey Moore. A notebook binder contains undated essays and speeches written by Alfred William Moore. Included in the folder with Marion Moore's station reports, are her poems and essays, some relating to her medical work in India. There is one folder of undated documents handwritten in an unidentified Indian language. Printed matter includes two North India Mission publications: “Bed Rock Foundations: The Mass Movement Missionary’s Job,” by G.B. Ogden, and “The Man at the Bottom, or the Mass Movement Bulletin,” and ephemera also printed in India.

The Diaries series is arranged alphabetically and contains a total of fifteen bound diaries kept by Alfred Moore, Louise Moore, and Marion Moore. Alfred's diaries include ten bound, yearly volumes spanning a portion of the time he spent serving as a missionary in North India, from 1936 to 1950, just a few days prior to his sudden death in Landour. In his diaries he lists his and Marion’s daily activities, meetings, visitors, and travels, as well as brief accounts of his daily frustrations, challenges, and reflections on his work and on life in India. Alfred’s diaries from 1939 and 1948 also cover the couple’s furloughs in the United States. Some years contain almost daily entries while others are almost empty. One diary belonging to Louise Moore covers the short period between Margaret Moore's birth and the couple's first furlough in Middletown, Ohio, 1919-1920. Four diaries belonging to Marion Moore begin in her teenage years up until a year prior to Alfred’s death, 1910-1949. Marion recounts the story of Louise’s death and is often detailed in her descriptions about her daily activities. Her diary from 1945 to 1949 also includes information about Theodore Marston Moore and Jeanette Whittlesey Moore's activities as missionaries at the Mainpuri District. This volume also includes a lock of hair.