Guide to the A.L. Edmiston Papers

Descriptive Summary

Title

A.L. Edmiston Papers

Inclusive Dates

1908-1975

Bulk Dates

1914-1941

Call Number

RG 495

Creator(s)

Edmiston, A. L. (Alonzo Lmore), 1879-1954.

Quantity

2.37 cubic feet (8 boxes)

Language

Materials primarily in English, with some materials in Tshiluba and French

Restrictions on Access

Open for research. Medical, educational, and psychological records of living people are closed.

Digital Content

To browse this collection's digitized materials visit Pearl.

Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not be available on Pearl or in their entirety.

Repository

Presbyterian Historical Society, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147-1516 USA

Biographical Note / Administrative History

Biographical Note

A.L. (Alonzo Lmore) Edmiston was a Presbyterian minister and Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS) missionary in the Congo from 1904 to 1940. Born in Petersburg, Tennessee, on July 19, 1879, he graduated from Stillman Institute and Stillman Theological Seminary. He was appointed to the American Presbyterian Congo Mission (APCM) on November 8, 1904, while still a licentiate under the care of the PCUS Presbytery of Central Alabama, and joined Mr. and Mrs. William Sheppard and Miss Althea Brown at the Ibanche Station. In 1908, he was ordained by the Presbytery of Central Alabama. He married fellow missionary Althea Brown on July 8, 1905, and together they had two sons. Sherman Lucius was born on May 26, 1906, and was given the native name of Kuete, after the Bakuba King. Their second son, Alonzo Leaucourt, was born on May 27, 1913, and was given the native name of Bope. The Edmistons worked at the Ibanche and Luebo mission stations, initiated work at the Bulape Station, and spent a year at Mushenge, the capital of the Bakuba Kingdom. Their work was primarily evangelistic as well as educational. While working with the Bakuba, Althea Edmiston compiled a Bakuba grammar and dictionary. In 1922, the Edmistons were transferred to the Morrison Bible School in Mutoto, where Alonzo Edmiston taught agriculture and was placed in charge of the Boys' Home.

In 1925, King Albert of Belgium bestowed upon Edmiston the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of the Lion, the highest honor that could be conferred by the King and government of Belgium, for distinguished services to the people of the Congo and Belgium.

Althea Edmiston died of malaria and sleeping sickness on June 9, 1937, and is buried in Mutoto. In 1940, Alonzo Edmiston retired from the mission field and settled in Selma, Alabama. He married Lucille Shelton on November 20, 1941. For the next decade, he continued promoting foreign missions through speaking engagements at churches, schools and colleges in the South. He died in Selma on December 5, 1954.

Collection Overview

The collection, organized in six series, contains the personal papers of Alonzo Edmiston, primarily documenting his work as a PCUS missionary in the Belgian Congo from 1904 to 1940. Included are diaries, correspondence, sermon notes, financial and mission records, personal materials and miscellaneous memorabilia including biographical information about Alonzo Lmore Edmiston and Althea Brown Edmiston, photographs, and photograph albums. The papers are primarily created by Alonzo Lmore Edmiston, but some correspondence and other materials are created by and about Althea Brown Edmiston.

Series I, the diaries, comprise 14 volumes in 5 boxes and make up the bulk of the collection. They begin in January 1914 and continue through April 1941, with a gap from July 1920 to August 1921. The diaries provide an account of Edmiston's life in the mission field and commentary on world events as well as information about his extensive travels.

Series II, the correspondence, 1910-1948, is largely between Edmiston and various members of the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions, including Samuel Hall Chester, Edwin F. Willis and Egbert W. Smith. There is also some correspondence with other members of the American Presbyterian Congo Mission, including William H. Sheppard, Roy Fields Cleveland, Motte Martin and Joseph A. Savels. Some correspondence is to and from Althea Brown Edmiston. Within each folder, correspondence is arranged chronologically.

The sermon and lecture notes, in Series III, are undated but were created and used by Edmiston from the late 1920s through the early 1950s. While dates are written on several of the sermon notes, they reference when a sermon was delivered, not when the notes were created. The earliest date found in the sermon notes is 1928 and the latest date is 1952. Several sermon notes are in the Tshiluba language. There are notes for one lecture on the topic of native fetishes and spirit worship.

Series IV contains a mix of various personal materials and memorabilia. Among this material is information about speaking itineraries. The notebook containing identification of photographs appears to be the script he used when showing slides and artifacts during his speaking engagements. The collection does not contain any slides. There are souvenir postcards of the Congo in this section. A catalog from a 1975 exhibit at Fisk University honoring Althea Brown Edmiston is included in this series.

The mission records compiled by Alonzo Edmiston in Series V are in nine folders. In addition to mission station reports, there are copies of exams and lists of families and baptisms. Some of the materials are in Tshiluba.

The photographs and albums in Series VI comprise another large portion of the collection. The majority of loose photographs are not identified and of poor quality. Many of the loose photographs also appear in the photograph albums with minimal captions. The bulk of the photographs and albums are undated. The photographs and albums show the Edmiston family, mission stations, fellow missionaries, and agricultural programs.

Organization and Arrangement

SERIES I: DIARIES, 1914-1941

SERIES II: CORRESPONDENCE, 1910-1948

SERIES III: SERMON AND LECTURE NOTES, late 1920s-early 1950s

SERIES IV: PERSONAL MATERIALS AND MISCELLANEOUS MEMORABILIA, 1909-1975

SERIES V: MISSION RECORDS, 1916-1940

SERIES VI: PHOTOGRAPHS AND PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS, 1908-1940

Alternative Formats

To browse this collection's digitized materials visit Pearl.

Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not have been digitized in their entirety.

Related Material

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Received from Mrs. Lucille Edmiston Moore in June 1973.

Processing Information

This collection was minimally processed. The collection was originally processed in 1981 and reprocessed in 1986. Earlier versions of the guide to the collection are included in the accession file. Lisa Jacobson reprocessed the collection in 2015.

In four volumes of the mission station reports, the pages are glued onto the pages of magazines. Two additional reports that were glued onto magazines were preservation photocopied. These photocopies may be difficult to read as it is still possible to see the background text and images from the magazines.

Preferred Citation

A.L. Edmiston Papers, RG 495, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Catalog Headings

The following headings have been used to index the description of this collection in the society’s electronic catalog.

Personal Name Subject

Edmiston, A. L. (Alonzo Lmore), 1879-1954.

Edmiston, Althea Brown, 1874-1937.

Corporate Subject

American Presbyterian Congo Mission.

Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Executive Committee of Foreign Missions.

Topical Subject

Missionaries--Congo (Democratic Republic)

Missions--Congo (Democratic Republic)

Geographic Subject

Congo (Democratic Republic)

Genre-form

Correspondence. aat

Diaries. aat

Photograph albums. aat

Photographs. aat

Sermons. aat

Personal Added Name

Edmiston, Althea Brown, 1874-1937.

Collection Inventory

Box	Folder	Description	Alternative Formats

		SERIES I: DIARIES, 1914-1941

1		Diaries (4 volumes), 1914 Jan.-1915 Oct., 1916 Jan.-1919 May, 1921 Aug.-1921 Dec., 1922 Jan.-1924 Dec.

2		Diary (1 volume), 1919 May-1920 July

3		Diaries (3 volumes), 1925 Jan.-1928 May, 1928 June-1932 Aug., 1932 Aug.-1934 Sept.

4		Diaries (3 volumes), 1934 Sept.-1935 May, 1935 May-1937 Jan., 1937 Feb.-1939 Feb.

5		Diaries (3 volumes), 1939 Feb.-1940 May, 1940 May-1940 June, 1940 June-1941 Apr.

		SERIES II: CORRESPONDENCE, 1910-1948

6	1	Correspondence to the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions, 1910-1920
6	2	Correspondence from the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions, 1910-1926
6	3	Correspondence related to Rev. and Mrs. Edmiston's mission work in Congo, 1911, 1920
6	4	Correspondence to missionaries, 1910-1932
6	5	Correspondence from missionaries, 1918-1948
6	6	"Dear Friends" letter upon death of Althea Brown Edmiston, 1937
6	7	Correspondence from Belgian government, 1932
6	8	Correspondence, postcards to friends, 1910, 1920
6	9	Correspondence, postcards from friends, 1910-1921

		SERIES III: SERMON AND LECTURE NOTES, late 1920s-early 1950s

6	10	Sermon Notes: Book III
6	11	Sermon Notes: Book IV
6	12	Sermon Notes: Book VI
6	13	Sermon Notes: Book VII
6	14	Sermon Notes: "God Speaks to Elijah"
6	15	Sermon Notes: "Peter's Great Confession," Luke 9:23
6	16	Sermon Notes: Luke 14:26-33
6	17	Sermon notes in native language [Tshiluba ?]
6	18	Sermon notes
6	19	Notes for lecture on native fetishes and spirit worship

		SERIES IV: PERSONAL MATERIALS AND MISCELLANEOUS MEMORABILIA, 1909-1975

6	20	Map of a Congolese village or town, hand-drawn, undated
6	21	Speaking Itineraries, 1941-1951
6	22	Notebook containing Identifications of photographs, undated
6	23	Account Book, Travel Expenses, 1926-1940
6	24	Account Books, Expenses, 1925, 1935
6	25	Inventory of Household Goods and Personal Effects, 1941
6	26	Clippings, 1909, 1926 and undated
6	27	Biographical Information, circa 1941
6	28	Cards and programs, 1912, 1939 and undated
6	29	Printed materials, 1975 and undated
6	30	Gold Medal of the Royal Order of the Lion Certificate, 1925
6	31	Creed in native language [Tshiluba ?], 1951
6	32	Image of Kwete Peshanga Kena, Chef Actuel in Ceremonial Dress, undated
6	33	Postcards, Belgian Congo, undated

		SERIES V: MISSION RECORDS, 1916-1940

6	34	Ibanche Station, Statement of Accounts and Reports, 1916-1918
6	35	Morrison Bible School, Exams [Tshiluba ?], 1932
6	36	Report on the Boys' Home and School for Agriculture, 1936 Nov. 25
6	37	Report of the Native Finance Committee, 1940 Jan. 13
6	38	Lists of Families and Baptisms, undated
6	39	"Musoko Wa Mushenga Wa Lukengu," undated
6	40	Morrison Bible School, Report of the Agricultural Department, 1923-1928
6	41	Mutoto Station, Report of the Agricultural and Boarding Department of Boys' Home, 1929-1936

7		Mutoto Station, Report of the Agricultural and Boarding Department of Boys' Home, 1937-1940

		SERIES VI: PHOTOGRAPHS AND PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS, 1908-1940

6	42	Photograph Album/Scrapbook, 1920 and undated
6	43	Photographs, Congo Mission, 1917, 1929 and undated
6	44	Photographs, Mutoto Station, Agricultural Work, 1934 and undated
6	45	Photographs, Family Pictures, 1908, 1914 and undated	Digital

8		Photograph Albums (3 albums), circa 1910s-1940 and undated [handle with care]	Digital

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Guide to the A.L. Edmiston Papers

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