Photographs: Samuel B. Coles, circa 1925-1940s, undated

The papers of Samuel B. Coles document his work as a missionary and agriculturalist at the Galangue Mission in Angola during the 1920s-1950s. The collection is mostly comprised of photographs, but also contains a small amount of correspondence, lists, and a publication on the Pestalozzi Children's Village School in Angola.

The photographs provide rich visual documentation of Coles and his work at the Galandue Mission in Angola, which was the first mission founded and staffed by African Americans in Angola and was administered by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Rather than minister with sermons, Coles ministered through agricultural education. The photographs portray individiuals and buildings at the mission, while focusing on Coles demonstrating agricultural techniques and instruments and the results of those efforts. Coles also developed a machine shop at the mission, and photographs show him at various machines, as well as tools, implements, and cookware produced by him and individuals at the mission. A small number of unidentified photographs are also present.

Correspondence is comprised of two postcards and a single letter, dated 1954-1955, from Adele Apfel and Johanna M. Schlegtendal, respectively. The lists are for supplies purchased or kept by Dr. Mary F. Cushman and Rev. Henry C. and Bessie McDowell, all of whom were connected with the Galangue Mission. Lastly, the collection contains a fragment of a pamphlet, circa 1955 and entitled Pestalozzi in Angola, regarding the Pestalozzi Children's Village School in Angola.