Congregational Home Missionary Society records

The records of the Congregational Home Missionary Society (CHMS) contain correspondence, both incoming and outgoing, reports, and printed matter mainly covering the years 1917-1927. The collection documents the financial and administrative work of the Society, as well as the personal activities and issues faced by its missionaries. Foreign speaking communities are also detailed within the letters and reports of the Society.

The bulk of the collection documents, through correspondence and reporting, the CHMS’s work within the various states with the largest groups of files represented for the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Additionally, a component of the collections consists of the early records of the Congregational Church Extension Boards under which the CHMS became a department in 1917. The departments of church extension focused the missions programs and services in the areas of funding aid, consultation, and Christian education. The bulk of the correspondence throughout the collection are represented by General Secretaries Charles E. Burton and Earnest M. Halliday, as well Frank L. Moore, Assistant Treasurer and Secretary of Missions. Auxiliary officer’s correspondence is representative of W. Knighton Bloom, Secretary of Missions for the Eastern Division, Harold M. Kingsley of the Department of Negro Work; Malcolm Dana of the Department of Rural Work (Town and Country); Charles H. Baker, Treasurer; William s. Beard, Secretary of Promotion; and many others.

Of note are the files of the Department of Foreign Work, which documents missionary work with foreign speaking congregations and communities. These files also contain a set of records of the General Committee of Missionary and Immigrant Aid Work at Ellis Island, which document missionary efforts by multiple religious denominations including Catholic and Jewish aid societies to assist newly arrived people with regards to conditions on the island, housing, medical care, and connections with their relatives.

Photographs are located throughout the State files when attached to individual letters or special reports. A small series of photographs for various states are located at the end of the collection and often include images of church buildings, and individual missionaries and communities.

Main topics include immigrant communities, missionary recruitment, religious training, church expansion post-World War I, and missionary work and conditions throughout the United States.