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This collection contains handwritten minutes, many with revisions and excisions, for 49 meetings of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions between 1848 and 1892. Written by multiple clerks, the minutes contain information on attendance, votes, resolutions, current and future missions, letters received, appointees, offers of service, reports from the field, salaries, grants, funding distribution, and other subjects.

This collection contains handwritten minutes, many with significant revisions and excisions, for 49 meetings of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions between 1848 and 1892. Written by multiple clerks, the minutes contain information on attendance, votes, resolutions, current and future missions, letters received, appointees, offers of service, reports from the field, salaries, grants, and funding distribution. Other subjects referenced include Native American tribes, the Dakotas "in the new frontier," the need for missionaries to have wives, death or health concerns related to members, legal or domestic issues with foreign officials, and mission work in Hawaii.

Among the Mission Stations referenced are:

• Cape Town
• Constantinople
• Smyrna
• Beirut
• Oroomiah
• Ahmednuggur
• Canton
• Amoy
• Madras
• Fuh Chau
• Mosul
• Shanghai
• Aleppo
• Peking
• Guadalajara
• San Sebastian
• Prague
• and others

Registers of membership, baptisms, marriages and deaths, session minutes, trustee minutes, treasurer's records, and records of the women's foreign missionary society, ladies church society, and Presbyterian women's union.

The First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham record group includes session minutes; trustee minutes; registers of membership, births, marriages, and deaths; deacons' minutes; treasurer's records; minutes and ledgers from church women's organization; and miscellaneous other materials.

The Gridley Family papers contain the letters of a highly educated New York family, who were drawn to evangelical religion and progressive causes in the 1820-1830s. The letters are all personal in nature about daily family life and matters of religion, education, and travel.

The Gridley Family papers (212 items) are comprised of 210 letters, 1 legal document, and one speech. The Gridley family of Clinton, New York, maintained regular correspondence with relatives in Rochester, Aurora, Hamilton, and other towns in western New York. The 210 letters, spanning the years 1808-1885, are entirely personal in nature and document a highly educated New York family, who were drawn to evangelical religion in the 1820-1830s. The letters show a family that held abolitionist, temperance, and other progressive views.

The earliest items are a printed notice from 1798 directed to the inhabitants of Connecticut informing them of an upcoming property tax recently enacted by congress, and a deed transferring land in New York State to Orrin Gridley in [1807?].

Ten letters from 1815-1828 are from Orrin to his wife Fanny, written during his travels to Albany, New York, and Baltimore. He speaks of his business dealings and of religious services he attends. In one letter from April 17, 1820, he described a church service that included missionaries who were about to travel west to convert the Osage Indians "on the Arkensaw." Other letters from this period include nine items from Rachel Kellogg Strong, Fanny's younger sister, and a few from her husband S. Strong, addressed to Orrin. As with most of the letters in the collection, these discuss family, health, business, and religion.

Wayne Gridley's earliest letter is from 1825, written when he was 14 years old. His letters from Andover provide a sense of student life at the Seminary and include discussions of his education (such as learning about missionary work and encounters with "heathen Indians" from North America and the Pacific Islands), as well as his evolving thoughts on religion and social issues. In a letter from 1837, he voices anti-slavery sentiments to his parents. Wayne's letter from November 20, 1836, contains a large lithograph letterhead of Andover Theological Seminary; a letter from July 31, 1849, has a colorful letterhead depicting buildings in Hamburg, Germany.

Through 1849, most of the letters are addressed to Fanny and Orrin from their children, including ten items written to Fanny from her youngest son Charles, when he was in Saratoga Springs, New York, and when he traveled in Europe. In a long letter to Albert G. Gridley, a friend in Paris described his brother Charles' illness and death, and enclosed a carte-de-visite, presumably of Charles.

Letters written by Amos Delos Gridley and his wife Ellen, while on a tour of Georgia and Florida in 1851, include extensive commentary on slavery and the South. For instance, the Gridleys mention that rarely does one see anyone from the South being waited upon by a white person. They also discuss the issue concerning the conversion of slaves to Christianity. In one note, they remark about the steamboat Magnolia exploding on the Ohio River. The latter part of the collection contains many letters sent to George Bristol, Harriet E. Bristol, and Cornelia Bristol of Clinton, New York, from Ellen and Amos Delos Gridley.

The collection contains 48 undated family letters. In the last undated folder is an ink illustration of a house drawn by Amos Delos Gridley. This folder also contains an 18-page speech written upon the death of Adelaide G. Smith, the only daughter of Orrin Gridley.

The Hemenway family collection is made up of correspondence, documents, books, and other items related to the family of Asa and Lucia Hunt Hemenway, who worked as Christian missionaries to Siam (Thailand) in the mid-19th century. Most items pertain to family members' lives in the United States after their return in 1850. One group of letters pertains to the ancestors of Maria Reed, who married Lewis Hunt Hemenway.

The Hemenway family collection contains correspondence, documents, books, and other items related to the family of Asa and Lucia Hunt Hemenway, who served as Christian missionaries to Siam (Thailand) in the mid-19th century. Most items pertain to family members' lives in the United States after their return in 1850.

The Correspondence series is divided into two subseries. The Cotton Family Correspondence (26 items, 1819-1848) primarily consists of incoming personal letters to Frances Maria Cotton, whose father, siblings, and friends shared news from Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts. Her brother Henry, a member of the United States Navy, wrote about his travels to Cuba and Haiti on the USS St. Louis in the 1830s. The subseries also includes letters to Frances's father, John Cotton, and her husband, Joseph Reed.

The Hemenway Family Correspondence (116 items, 1857-1899) is comprised of letters between members of the Hemenway family. Lucia Hunt Hemenway wrote to her niece, Isabella Birchard, and her son, Lewis Hunt Hemenway, about her life in Ripton, Vermont, in the late 1850s and early 1860s, and corresponded with her sisters, Charlotte Birchard and Amanda Tottingham. Her letters contain occasional references to the Civil War. Other items include a letter from M. R. Rajoday to Asa Hemenway, written in Thai (March 23, 1860), and a letter from S. B. Munger to Asa Hemenway about Munger's experiences as a missionary in India (February 23, 1867).

The bulk of the subseries is comprised of Lewis Hunt Hemenway's letters to Isabella Birchard, his cousin, written between the 1860s and 1880s. He discussed his studies at Middlebury College, his decision to join the Union Army, and his service with the 12th Vermont Infantry Regiment, Company K, in Virginia in 1862 and 1863. He later wrote about his work at the King's County Lunatic Asylum in Brooklyn, New York; his medical practice in Manchester, Vermont; and his brief stint as a partner in an insurance firm in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His letter of February 16, 1877, includes a illustrated view of Saint Paul's city limits. Lewis and his wife, Maria Reed, corresponded with their children. Their daughter Clara also received letters from her grandfather Asa Hemenway.

The first item in the Diaries and Writings series is a diary that Lucia Hunt Hemenway kept while traveling from Boston, Massachusetts, to Thailand with other missionaries onboard the Arno between July 6, 1839, and September 21, 1839 (approximately 50 pages). She described her fellow passengers, discussed the religious meetings they held while at sea, and anticipated her missionary work in Thailand. A second item by Lucia Hemenway is a religious journal in which she recorded around 22 pages of Biblical quotations for her son Lewis from December 1, 1844-February 1, 1846. The final pages contain a poem entitled "Sunday School" and a list of rhymes that her son had learned.

The journals are followed by 15 speeches and essays by Lewis Hunt Hemenway. He composed Latin-language orations and English-language essays about politics, literature, the Civil War, death, and ancient history.

Maria Reed Hemenway kept a diary (39 pages) from November 20, 1875-[1878], primarily about her children's lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, after September 1877. The final item in the series is a 47-page religious sermon or essay attributed to Asa Hemenway (undated)

The Documents and Financial Records series (7 items) includes Asa Hemenway's graduation certificate from Middlebury College (August 10, 1835); a documents certifying his position as a missionary for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (June 29, 1839, and May 26, 1851); and a United States passport for Asa and Lucia Hemenway (December 26, 1838). Two account books belonged to an unidentified owner and contain records of debts and credits, dated December 1, 1830-December 1, 1831 (volume 1) and December 1, 1831-December 1, 1832 (volume 2).

The Photographs and Silhouettes series (9 items) includes silhouettes of Lucia and Asa Hemenway, photograph portraits of two Thai women, a portrait of an unidentified Thai man, and a portrait of King Mongkut. Two photographs show a tree and buildings near the missionary compound where the Hemenway family lived.

The Books series (22 items) includes volumes in English, Sanskrit, and Thai. Subjects include the history of Thailand, Christianity, and missionary work in southeast Asia.

A volume of Genealogy (approximately 40 pages) contains records pertaining to the births, marriages, and deaths of members of the Hunt family and their descendants, as well as a history of the descendants of Ralph Hemenway of Roxbury, Massachusetts. Manuscript notes and letters are laid into the volume.

The Artifacts and Fabrics series includes baskets, textiles from Thailand, coins, and bottles.

The Blandina Diedrich Collection is a selection of manuscript items compiled by her son Duane Norman Diedrich and dedicated to her memory. The content of these letters, sermons, documents, and other materials reflect the life and interests of Blandina Diedrich (1903-1996), most prominently subjects pertinent to Christianity, home, and the family.

The Blandina Diedrich Collection is a selection of manuscript items compiled by her son Duane Norman Diedrich and dedicated to her memory. The manuscripts reflect the life and interests of Blandina Diedrich, most prominently Christianity, home, and the family. Items include sermons from prominent ministers or preachers of different Protestant denominations, documents related to church operations and discipline, letters by prominent and everyday persons respecting their faith and beliefs, correspondence of missionaries, and reflections on religion's role in all manner of human endeavor.

The collection is comprised of over 260 letters, manuscript sermons and hymns, documents, and other items. For a comprehensive inventory and details about each item in the collection, please see the box and folder listing below.

Family of Brackley Shaw of Adrian, Michigan, Republican state representative from Lenawee County, Michigan, 1869-1870, later state senator, 1881-1884. The collection consists of personal correspondence of Shaw, his son Horatio W., and his brother Horatio W. Shaw.

The Shaw family collection consists of letters to and from several members of the Shaw family of Lenawee County during the period 1840-1938, with the bulk falling in the years roughly 1860-1890. Family members represented include Horatio Shaw (1822-1910), a Presbyterian missionary and clergyman; his brother, Brackley Shaw (b. 1818), member of the Michigan Legislature (1869-70; 1881-84); and Brackley's son, Horatio W. Shaw (1847-1918), Michigan artist. The letters have been described by chronological time period.

1845-1848: Letters from Horatio Shaw to Brackley Shaw

1850-1859: Largely family correspondence, including some letters home (1855, 1857) from Reverend and Mrs. Horatio Shaw from their missionary station in Allahabad, India.

1860-1865: Correspondence includes a few items pertaining to the Civil War, most of which does not relate to Michigan.

1866-1870: A great deal of political correspondence is included in these years, particularly during 1869, when Brackley Shaw served as a Republican member of the state House of Representatives from Lenawee County. There are letters from Shaw to his wife describing events in Lansing, and correspondence with various persons on such subjects as railroads, prisons and other state institutions, and dentistry regulation. There is also a letter of H. E. Baker (Detroit Advertiser and Tribune) to Brackley Shaw, dated December 25, 1668, with comments on the character of Senator Zachariah Chandler.

1871-1879: Mostly family correspondence, including letters written from White Cloud, Kansas, with descriptions of conditions there in the late 1860's and early 1870's.

1880-1890: Considerable political correspondence during Brackley Shaw's two terms as Republican member of the state senate (1880-1884). Topics covered include: homeopathic medicines, temperance and prohibition, Republican Party politics, prisons and reformatories, protection for corporate minority stockholders, and a great deal of correspondence pertaining to the election of a United States Senator in the spring of 1983. There is a large collection of letters from Shaw to his wife describing his senatorial activities. Also included are letters, 1881, 1383, 1884, from various Philadelphia artists to Horatio Shaw, the painter, and letters, 1881-92, from H. Shaw (signed "Pat") to his wife Susie. Some letters contain references to well-known American painters of the time, including comments on Shaw's style and abilities as an artist

1891-1936: family correspondence.

The Tracy family papers consist of letters written by members of a large family from Norwich, Connecticut while living away from home, including two letters from a missionary in India.

This collection is somewhat of a hodgepodge; a few curious lives come to light, but there are not enough letters to entirely flesh out the various writers, or connect the lives of what must have been a large, tight-knit family group. There are 4 letters written by Charles, shortly before his death, 6 letters from William, while he was in Philadelphia, 2 excellent letters from his wife Emily, written from India, 5 written by George, who went down to Mobile, 5 other family letters, 4 letters written by friends, including a female schoolteacher, and 8 letters written much later to Louise and Antoinette Tracy, who were trying to gather genealogical material.

The two most fascinating letters are from Emily, who described the Indians and their ways, as well as the missionary work that brought the Tracys to Southern India. Predictably, she was rather negative about the people she was there to convert. The combination of what she viewed as laziness and lying left her with little respect for the Indians. "I know of nothing in America, which is so universal, as falsehood is among this people, they have a proverb, 'that where the mouth opens a lie comes out,' and this seems to be litterally the case," she fulminated (1838 November 16).

After overpaying a couple times, she pronounced that "their great aim is to get all the money they can, and do as little as possible in return." To Emily, itinerant beggars were the embodiment of this aim, so distasteful to her Protestant work ethic: "You would be surprised to know what a quantity of persons there are in this country, whose business it is to go from village to village begging . . . some time ago one of these beggars came to me, and I said I cannot give you anything, you are a strong stout man, if you will do this work, I will pay you for it but I cannot encourage any body in idleness, who is able to work as you are, said he, 'it is not my custom to work, I am a beggar,' well then, said I, you can go, it is not my custom to support people who can work, but who are too lazy to do so."

Rats and mosquitoes disrupted their sleep, but an even greater trial of missionary life was the difficulty of remaining connected to the loved ones back in America. Writing to the Tracys, Emily asked if they knew why she had not heard from her own parents. After writing thirty letters and receiving no response, she had stopped writing, but not worrying (1839 February 13).

Emily's main preoccupation, however, remained the Tamil people, and she lamented, "Oh how easily are this people led captive by Satan at his will." Witnessing people unselfconsciously bathing in public, and married women performing a fertility ceremony "in the presence of multitudes of people without the least thought that their was any indelicacy in it" seemed to intensify her desire to "guide them to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world."

While she was talking to some "deluded pagans" after they had completed their ceremonies, Emily was asked, "Where did you, a woman, get so much wisdom'"? She was struck that "this people seem not to get the idea, that a woman could know how to do anything else beside cook rice, carry burdens, and gather cow dung for fuel." Emily thought some of the women she spoke to were bright, and "looked as though they might have made smart intelligent women had they been properly educated, whereas now they seem scarcely to have a thought above their food and dress. O when will the time come when the blindness be taken from their eyes"?

Norwich was the home base of the Tracy family, and several of the daughters seem to have never left it, or each other. They probably all worked to earn their keep. William wrote to his sister Mary Ann, "I am glad to hear you have steady work some where or other as father will not have to work so hard as he did before you knew the trade" (1821 June 24). The sons, on the other hand, moved to other places to make a living, either because they wanted to see the world, or there was no future for them in Norwich. This collection of letters written to the women back home documents the men's struggles to get accustomed to being apart from those they were supposed to support, and be supported by. A New Year's greeting filled with religious exhortations is the only "out going" letter from Norwich, written by Susan to her brother Charles (1815 December 31). This intimates that the sisters provided their wandering brothers with religious and moral guidance, as well as keeping them apprised of local news.

Maintaining long-distance familial support was a challenge. Writing after Charles' death, David eloquently reassured his mother, "I feel the only legacy he has left writ deeply on my heart, to comfort and be all to you which we both might have been" (1818 May 1). He was relieved that his mother had visited Charles just before he died, and noted that he had "some of the dear boys hair which I mean to have set in something for my sisters." William told his sister Elizabeth why it was better that they did not live together: "I should like to see you, and be with you, but if we were always together, we should lose much of that pleasure which we feel at meeting after a long seperation, and when duty calls us apart we should yield to her voice with contentment" (1825 June 13). At the same time, he asked her to write to him more frequently, even if he had not responded, for "there are many of you, while I am alone," indicating his need for frequent contact with his family.

George had less time to spend thinking about the folks back home: "I have not been able to think of much except cotton -- it has been cotton from before day break, untill late in the evening. Some times it is eleven o'clock before I can leave the office. I have some times thought that there was more cotton in my head than there was in all the cotton factories in New England" (1831 May 29). Although he was unsure if he wanted to stay in Mobile and keep working in the cotton trade, he was still there a few years later -- but still talking of moving on: "My future exertions in business may be differently directed, but as I am not yet determined that it will, or if it is, in what way, I do not speak of it" (1834 March 10).

Lucinda, a properly educated female native of Norwich, did leave her home in order to make her living. Unlike the men, who stressed the flexibility of their business plans -- George in particular -- Lucinda felt trapped in her position. She wrote to Sarah, "I thought if I should leave my school it would be uncertain when or where I could collect one again. This is the way in which I expect to gain my support & it is best for me to keep with my business. Don't you think so?" (1832 April 14). She rhapsodized about the haunts of her childhood home in a rather morose fashion, and blamed her melancholy on being spurned by a friend, whose desertion had left her quite alone with her pupils.