The Roy Stinson Smyres Collection documents the life of a person and his family whose multifaceted ministerial career exemplifies a dedication to United Methodist Church work in the twentieth century. This dedication is well documented through a variety of record types within the collection. Smyres kept an ongoing journal (1914-1990) and date books (1913-1990) that reveal his intimate experiences as a missionary, minister, and family member. The journals from his missionary days discuss the ongoing work of the mission as well as documenting Smyres' trek across West Africa in 1919, as well as other related trips. Additional entries record interviews with missionaries and indigenous people alike. Also included are discourses and reflections on sociology, anthropology, theology, politics, and life in general.

The date books list mundane things such as financial expenditures, appointments, etc. Some of the entries are in shorthand. The correspondence between Roy Smyres and his family, friends, and colleagues are just as illuminating as the journals, date books, and images. Most of these letters were collected by Nell Smyres and were given to Roy after her death.

While in Africa, Smyres made it a point to write home at least once a week whenever possible. Roy saved copies of letters that he wrote home while serving as a missionary to Africa, which is the reason for some duplication from Nell's files. A few letters were written on the back of older ones for economy. His early pen name to his family was Bud. Record types include correspondence, Christmas letters, and postcards. There are a few letters between Roy and Esther's children with each other which due to the lack of volume were incorporated into Roy's sub-series. Roy's earlier letters (1914-1929) contain personal observations on student life at Northwestern, mission work, missionaries, cannibalism, and "frontier justice" in Africa. These letters also document formal and casual reports from the mission field, photography, and hand-drawn diagrams of architectural features of mission buildings in the Congo.

The African travel accounts tell of the dangers of living in the jungle. Family matters are sprinkled throughout the correspondence. Most of the letters are addressed to Smyres' immediate family. Correspondence from 1930 to 1949 focuses on teaching, church work in Ithaca, and the beginning of a cooperative store in Ithaca - the first of its kind in that city. Roy was greatly interested in politics and peace issues.

Smyres' early work for the mission board is discussed here as well. The letters dating from the 1950's and early 1960's revolve around his continued work for the mission board, trips, publishers, and family. Included in the mission board correspondence was his involvement with the Advance Program.

After Smyres' retirement, the correspondence documents voluntary mission work in India, the Vietnam War, and other peace issues. Subjects found in correspondence from 1970 to 1992 document articles that Smyres published, speaking engagements, ministerial activities, work for the Religious News Service, and global trips. Also during this time period family issues are recorded which include the death of his first wife, Esther, and his second marriage to Mary Fraley, and extended family events. There are social and political remarks about Vietnam, peace, The Human Needs and Security Bill of 1984, El Salvador, the Lebanon conflict, opposition to the United States government appointing an ambassador to the Vatican, and the Persian Gulf War. Most of these letters were written to government officials who had a direct influence in these issues. Another aspect of this correspondence involves his photographic commissions and subsequent loans of images to publishers and missionaries.

Esther Smyres' correspondence ranges from 1920 to 1968 with the bulk of the letters dated from 1920 to 1937. Though not as voluminous as Roy's, they do illustrate in some detail the domestic work in a missionary home as well as documenting a spouse's missionary work in the Belgian Congo. There are casual references to African geography and society. Later correspondence documents Esther's work as a school teacher, her various travels, local church work, and family. Another value of Esther's correspondence is that they often fill in points of information that Roy leaves out of his correspondence of the same time. This is especially true during their years on the mission field and ministry in the local church. Most of the correspondence is directed to Mary Hannah Brown Smyres and Nell Smyres. Mary Fraley Smyres correspondence dates from 1972 to 1980 with bulk dates of 1973 to 1975. Most of these letters relate to family events and friends. Nell Smyres incoming and outgoing correspondence documents her early childhood, college life, family news, trips, and theology.

Some of the letters are from Roy and Esther's children and grandchildren, who express their embracing of Pentecostalism and faith healing. The last group of letters is from Roy's parents. Recipients of these letters include their children as well as extended family. Topics include family news, missionary work, spirituality in the church, and theology in general.

Mary's correspondence ranges from 1911 to 1947, with the bulk of the correspondence from 1919. Luther's correspondence dates from 1916 to 1920, with the bulk of the letters from 1919-1920. Family records are general in nature and revolve around four people: Roy, Esther, Nell, and Joan Smyres. Joan was Roy and Esther's daughter-in-law who died of cancer at an early age. Joan's sub-series documents her funeral.

The rest of the material reflects the childhood, marriage, and careers of Esther and Roy. Nell's records contain her Master's Thesis written at Ohio Wesleyan on the expansion of Christianity in Russia. Nell also collected reports written by her nephew, Eugene Stockwell, a missionary in Africa.

The Writings Series contains manuscripts (1917-1990), sermons (1929-1966), prayers (1937-1988), and publications (1939-1987) authored by Roy Smyres. Included in this section are two books that Roy wrote: Thoughts of Chairman Smyres, and his autobiography. Both these volumes were published in the late 1980s. Other publications include articles and photographs. The sermons (1929-1966) illuminate a variety of topics including missions, politics, theology, liturgy, world communion, cooperatives, and stewardship. Formats include radio and children sermons as well as pulpit sermons. Some of the sermons are in shorthand. The prayers relate to the various aspects of Smyres' ministry within the church. Smyres' professional life in the ministry of the church revolved around three sub-series: local church, annual conference, and the General Board of Global Ministries. Local church records contain worship bulletins and miscellaneous church papers. Annual conference records contain reports and ephemera.

The General Board of Global Ministries sub-series documents Smyres' work in DOM Committee material, reports, gift programs, IDOC International records, Advance Program Support Funds, Central America, financial records and journals, treasurer codes, notebooks, and newsletters. Roy created and collected maps that attest to geographic areas that he served or visited. The African maps are of special interest to those researchers whose historical focus is either missions or the Belgian Congo political boundaries during his years as a missionary. The hand-drawn maps are especially enlightening. The largest series in the collection contains Smyres' photographic images. These images are the spotlight of the collection. His photographic abilities and style were sought out by a number of religious organizations. Record types include glass lantern slides, 35 mm slides, negatives, photographs, and contact sheets. Geographic areas include countries from each of the populated continents as well as Oceania.

The images cover a vast array of topics too numerous to list. In some instance's Roy kept log books that identify certain images with corresponding narrative via his unique cataloging system. It should come as no surprise that family images are in abundance as well.

This collection contains photographs, periodicals, a typed manuscript, book, and clippings that document the histories of Alvan Drew, Westminter (Texas) and High Point schools as well as family and general denominational history.

This collection reflects the missionary work of the Reverend Carroll Summerfield Long and the Methodist Episcopal Church in Japan. The material ranges from 1863 to 1931, and includes multiple record types. The collection provides an insider’s point of view towards a missionary’s life in 19th century Japan.

Correspondence from the Reverend Long has been recorded in two copy letter books (1881-1885). They include copies of business and personal letters written by Reverend Carroll Summerfield Long, which documents his role as missionary and Presiding Elder in the Nagasaki Conference. Included are financial information describing salaries, grocery lists and other expenses kept by the Japan Mission. Also included is a documented account of the newly established Cobleigh Seminary (1881), as well as the joys and concerns of running a Christian seminary in a foreign land. Personal correspondence is between his friends and family. He keeps his loved ones updates on his life abroad, describing the benefits and challenges he and his family gain while in Japan. One issue which he speaks of often is that of ill health. He writes to his family doctor in one letter, “Our mission is almost broken up by sickness...the few missionaries who are left here...to carry on the work in absence of the sick members” (March 2, 1882). Nearly all the letters are written in English, with a handful written with Japanese characters. In addition, both copy letter books include an index, where the Rev. Long as organized and recorded his letters alphabetically in reference to the respondent.

The collection includes Long’s diary (1881-1883). In which he describes his responsibilities as a minister to the Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as his responsibilities as a father, husband and son to his family. He records his day to day experiences including visitations from various missionaries, his relationship to his students and teachers at Cobleigh Seminary, as well as his reaction and criticism towards his sermons and preaching abilities. He also writes of his personal inspirations to why he joined a religious life and how it has effects his daily routine as a missionary overseas. The collection also includes an excerpt from the diary of the Reverend Long’s daughter Flora Hortense Long Harrison (1908). She describes how her Japanese teacher, Mr. Chiga, became to be a Christian and a Methodist, and the role that her father played in his religious transformation.

The role which the Reverend Long played in the Methodist Episcopal Church can also be seen in the Presiding Elders Manual which he kept for both North Carolina (1886-1888) and Japan (1888). Both manuals give a detailed account of the different conferences he was involved with. The manuals include the names of pastors, number of church members, attendance for Sunday school, as well as the financial information regarding each organization. The role of Carroll Summerfield Long, as well as other missionaries, are depicted in the collection’s thirty-one photographs. These include portraits of Long, his family, members of the Nagasaki Conference. The photographs also include some buildings, including the Wistorua of Kwassui Joyakko and Kwassui Joen, Girls Home Omura.

The collection also includes a number of publications which showcase Long’s writing and descriptions of a life in Japan to his American audience. Included in the publications are pieces written by missionary Elizabeth Russell, the history of Evangelization of Japan, as well as some biographical writings, including an obituary for the Reverend Carroll Summerfield Long.

The collection contains information pertaining to the educational and professional life, as well as the home life of Deaconess Ivy Myers, while also exploring topics within the Methodist Deaconess and Missionary organizations as a whole. These documents encompass Chicago Training School (CTS) class and faculty information, images and history between the years 1922, 1925-1927, 1929-1930, and 1933. The most prominent subject within the collection pertains to Lucy Rider Meyer, the founder of CTS, particularly information surrounding her death and accounts by acquaintances regarding Meyer's character and professional experience. The collection accommodates obituaries of other significant members of the Chicago Training School, as well as written correspondence to Ivy from various persons. The publications contain information on both Deaconess and missionary work. Photographs depict CTS faculty and students, as well as Ms. Myers life outside of her education and profession.

This collection contains sermons, manuscripts, correspondence, and biographical material on Elmer Edwin Burtner. The largest part of this collection is sermons which document his ministerial career as a Congregationalist and a Church of the United Brethren in Christ pastor. There are approximately 375 sermons. Most are not dated. The sermons have been grouped by text reference, topic, title, and fragments. Topics that Burtner addressed in his sermons included the Bible, Christians in the world, church work and the nature and criticisms of, communion and Christmas, evangelism, missions, education, youth, interchurch relations, the ministry, pastoral subjects, temperance and prohibition, and World War I. The sermons on the Bible were preached at the College Church in Westerville, Ohio, during the fundamentalist controversy of 1921-1922. They attracted widespread attention in the church.

There are five manuscripts written by Burtner on religious topics. "The Immanence of God" is 112 handwritten pages. "The Problem of Evil" is seventy-one typed pages. Both papers may have been written by Burtner while he was attending school. He also took continuing education classes with N. E. Cornetet at Otterbein College. Burtner wrote three papers for these classes. The topics of these papers are Gideon, Nehemiah, and Hebrews.

The correspondence contains a single letter written in 1914 on prohibition. It is addressed to the "Congregationalist" and discusses the prohibition views of Dr. Washington Gladden. This letter is decidedly for prohibition and against liquor trafficking.

The biographical materials include a marriage certificate, a memorial tribute, and a family photograph. The marriage certificate is from his 1910 marriage to Maude Truxall. The memorial tribute entitled, "Memorial to a Man of God," is sixty pages and contains biographical information, testimonials to his life and work, and sermons by Burtner. It was prepared by a committee of the Wagoner Memorial Bible Class of the United Brethren Church in Westerville, Ohio. Finally, there is a black and white photograph of Burtner and his three brothers, Otto, Weldon, and Luther.

This record group contains administrative records, as well as staff records from the division on curriculum research and development, the division of Higher Education, the Division of the Local Church, general youth fellowship material and various publications. The Administrative series contains executive meeting minutes, minutes of the board, audit reports and ad hoc committee reports. The Division of Curriculum contains meeting minutes and reports from various sub committees. The Division of Higher Education contains reports and correspondence with various schools supported by the denomination. The Division of the Local Church contains resources developed for the local church and Sunday school, meeting and convention minutes, and information relating to camping. General Youth Fellowship contains information about general conventions, resources developed for youth programs, and youth council minutes. Publications are resources developed for the local church and college programs.

The papers contains file folders on various places, organizations, and people Ralph T. Templin associated with during his missions. There are five files while he was at Central State University. Eight files directly related with missionary work in India but there are a number of others also pertaining to the India Missions. Eight files on the Puerto Rican independence nationalist movement which Ralph Templin strongly supported. There are various amounts on information pertaining to the Peacemaker movement and a number of files on personal correspondence. The other folders are manuscripts and published works. Some files contain photographs and newspaper clippings. The last box of the collection contains three large copies of Templin's, "Farewell Address" at Clancey High School. Two of the copies are in English and the final copy is in Sanskrit.

Content consists of lecture notes, a college brochure of Colegio Americano, a newspaper from the same school and photographs of students from Colegio Americano and the Colegio Isabela Hendrix. Photographs are a black and white medium, dating between 1948 and 1955. Lecture notes are on the history of Brazil as well as its culture and the development of education under American and religious forces.

This collection of personal papers of Mildred Anne Paine includes 23 diaries and journals, photographic images, correspondence, clippings, and biographical miscellany, most of which concern her years of missionary work. The correspondence includes personal, business, and Dear Friends letters.

Most of the diaries contain additional related information tucked between the pages, including letters, poems, prayers and newspaper clippings. The completeness of entries varies from year to year, with the most detailed and personal information from 1957-1974. Some years are missing from this collection, particularly in the period of 1926-1943. The entries are generally written in reflection of the day at hand, noting activities both personal and missionary related, daily concerns and observations, and interactions with colleagues, staff, family, and friends.

This collection also contains genealogical information, including a hand-inscribed book of births, deaths, and marriages dating from 1830, created by Paine’s Aunt, Rena W. Goldsmith. Additionally, Paine kept a birthday book of friends and family dating from 1914.

There are eight audio cassettes of Bishop Arthur James Armstrong teaching Bible themed topics at an unidentified meeting or retreat in 1977.

This collection is made up of administrative material from the Foreign Missionary Society and its various mission fields. It also includes material regarding the 1898 Sierra Leone massacre of missionaries and the trial of Daniel F. Wilberforce for cannibalism.