The Latourette Initiative for the Documentation of World Christianity
Kenneth Scott Latourette
D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity
1921-1953
The Latourette Initiative is a proactive program to preserve and provide access to the documentation of world Christianity. It provides funding for the microfilming and digitization of published and archival resources documenting the history of Christian missions and the life of the churches in countries where missionaries served.
The Initiative is named for Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1968), who was D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School. Latourette was instrumental in changing the focus of the Day Missions Collection at Yale from a resource for training missionaries to a collection documenting the history of Christian missions. The endowment he established to further the work of the Yale Divinity Library provides the funding for the Latourette Initiative.
Projects funded by the Latourette Initiative to this point include:
- World Council of Churches
- World War II-era records of the World Council of Churches (distributed by Brill /IDC Publishers)
- YDSL Fiche Ms117
- World Student Christian Federation Archives, held by the World Council of Churches (Brill)
- YDSL Fiche Ms1123
- Programme to Combat Racism (Brill)
- YDSL Film Ms367
- Dialogue with People of Living Faiths (Brill)
- YDSL Film Ms381
- Christian Medical Commission (Brill)
- YDSL Film Ms516
- Relations with the Roman Catholic Church (Brill)
- YDSL Film Ms517
- Correspondence of the General Secretaries (Brill)
- YDSL Film Ms518
- General correspondence (Brill)
- YDSL Fiche Ms113
- World War II-era records of the World Council of Churches (distributed by Brill /IDC Publishers)
- Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh
- Regions Beyond Missionary Union Archives (distributed by Adam Matthew)
- YDSL Film Ms312
- Sudan United Mission (Adam Matthew)
- YDSL Film Ms387
- Missionary periodicals & Alexander Duff pamphlet collection (Adam Matthew)
- Guide (YDSL collection In Process)
- Regions Beyond Missionary Union Archives (distributed by Adam Matthew)
- Melbourne School of Theology (Australia)
- Unevangelised Fields Mission (distributed by Pacific Manuscripts Bureau)
- YDSL Film Ms536
- Unevangelised Fields Mission (distributed by Pacific Manuscripts Bureau)
- South Sea Evangelical Mission (PMB)
- YDSL Film SD2345 , Film SD2346, Film Ms271, Film Ms375, Film Ms482
- Uganda Christian University: Church of the Province of Uganda Archives (Brill)
- Finding aids and link to digital files [Digital files available only on Yale campus]
- Gujarat United School of Theology: Gujarat Diocese Archives, Church of North India (Brill)
- Project overview
- Monograph collection [Digital files available only on Yale campus]
- Archival collection [Digital files available only on Yale campus]
- Hong Kong Baptist University:
- Denominational periodicals
project
- Link to digital files [Digital files available only on Yale campus]
- Denominational periodicals
project
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
- ELCA mission archives
- available through Primary Source Media: Guide
- see YDSL Archives of Organizations listing for specific microfilm call numbers
- ELCA mission archives
Microfilm produced by Latourette Initiative projects is available for Interlibrary Loan. Contact the Special Collections Librarian for more information.
We welcome proposals from libraries, archival repositories, mission agencies, and others with collections of such documentation, for projects that would help carry forward the work of the Latourette Initiative. We are particularly interested in ways that the Latourette Initiative might provide "seed money" that would leverage other resources to preserve and provide access to this documentation.
For more information on the Latourette Initiative, or to discuss a possible project, please contact:
Paul F. Stuehrenberg
Yale Divinity Library
409 Prospect St.
New Haven, CT 06511
paul.stuehrenberg@yale.edu
