Missionary Postcard Collection
The Yale Divinity Library holds approximately 20,000 missionary postcards. These postcards were produced by mission sending agencies and distributed throughout Europe and America with the intent of promoting support for the missions' work and providing information about non-Western peoples and customs. The majority of the postcards relate to African countries but the following countries are also represented: Arabia; Argentina; Australia; Bahama; Barbados; Bolivia; Brazil; Burma; Cambodia/Laos; Canada; Carolina Islands; Ceylon; Chile; China; Colombia; Cook Islands;Ecuador; Egypt; Fiji; Gilbert Islands; Guatemala; Guyana; Haiti; India; Indonesia; Jamaica; Japan; Korea; Malaysia/Singapore; Mexico; Peru; Philippines; Romania; Russia; Samoa; Venezuela, etc.
More than 4,000 postcards have been digitized and are accessible via the following two websites:
- ATLA Cooperative Digital Resource Initiative: 350+ postcards (Search or browse by collection)
- International Mission Photography Archive: 3600+ postcards (Restrict search Yale and search for "postcard")
Additional postcards will be digitized as time and funds permit. The postcards have been organized according to geography, and can be browsed in the Special Collections Reading Room. For the postcards that are not yet digitized, transcriptions of the text on them are being compiled and can be viewed at http://www.library.yale.edu/div/fa/postcards.pdf.