This Collection was 'established for the benefit of the Churches, in the hope that they may have an increasing understanding to the enterprise to which they are called, and a deepening sense of the responsibility and honour of extending Christ’s kingdom over the whole earth', according to W. G. Allan, in his introduction to the catalogue of the library. The original purpose of the Collection was to provide 'sources of knowledge of the outside world most widely accessible to friends of missions.'
Keywords: Missionary work; topographical works; biography.
Strengths: The Collection comprises works on missionary organisation and some devotional literature, but consist for the most part of largely nineteenth-century first-hand accounts by missionaries themselves of their work and general observations in Africa, China, India, Madagascar and the South Seas. Many of the missionaries being pioneers, their writings should be of interest also to historians, geographers and sociologists.
Languages:English, little French
Identifier: LMS
Physical characteristics: c. 300 volumes
Accumulation date range: Nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Contents date range: 1795-1962
Associated Publications: London Missionary Society, Catalogue of Lending Library 75 Colinton Road, Edinburgh (Edinburgh: W. Smith Elliot, 1910). Available on Library OPAC or WebPAC
Accrual Status: Closed
Custodial history/provenance: Originally acquired as a resource for student of missions in the (then) Department of Religious Studies, the Collection came to the University Library in 1980. The Collection has been part of the London Missionary Society's Lending Library, based in Edinburgh. For a long time the library had been housed in the Scottish Congregational College, Edinburgh.
Access Control: Closed access -please request. Non-borrowable.