Salvation Army Overseas Work

IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 2133 SA
Held at: Salvation Army International Heritage Centre
Domain: archival
Title: Salvation Army Overseas Work
Date(s) of contents: 1939-
Level of description: Sub-fonds
Extent and medium: c 96 boxes of archival material; over 10,000 photographs and other visual materials (both UK and overseas); museum of artefacts (both UK and overseas).

CONTEXT

Name of creator(s): Salvation Army

Administrative/Biographical history: The East London Christian Mission was founded by the Methodist Reverend William Booth in 1865, and changed its name firstly to the Christian Mission and finally, in 1878, to the Salvation Army. The new name reflected the organization's quasi-military structure and ethos, which viewed its objectives as a form of spiritual warfare. The Salvation Army was formed as a nondeminational, integral part of the Christian church, its objectives being 'the advancement of the Christian religion… of education, the relief of poverty, and other charitable objectives beneficial to society or the community of mankind as a whole' (Salvation Army Act 1980). As well as evangelising, the Salvation Army has been involved in temperance, medical, educational and social work. An interesting aspect of the Salvation Army's work, consolidating its actual evangelisation, was its programme of emigration schemes which it ran to all parts of the British Empire during the early years of the twentieth century. A notable aspect of the Salvation Army's structure is that it has from its early days employed women at equal ranking to men.

However, although the Army's sphere of activity eventually expanded to include over 100 countries worldwide, it never considered itself to be a missionary organisation in the normal sense of the term, preferring, rather, to establish its work locally. Chief amongst the countries in which it became established were: Sweden (1878), the USA (1879), Australia (1880), France (1881), India and Switzerland (1882), Canada (c1882), New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka (1883), Germany (1886), the Caribbean, Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands (1887), Norway (1888), Belgium and Finland (1889), Argentina and Uruguay (1890), Zimbabwe (1891), Indonesia (1894), Iceland, Japan and Spain (1895), Kenya (1896), Panama (1904), Korea and Costa Rica (1907), Chile (1909), Paraguay, Peru and Russia (1910), Belize and Myanmar (1915), Mozambique (1916), Cuba (1918), Czechoslovakia (1919), Bolivia and Nigeria (1920), Brazil, Ghana and Zambia (1922), Hungary (1924), Austria and Estonia (1927), Taiwan (1928), Hong Kong (1930), Uganda (1931), the Philippines and Tanzania (1933), Mexico (1934), Singapore (1935), Congo (1937), Papua New Guinea (1956), Malawi (1968), Bangladesh (1970), Portugal (1971), Venezuela (1972), Fiji (1973), Guatemala (1976), Ecuador (1985), Tonga (1986), Colombia and Liberia (1988), Latvia (1990), Georgia and Ukraine (1993), Rwanda (1994), Macau and Romania (1999).

See also:
Robert Sandall, Arch R Wiggins and Frederick Lee Coutts, The history of the Salvation Army, 7 vols (Atlanta : Salvation Army Supplies, 1986).
Jeffrey Cox, Imperial fault lines: Christianity and colonial power in India, 1818-1940 (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2002).

Custodial history: Many records and official documents were destroyed during World War Two, and this, together with the haphazard record keeping in the past, has resulted in very incomplete coverage of the Army's activities.
The Heritage Centre's own website contains further details of its own history, including information about how its Archive and Museum were established.

Immediate source of acquisition:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

Scope and content/abstract: The Overseas Work subfonds of the Salvation Army Archive consists of c 28 boxes:
Papers relating to Europe Zonal Conferences 1961-92 (2 box).
Papers relating to South Asia Zonal Conferences 1955-87 and Africa Zonal Conferences 1965-87 (1 box).
Papers relating to South Pacific Zonal Conferences 1976-87, The Americas 1973-94 and USA Commissioners Conferences 1952-96 (1 box).
Material relating to International Congresses (5 boxes).
Papers relating to various global disasters in which the Salvation Army has provided assistance, arranged alphabetically by country (2 boxes).
Material relating to European relief work, mainly team reports 1945-50 (2 boxes).
Sweden Territory correspondence relating to Belgium 1940-44, Czechoslovakia 1939-45, Denmark 1939-45, France 1940-44, Finland 1940-45, Germany 1939-42 , Hungary 1939-45, Holland 1940-45, Norway 1940-45 and Brigadier E Wickberg, Territory Commander correspondence 1942-45 (7 boxes).
Report of the General's India Strategy Commission 1988 and the 1993 review,
India report 1955 and memoranda on India 1940 (1 box).
Annual reports from the following countries/territories: Belgium 1974-88, Denmark 1977-88, Finland 1981-88, France 1978-88, Germany 1980-88, Italy 1979-88, Netherlands 1975-87, Norway 1979-88, Portugal 1974-86, Spain 1982-86, Sweden 1975-87, Switzerland 1976-88, Brazil 1970-88, Caribbean and Central America Territory 1972-88, Mexico and Central America Territory 1986-88, South America East Territory 1970-88, South America West Territory 1970-89, Canada and USA c1980s (4 boxes).
Unsorted South Pacific and East Asia (SPEA) and South Asia material (2 boxes).
Miscellaneous memoranda of appointments relating to various territories (1 box).

Territory Series - Overseas Work. This series of subject files (arranged alphabetically) by the name of country/territory of material relating to the Salvation Army's overseas work. Most files contain press cuttings, photocopied material, reports and some correspondence, mainly 20th century. Files cover the following areas; Africa, Americas and Caribbean, Europe, South Asia, South Pacific and East Asia (68 boxes).

The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre also contains a Photographic Library including more than 10,000 photographs, representing all aspects of Salvation Army work both in the UK and overseas (particularly Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, South Africa and the USA). As well as photographs, the collection includes glass negatives, lantern slides and photograph albums. A large part of the collection consists of portraits and family groups, formal group photographs of Salvation Army bands and other musicians, as well as pictures of Salvation Army buildings, activities and events. Many of the individual photographs are unidentified, but are useful to show uniform styles of different periods.

The Heritage Centre also contains a Museum of artefacts illustrating the history of the Salvation Army's work both in the UK and overseas. These include items such as uniforms, insignia, musical instruments, promotional items and illustrative materials. A selection can be viewed online.

System of arrangement: Non-printed overseas material held at the Salvation Army International Heritage Centre is divided between its Archives, Photographic Library and Museum.

The Salvation Army Archives includes the Overseas Work subfonds, which has been artificially created, on a subject basis, as part of the Territories fonds. The archives of the Salvation Army were not established until 1978; prior to this date material was arranged alphabetically by country, and subsequently alphabetically within each continent. Each file of a particular country or area contains all the material relating to it from the date of entry into the country, including correspondence, reports, articles, newspaper cuttings and in some cases photographs and periodicals. There is generally one file per country.

Within the Photographic Library, much of its material has still to be sorted and catalogued.

Within the Museum, many items are not currently on display because of limitations of space.

ACCESS AND USE

Language: English.

Conditions governing access: Access to some documents may be restricted.

Conditions governing reproduction: Refer to the Archivist for further details.

Finding aids: Card index. A database is in the process of being compiled.
Refer also to the summary report on the records of the Salvation Army available on the Historical Manuscripts Commission website.
An audioguide describing artefacts within the Museum is available.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material: Material relating to the Salvation Army that is housed outside of the UK can be found via the UK Heritage Centre's links to other Salvation Army Heritage Centres worldwide.
The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre also holds a collection of printed material.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note: Compiled with the aid of:
The website of the Historical Manuscripts Commission.
The website of the Salvation Army International Heritage Centre.
Rosemary Seton and Emily Naish, A preliminary guide to the archives of British missionary societies (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1992).

Date(s) of descriptions: August 2002.

INDEX ENTRIES

Subjects

Advertising

Christians

Clothing

Communication process

Conferences

Development aid

Disaster relief

Educational missionary work

Evangelistic missionary work

Food aid

Group communication

Hunger

Illustrations

Malnutrition

Medical missionary work

Mission administration

Mission policy

Missionary societies

Missionary work

Music

Musical instruments

Newspaper press

Nondenominational missionary societies

Overseas/foreign mission administration

Photographic slides

Photographs

Posters

Press

Press cuttings

Protestant missionary societies

Protestants

Religious activities

Religious groups

Religious organizations

Social problems

Textiles

Visual materials

Women's missionary work

Personal names

Corporate names

Salvation Army

Places

Africa

Americas

Antigua and Barbuda

Argentina

Asia

Australia

Bahamas

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belgium

Belize

Bermuda

Bolivia

Brazil

Canada

Caribbean

Caucasian States

Central Africa

Central America

Chile

China

Congo

Cuba

Czechoslovakia

Denmark

East Africa

East Asia

Eastern Europe

Ecuador

Egypt

Europe

Finland

France

French Guiana

Germany

Ghana

Grenada

Guyana

Haiti

Hong Kong

Hungary

India

Indonesia

Iraq

Italy

Jamaica

Japan

Korea DPR

Korea R

Liberia

Malawi

Malaysia

Middle East

Mozambique

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nigeria

North Africa

North America

Norway

Oceania

Pakistan

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Saint Helena

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Sierra Leone

Singapore

Somalia

South Africa

South America

South Asia

South East Asia

Southern Africa

Spain

Sri Lanka

Suriname

Swaziland

Sweden

Switzerland

Tanzania UR

Trinidad and Tobago

UK

USA

Uganda

Uruguay

West Africa

Western Europe

Zaire

Zambia