Archives and Special Collections Subject Guide: Missionaries

The Collection comprises Reverend Daniel Bliss, American missionary and founder and first president of the Syrian Protestant College (SPC) (1866-1902), correspondence with AUB Community and other coordinates, his diaries, addresses, and letters of condolences 1916. (AUB History, American Missionaries, Education, Arab American Relations, Ottoman Period)
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The Collection of Dr. Howard Bliss, missionary educator, 2nd president of the Syrian Protestant College (1903-1920), and member of the Syrian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, comprises Bliss correspondence with David Stuart Dodge (Chairman of the SPC BOT), Turkish officials, American Consulate, faculty members and others. (AUB History, American Missionaries, Education, Ottoman Period)
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The George Edward Post collection, professor of surgery and botany at the Syrian Protestant College (1868-1909), includes Post’s correspondence with international botanists, manuscripts, plant lists etc. during his tenure at the Syrian Protestant College (AUB). Dr. Post established the largest and most diverse herbarium in the Middle East, still well maintained on AUB campus. (AUB History, American Missionaries, Botany)
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The Edwin Lewis Affair collection includes archival materials documenting the repercussions following Dr. Edwin Lewis’, professor of chemistry, geology and physics, commencement speech delivered in 1882 in which he praised Darwin’s scientific methods. This address sparked a serious discussion over the role of religion and science in education in the Arab World. This collection includes documents on Lewis, articles, petitions, reports and photos. (AUB History, American Missionaries, Darwin, Science, Religion, Education)
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For more information kindly check Cornelius Van Allen Van Dyck and Edwin Lewis AUBites files

This collection includes correspondence of the family of Mrs. Henrietta "Hetty" Butler Smith, wife of American missionary Reverend Eli Smith. It contains letters by Mrs. Smith to her two sons, Edward “Ned” Robinson Smith (artist), and Benjamin Eli Smith (editor of the Century Dictionary). These letters shed light on the life of American Missionaries in the Middle East, Europe and the United States during late 19th century early 20th century. (Gender Studies, American Missionaries, Socio-economic history)
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The album, 120 photos, taken in Lebanon by three American sisters during the Ottoman time portrays the life in the Middle East at the turn of the 20th C. Photos show the protocol of receptions, local peasantry, entertainment and horseracing, village architecture, military processions and bands, as well as sites in Baalbeck, Beirut and Beiteddine. The collection is important to researchers interested in the history and travels to the Lebanon during the Ottoman Era. (Lebanon, Ottoman Empire, Description and travel)
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Rose Ewald (1884-1960), an American social activist, was associated with Near East Relief for a long period. The small collection consists of 78 black and white photographs and 48 negatives; many are related to the American University of Beirut and some to Robert College of Istanbul. The collection is of value to researchers interested in history of AUB and the American education in the region. (AUB history, American Missionaries)

The American Press was founded by the American Mission to Malta in 1822 and moved to Beirut in 1834. The American Press contributed immensely to the intellectual and printing boom witnessed by the region at the end of the 19th c. and the turn of the 20th c. “Al Matbaaha al Amirikiyah” had its own movable letter block print design. (English and Arabic - known as "American Arabic") (Publishing Lebanon, Book industry, An-Nahda)
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This collection includes historical and administrative information about the AUB Observatory, one of the oldest observatories in the region founded in 1874 by Dr. Cornelius Van Allen Van Dyck. The collection also includes logs and registries of meteorological data and astronomical observations; as well as a few publications based on research conducted at the Observatory and the University. (AUB History, History of Science, Astronomy, Education, Environment)

The photographic collection of Franklin Moore, physician and professor of obstetrics (1891-1915) at the Syrian Protestant College, constitutes a historical record of great importance to Lebanon and the American University of Beirut at the turn of the 20th century. The bulk of the images are of the AUB campus, faculty and students; the remaining are images of sites in Lebanon: Baʻlabakk, the Cedars, and Nahr Ibrahim, as well as some parts of Syria, including Maʻlūlā and Palmyra. (AUB History, History of Photography, Visual Culture)
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The BOT minutes of meetings collection is around 6 linear feet covering the period 1863-present. It has both restricted minutes, released twenty-five years after the date of record creation, and the accessible minutes. These minutes cover decisions related to university's finances and budgets, elections, tuition changes, promotion and tenure, compensations and benefits, fundraising, academic affairs, alumni relations and external relations, etc. (Board of Trustees, American University of Beirut, Meetings and Minutes)
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The Minutes of General Faculty Meetings of the Syrian Protestant College & the American University of Beirut Collection 2.7 linear feet of archival material. The collection contains 10 bound volumes of minutes for the years 1867 to1940.The minutes include discussions, financial decisions, students’ activities and societies, discipline, faculty promotion and leaves, interdepartmental relations, academic calendar, reports, etc. French mandate, WWI and WWII, etc. (Higher Education, Ottomans, French Mandate, WWI, WWII)