The Billy Graham Center Archives hold eighteen collections that contain records of leprosy work.

Collection 55, of Otto Frederick Schoerner, contains a taped interview of Schoerner’s work with the China Inland Mission between 1931 and 1951. This includes a discussion of his experiences with leprosy.

Collection 81, the collection of the Africa Inland Mission, International, contains correspondence, minutes, reports, personnel files, photographs, slides, and audio tapes relating to the mission's work in Africa from its founding. These include a letter to the governor of the Congo province of Stanleyville describing the possibility of setting up leprosy work in the colony (folder 13-4) and the correspondence of H D Campbell on leprosy work in Tanganyika (folder 19-20). There is correspondence, pamphlets, and newsletters from several different missions including the American Mission to Lepers (folder 14-12), and details on “the work among lepers and the efforts by the colonial government to regulate work at Kolu Nidoto” in German East Africa/Tanganyika/Tanzania (folder 16-17). There are two audiotapes: Ministry to Leper Patients in Uganda and a talk by Vera Thiessen on leprosy and medical training for Africans (1957). The Records of the International Council (1938-1985) hold material relating to the Comoro Islands (folders 31-26 to 32-2), including a folder on leprosy work (folder 32-1). The black and white photographs in this collection include photographs of leprosy at Oicha, Belgian Congo (Zaire). Amongst the “Sending Home Councils’ Files” there is a file entitled “Christian Fellowship to Evangelize Leprosy Sufferers – Constitution” and a file on Leprosy Work in Tanganyika (Correspondence; May 1950-Mar 1956).

Collection 136, the Records of Mission Aviation Fellowship, holds information about its leprosy mission in Liberia (1968-9, folder 43-13) and the Assembly of God, Liberia, Sinoe Leprosy Mission (1965-1968, Box: 43 folder: 13) and material on the American Leprosy Missions (1964-1967, Box: 20 folder: 16).

Collection 165 contains the Records of the Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies (EFMA). These records span the years 1937-1996 including correspondence with Oliver W Hasselblad (the American Leprosy Mission), the work with the American Leprosy Mission, especially in the Philippines, on the International Christian Leprosy Mission, and the Mission to Lepers (1960-62). There is correspondence with the American Leprosy Missions in 1970s.

Collection 178 contains the papers of Donald Anderson and Mary Elizabeth (Howard) McGavran. These papers span the years 1906-1991 and covers their work as missionaries in India with the Disciples of Christ. Between 1936-1954, Donald McGarvran was manager of a leprosarium at Takhatpur, India. The collection includes a videotape, Constrained By Love, showing in some detail the activities of the Christian community in Takhatpur (1950s).

Collection 186, the Marion Douglas Hursh Collection, contains a small amount of manuscript material, photographs, and memorabilia concerning Hursh's work at the Sudan Interior Mission's Kano Eye Hospital, Kano, Nigeria, 1942-62. There are also two oral history interviews, recorded in 1981 and 1982, about the Kano Mission and its associated leprosaria. Folder 1-3 consists of fifty-eight letters written by Laura and Douglas Hursh to their families in Michigan and Minnesota, 1942-1951 concerning their mission work in Kano, Nigeria, including leprosy work. The tapes contain a summary of years at Kano, including a description of the SIM leprosy work. Photographs of Kano, Nigeria, and the Kano Leper Settlement can be found in the photo file: Kano, Nigeria.

Collection 200, the collection of Robert William and Winifred Thompson Hockman. Robert William Hockman was born at Chentu, Szechwan, China on October 29, 1906, the son of William Halleck (1873-1945) and Katie Elizabeth Rogers Moses Hockman (1872-1944), who were missionaries with the China Inland Mission. This collection contains letters written by Robert and Winifred Hockman to his parents (1933-35) describing their mission work in Ethiopia with the United Presbyterian Church. Tape T1 – side 2 includes information on the Sudan Interior Mission leprosarium.

Collection 215 contains the records of the United States Home Council of Overseas Missionary Fellowship (China Inland Mission). This collection contains a banner made by “the whole body of the Leprosarium, Lanchow, China." (Ca. 1950), presented to CIM missionary M. Joy Leister. There are photographs of the Saiburi Hospital and Leprosarium (1966-1979). There is also a Photo Album file compiled by missionaries John and Edith Toop about their work at Manorom Hospital in Thailand. Images include the leprosarium.

Collection 260 comprises of two taped interviews with Jeannette Louise Martig Thiessen. These interviews include her years in India from 1952-1974 working with her husband under the sponsorship of the Mennonite Mission to the Lepers and American Leprosy Mission. She worked as a nurse, and he was responsible for the medical program and surgery from 1952 to 1974, both in Champa and at the Ellingowan House in Landour, India. The tapes includes the history of Mennonite involvement in India and the beginning of the leprosy mission as well as her husband's visits to Carville Leprosarium in New Orleans.

Collection 284 contains the tapes of two interviews with Gladys Lyle Wright in which Wright discusses, among other things, her work as a missionary in the Belgian Congo (now Zaire) for the Africa Inland Mission. This includes descriptions of the leprosarium and other medical activities at the station.

Collection 298, the papers of Howard E. Thomas, consists of an oral history interview and a proposal for expansion of the scope of mission activity in southwestern China. This includes missionary work with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions among lepers of the Tai-Lu people along the Burmese border in southwestern China. Thomas was appointed supervisor of the South China leper colonies along with Marie Park. The tapes discuss leprosy work and dealing with stigma.

Collection 299 consists of an interview with Ruth Thomas, wife of Howard E Thomas. This includes her work as a Presbyterian missionary nurse in a rehabilitation program of a leper colony in southwestern China along the Burmese border among the Tai-Lu people. Ruth oversaw the medical services and training. The tapes include a description of the farming cooperative run by the colony.

Collection 315 consists of taped interviews with Marie Huttenlock Little who served as a missionary for the China Inland Mission in 1947, in Lanzhou and Wu Wei, Gansu province. The tapes describe living in the leprosarium under the newly established Communist regime.

Collection 330 contains the records of The Moody Church started by Dwight L. Moody during the Civil War. This material mainly spans the years from 1910 to 1946. The Mission Committee or committees took various forms through the Church's history but generally it was responsible for helping to select the home and foreign missionaries that the Church supported. For the years 1940 to 1944, there were separate files for letters to mission boards (usually about gifts made to the mission) and letters to individual missionaries. For example, there are files dealing with the American Mission to the Lepers (folder 33-6); work with lepers (folders 33-3, 33-6); and files dealing with Mission to Lepers in India and the East (later known as the Leprosy Mission, folder 33-3) and in the Container List, there is a correspondence with the Mission to Lepers in India and the East (1912-1917).

Collection 352, the Records of the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association, (IFMA) contain material on New Hope Leprosy Mission, Liberia.

Collection 405 contains the papers of W. Robert & Frances Holmes. This collection of letters was written primarily by Robert Holmes and his wife, Frances (Frannie) to their families in the United States, while they served as missionaries with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Sri Lanka from 1947 to 1960. The Holmeses made several trips around Sri Lanka and India to visit other areas of ABCFM mission work. They describe rural medical work, including leprosy work.

Collection 414 contains the papers of Wade Thomas Coggins (1924-, 1964-1990). Coggins was the executive director of the Evangelical Foreign Mission Association. Folder 1-4 of this collection includes the American Leprosy Missions' relations with churches, governments, and supporters.

Collection 468 includes interviews with Elizabeth Carolyn (Quackenbush) Stough. This consists of six reels of an oral history interview in which Stough discusses joining the Africa Inland Mission, her work in French Equatorial Africa, and her responsibilities at Zemio. This includes leprosy work.

Entry made circa April 2002