This collection contains letter press books holding the correspondence of the Board of Missions from 1820 to 1911. Correspondents include the Secretary of the Executive Committee (1820-1835); the Secretary-General Agent and Treasurer of the Domestic Committee (1835-1885); the Secretary and Treasurer of the Indian Commission (1874-1879); the Foreign Committee (1820-1886); Joshua Kimber (1873-1883); the General Secretary, Treasurer, and Staff of the Board (1877-1911); and the Spirit of Missions (1852-1862). The letters within the books are arranged chronologically, not by writer or topic.

This collection contains the minutes for the Board of Missions plenary body as well as its constituent committees, the Domestic Committee and the Foreign Committee, and a small number of associated publications, reports, and other records. Additionally, there is a small selection of minutes for sub-committees, such as the Finance Committees, the Indian Commission, and the Freedman’s Aid Commission.

This collection contains published proceedings and reports of the Board of Missions from 1820 to 1919.

The papers of Joseph Talbot document his time as Missionary Bishop of the North West and as bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Indiana through his death in 1883. The collection consists mainly of a set of pocket diaries kept by Talbot over the period 1856-1882 which gives insight into his daily activities. Also included is a typescript copy of Talbot’s journal of a trip to Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada between May and December of 1863. It offers a reasonably detailed description of travels in the American West at a time when transportation and accommodations were primitive or even dangerous.