Shields Family papers, 1888-1968 and undated 2.7 Linear Feet circa 1000 Items
- Abstract Or Scope
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Reverend Robert Shields, his wife Louise Shields, and members of their family were Methodist missionaries in Angola between the 1890s and the 1960s. The Shields Family Papers consist of correspondence, legal papers, and photographs created by three generations of a missionary family. The correspondence documents the experiences of a missionary family in Angola (Luanda and Malange) and Zimbabwe (including the Umtali region) in the early twentieth century, and includes letters written from family members in England, among them letters written from Greta Gazeley to her mother, Wilhelmina Shields Gazeley, in the 1950s. The photographs, dating from the early 1900s to the 1960s, portray the lives of missionaries in Africa through portraits and snapshots of the Shields family and other groups both European, American and African, as well as photographs of groups of schoolchildren, mission buildings, and various scenes of African life and landscapes. The collection includes a handwritten memoir by Robert Shields, a biographical account of Louise Raven Shield's life compiled by her daughter, Irene Withey Shields, and various writings by Irene Withey Shields and Wilhelmina Taylor Shields on their experiences in Africa. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture at Duke University.
- Collection Context