The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was organized by the General Association of Congregational Churches of Massachusetts in 1810 “for the purpose of devising ways and means, and adopting and prosecuting measures, for promoting the spread of the gospel in Heathen lands.” The first missionaries sailed for Calcutta in 1812; since that date thousands of regularly appointed missionaries and short-term workers have been sent out under Board auspices.

These missionaries reported back regularly to the Board in the U.S., and the archive contains their letters, journals, reports, minutes, accounts, statistics, and miscellaneous documents. Not only does the archive document the history of the Board and its individual missionaries encountered. Flora and fauna; manners and customs; the development of written languages; and economic, social, and political conditions are all documented in these papers.

ABCFM project is designed to prepare the content of the microfilm collection concerning the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions upon the Near East, between 1817 and 1919, by the department of history.