American Board Publications
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) Archive
Salt Research, ABCFM Archive American Board Publications
Part of the American Research Institute in Turkey’s (ARIT) American Board Library and comprising approximately 65,000 images, the “Rare Publications” collection has been cataloged and digitized by ARIT in collaboration with Salt and is now accessible online.
The collection has been incorporated into the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) Archive within the City, Society, and Economy Archive at Salt Research. It features a series of publications produced, printed, and distributed by ABCFM’s Istanbul-based publishing house between 1857 and 1933, including Armenian and Armenian-script Ottoman Turkish issues of the newspaper Avedaper [The Messenger], as well as books, booklets, and brochures in Ottoman Turkish, Greek, and Karamanlidika (Greco-Turkish). These rare materials reflect the ABCFM’s educational and cultural approach, shedding light on Protestant communities in the Ottoman lands who left behind few written records.
The cataloging and digitization project (EAP 1355) was supported by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, as part of the British Library’s “Endangered Archives Programme.” The grant was awarded to ARIT to carry out the project from 2021 to 2023, with Salt Research as the local archival partner, in order to preserve these resources and ensure their accessibility to researchers.
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) Archive
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was a Protestant agency founded in the United States in 1810 with the aim of sending missionaries abroad for religious and altruistic work. This archive consists of administrative records kept at the American Board’s local office in Istanbul. It includes documents and reports related to the educational, medical, and publishing activities carried out by the ABCFM and its affiliated institutions in Anatolia, the Balkans, and surrounding areas. Jointly owned by the United Church of Christ (UCC) and ARIT, the archive has been cataloged by ARIT and digitized and made accessible online by Salt Research.
The collection has been incorporated into the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) Archive within the City, Society, and Economy Archive at Salt Research. It features a series of publications produced, printed, and distributed by ABCFM’s Istanbul-based publishing house between 1857 and 1933, including Armenian and Armenian-script Ottoman Turkish issues of the newspaper Avedaper [The Messenger], as well as books, booklets, and brochures in Ottoman Turkish, Greek, and Karamanlidika (Greco-Turkish). These rare materials reflect the ABCFM’s educational and cultural approach, shedding light on Protestant communities in the Ottoman lands who left behind few written records.
The cataloging and digitization project (EAP 1355) was supported by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, as part of the British Library’s “Endangered Archives Programme.” The grant was awarded to ARIT to carry out the project from 2021 to 2023, with Salt Research as the local archival partner, in order to preserve these resources and ensure their accessibility to researchers.
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) Archive
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was a Protestant agency founded in the United States in 1810 with the aim of sending missionaries abroad for religious and altruistic work. This archive consists of administrative records kept at the American Board’s local office in Istanbul. It includes documents and reports related to the educational, medical, and publishing activities carried out by the ABCFM and its affiliated institutions in Anatolia, the Balkans, and surrounding areas. Jointly owned by the United Church of Christ (UCC) and ARIT, the archive has been cataloged by ARIT and digitized and made accessible online by Salt Research.
