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School of Oriental and African Studies

UNITED SOCIETY FOR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE (RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0102 USCL/RTS

Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies

Title: UNITED SOCIETY FOR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE (RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY)

Date(s): c1725, 1799-1986

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 547 volumes and c45 boxes

Name of creator(s): Religious Tract Society
United Society for Christian Literature
Christian Vernacular Education Society for India
Christian Literature Society for India
Christian Literature Society for India and Africa
Chinese Book and Tract Society
Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese
Christian Literature Society for China
United Society for Christian Literature | Scotland

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Religious Tract Society (RTS) was founded in 1799 to print and distribute religious tracts among those who with, in the words of the Proceedings of the first twenty years, 'little leisure and less inclination to peruse entire volumes might thus be furnished with agreeable and useful employment and eventually be led to an acquaintance with the state of their own hearts and a knowledge of Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ'. The founders of the Society were drawn from the same group of evangelicals who had earlier set up the London Missionary Society and were later to found the British and Foreign Bible Society, in the realization that more might be achieved through co-operation between denominations than by individual denominational efforts. From its earliest years the Society concerned itself not only with the distribution of tracts in Britain but with similar work in continental Europe, in the British colonies, and in the many countries of the world where British missionary societies were active. By 1848 the RTS was operating, directly or indirectly, in China, Singapore, Borneo, Thailand, Burma, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand, the South Pacific islands, Africa, Madagascar, the West Indies, the United States, Canada, most European countries, and the countries of the Near and Middle East.

Towards the end of 1857 representatives of four British missionary societies working in India - the Baptist Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society, the London Missionary Society and the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society - put forward proposals for a new society, to be named the Christian Vernacular Education Society for India. The proposers did not, according to its First Annual Report, intend the new society to compete with 'existing educational establishments which employ the English language and literature and which are chiefly attractive to the higher classes of Hindu youth ... but rather to reach the village populations, and the masses of the lower orders in towns throughout the country, exclusively through the vernacular of each district'. The new society was formally instituted in May 1858 as a memorial to the Indian Mutiny. John Murdoch was appointed 'Representative and Travelling Secretary in India'. In 1891 the name of the Society was changed to the Christian Literature Society for India and in 1923 the words 'and Africa' were added when the Society extended its work to that continent.

The Christian Literature Society for China had a complex genesis. It originated as a School and Text Book Committee of the China Missionary Conference in 1877, developing into the Chinese Book and Tract Society in Glasgow in 1884 and forming the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge (SDCGK) among the Chinese in 1887. It was supported by the Christian Literature Society for China, organised in 1892 to succeed the Chinese Book and Tract Society. In 1906 the SDCGK changed its name to the Christian Literature Society for China.

The United Society for Christian Literature (USCL) was formed in 1935 when the Religious Tract Society and the Christian Literature Society for India and Africa merged. The RTS China kept its old title in China, with USCL as a sub-title. In 1941 the London Committee and in 1942 the Scottish Committee organising support for the Christian Literature Society for China were incorporated.

For further information see William Jones, The Jubilee Memorial of the Religious Tract Society (London, 1850); S G Green, The Story of the Religious Tract Society (London, 1899); G Hewitt, Let the People Read (London, 1949), the last of which surveys the work of all three societies.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records, c1725, 1799-1986, of the United Society for Christian Literature (USCL) and its predecessors, including the Religious Tract Society, comprise:

Executive Committee minutes for the RTS, 1799-1935 (some gaps) (Ref: USCL 1-113), continued under the USCL, 1935-1953 (Ref: USCL 113-122), and other minutes, including copyright, finance, and local associations, for the RTS, 1806-1935, and USCL, 1935-1972 (Ref: USCL 123-149, USCL Add 6, 15, 19-22);

copies of outgoing RTS letters, 1824-1889 (Ref: USCL 150-195); miscellaneous correspondence of the RTS, 1824-1847 (Ref: USCL Add 23-26);

annual reports for the RTS, 1820-1935 (many gaps) (Ref: USCL 311-336, USCL Add 34), USCL, 1935-1962 (Ref: USCL 337-357, USCL/S 69-72, 99-103, USCL Add 38), and RTS (China), continued under the USCL, 1884-1947 (Ref: USCL 366-376);

ledgers and accounts, 1836-1952 (Ref: USCL 196-231);

papers of the RTS, succeeded by the USCL, relating to copyright, 1825-1835 (Ref: USCL Add 1-2); reports of sub-committees on anti-popery, 1839, and new warehouses, 1844 (Ref: USCL Add 3-4); salaries books, 1851-1938 (Ref: USCL Add 5); letters, report and pamphlet relating to the Assam mission, India, 1857-1859 (Ref: USCL Add 7); legacies book, 1911-1986 (Ref: USCL Add 11); USCL register of members, 1946-1963, also including declarations of employee names, 1948-1972 (Ref: USCL Add 16); USCL papers concerning premises in Lusaka, Rhodesia, 1949-1955 (Ref: USCL Add 17); reports on USCL officials' visits to India and Ceylon, Northern Rhodesia, and Zambia, 1950-1969 (Ref: USCL Add 18); papers documenting USCL history, 1927-1976 and undated, including notes, chronology, printed material, and photographs, including the fire damage of 1941 (Ref: USCL Add 64-71);

RTS and USCL printed tracts, c1920-c1950 (Ref: USCL 400-401); annotated listings of RTS publications, 1842-1859 (Ref: USCL Add 39); RTS publications, 1822-1934 and undated (Ref: USCL Add 41-57); USCL publications, 1935-1962 and undated (Ref: USCL Add 57-62); miscellaneous publications, c1725, 1816-1960, including some on the work of the RTS but also including other publications, some by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Ref: USCL 377-399, USCL Add 40, 63).

There are also records, 1858-1950, of the Christian Literature Society (CLS) for India (and Africa) and its predecessor; and records, 1885-1977, of the UCSL (Scotland) and its predecessors.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: Mainly English; some Chinese, Nepali and Tamil

System of arrangement:

The main groups comprise records of the Religious Tract Society/United Society for Christian Literature; Christian Vernacular Education Society (CVES) for India, later Christian Society for Literature (CSL) for India (and Africa); Annual Reports (various societies); miscellaneous publications; tracts; and records of Scottish Committees (Ref: USCL/S). The records are divided between the main deposit (Ref: USCL) and the later deposit (Ref: USCL Add).

Conditions governing access:

Records which have been microfilmed may be viewed on microfiche only. Other original material may be viewed if it is in good condition.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright holder: USCL/Feed the Minds. No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist. Some items (RTS/USCL minutes, correspondence, ledgers and accounts, and annual reports) on database. Descriptions of the two sub-fonds, records of the Christian Literature Society (CLS) for India (and Africa) (Ref: USCL/CSLI) and of the UCSL (Scotland) (Ref: USCL/S), are also available online.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

In 1941 the offices and warehouse of the USCL were burnt out. Some minute books had been moved to Horley in a partial evacuation of the offices in 1939, but many of the records stored in London were either totally destroyed or very badly damaged. Very little original correspondence has survived.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The surviving records of the UCSL and its predecessors to 1953 were deposited in the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1982. A second deposit of additional papers was made in 1988 (UCSL Add).

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Microfilm copy at SOAS Special Collections Reading Room.

Related material:

Early tracts, dating back to 1811, were retained by the USCL when the later ones were deposited at SOAS.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Jun 2002


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Accounting | Financial administration | Finance
Catholicism | Christianity | Ancient religions | Religions
Charitable organisations | Associations | Organizations
Colonial countries | Political systems
Copyright | Intellectual property | Civil law | Legal systems | Law
Ecumenicalism | Christianity | Ancient religions | Religions
Educational missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Employees | Personnel | People by occupation | People
Evangelistic missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Fires | Accidents | Disasters
Mission administration | Mission policy | Missionary societies | Religious organizations | Religious institutions
Photographs | Visual materials
Protestantism | Christianity | Ancient religions | Religions
Protestants | Christians | Religious groups
Publishing | Publishing industry
Reading materials | Educational publications
Religious movements | Religious institutions
Religious texts | Religious doctrines | Theology
Travel abroad | Travel
Vernacular languages | Languages
Wages | Personnel management | Organization and administration | Health services administration | Public administration | Government
War | International conflicts
World War Two (1939-1945) | World wars (events) | Wars (events)

Personal names

Corporate names
Chinese Book and Tract Society x Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese x Christian Literature Society for China
Christian Vernacular Education Society for India x Christian Literature Society for India x Christian Literature Society for India and Africa
Religious Tract Society
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
United Society for Christian Literature
United Society for Christian Literature | Scotland

Places
Assam | India | South Asia
China | East Asia
London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
Lusaka | Lusaka District | Zambia | Southern Africa
Scotland | UK | Western Europe | Europe
Sri Lanka | South Asia
Ceylon x Sri Lanka
Northern Rhodesia x Zambia
Africa