The American Missionary Association and the Promise of a Multicultural America: 1839-1954

… using fragments of the past to influence and shape the future

The American Missionary Association and the Promise of a Multicultural America is a digital photo archives of approximately 5000 photographs reflecting the activities and programs of the American Missionary Association (AMA) from 1839 to 1954. Photographers working for the AMA traveled through urban and rural communities within the continental United States and abroad, visually recording the diverse communities served by the AMA's broad social justice agenda. The collection includes selected images from the AMA Archives, AMA Archives Addendum, AMA Annual Reports and American Missionary Magazine Records.

Treatment of language has been at the forefront of the critical decisions employed in the descriptive words for people and environments visually documented in The American Missionary Association and the promise of a Multicultural America: 1839-1954. The challenge was to maintain the archival integrity of the photographs, while also stating the correct descriptive name for the ethnic groups copied from the back of the photographs. The terminologies used to signify ethnic identities have changed during the tenure of the AMA, due to continuing development of cultural awareness and understanding. Many of the descriptive words used to identify peoples of various ethnicities reflect our ongoing journey to understand and respect one another as human beings.

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