Papers, 1864–1967, ca. 8 ft. American Presbyterian clergyman, author, and leader of world ecumenical and missionary movements. The library holds his correspondence, diaries, writings, photographs, memorabilia, and printed matter. An important part of the 1909 diaries is his observations on the effects of the Russo-Japanese War on China and the Far East. As he was also active in World War I relief efforts, particularly in the Near East, it is possible that his papers contain other relevant items from that period. Unpublished register (NUCMC 76–1792). Note: These papers form part of the China Records Project.
John Raleigh Mott (1865-1955)
Papers, 1862–1965, ca. 150 ft. American religious leader, involved in the formation and/or direction of various organizations such as the World's Student Christian Federation (see below, separate entry), Student Volunteer Movement, YMCA, World Council of Churches, and International Missionary Council. Mott visited Russia in 1899 and 1909, and was part of a U.S. government commission to Russia (the Root Mission) in May-August 1917. There are letters, official reports, papers, recorded interviews, and diaries pertaining to these trips. The papers also include information about YMCA war work in Russia and Western Christianity's relations with the Russian Orthodox Church; copies of Mott's many speeches and addresses on Russia in 1917 and in the 1940s; and other source material. Finally, there are also biographical materials collected by Mott's biographer C. Howard Hopkins; these concern Mott's relations with E. I. Colton, Charles R. Crane, James Stokes, and Woodrow Wilson. (The Hopkins biography should appear in 1979.) A preliminary inventory of the papers is available but they are not yet in their final organized state.
World's Student Christian Federation
Official archives, ca. 1895–1920, plus other material, to 1938, 225 ft. Contains correspondence between John R. Mott and Baron Paul Nicolay, 1899–1919, and between Mott and H. Witt, ca. 1899–1900; information on the work of James Stokes with young men in Russia; a "History of the school in Russia," New York, n.d., 36 pp., by Vladimir G. Simkhovitch; a typed report on conditions in Russia, n.d., 3 pp., by A. M. Reynolds; an interview with J. R. Reynolds, 1 February 1899, 1. p.; reports on European student relief work in Russia in 1924 compiled by O. J. Fredericksen (Moscow) and Frits Kuiper (Kazan); data on Russian universities ca. 1899–1924; the constitutions and regulations of various groups such as the Russian Student Christian Movement (Russian National Student Christian Union), the Students' Christian Association, ca. 1913 (?), and the Moscow university association; and correspondence with members of the Russian Student Christian Movement ca. 1907–20. Among the individual items noted are a report on the first general conference of the Russian Student Christian Movement outside Russia, held in Czechoslovakia 1–8 October 1923, typed, 3 pp.; information from Riga from the Russian student movement—strictly private and confidential (report sent by a Miss Bidgrain, n.d.), typed, 2 pp.; a 4 pp. pamphlet entitled "Why Save Russia?", London, 1922; and typed letters and reports of C. J. Hicks and a Prince Hilkoff concerning Russian railroads in the spring of 1899, 24 pp. In addition, the collection contains issues of rare periodicals: Duchovny mir studenchestva (Prague and Paris, 1923–25), nos. 1–3, and 5; The Russian student in the American college and university (published monthly by the Russian Student Fund, Inc., New York), vol. 1, nos. 1–5, 7–8; vol. 2, nos. 1–10; the Viestnik of the Russian Student Christian Movement in Paris, no. 10 (October 1926); and Russian Christian Thought, published by the National Russian Students' Christian Association in the U.S.A. (New York, Committee on friendly relations among foreign students), 1926; and the Institute of International Education's Guide Book for Russian Students in the United States, 4th series, bulletin no. 5 (New York 1923), 82 pp. An inventory of the collection is in progress.
