Minutes, journals, newsletters, visitors’ books, correspondence, photographs and printed books of St Colm’s College; with the papers of Effie Gray, a former student and teacher at the College.
Scope and Contents
Papers of St Colm`s College, 1839-2010, including minutes, journals, newsletters, visitors` books, correspondence, photographs and printed books.
The history of the college is complex, and it has undergone a number of name changes. The Women`s Missionary Institute of the Free Church of Scotland began in Edinburgh in 1894. Increasing expansion of student numbers saw a larger purpose-built institution commissioned at 23 Inverleith Terrace, Edinburgh. Although supported by what was by then the United Free Church of Scotland (UFC), the building was funded by private subscription, and opened in 1909.
In the meantime, since 1887 the Church of Scotland had been training women missionaries at its Deaconess House and Missionary Training Institute. Following the union with the UFC in 1929, a similar rapprochement took place between their respective Edinburgh women`s missionary training establishments. An overall body was established, known as the Church of Scotland`s Women`s Missionary College, and the two constituent establishments were renamed; the Women`s Missionary College becoming known as St Colm`s, and the Deaconess House and Missionary Training Institute as St Ninians. In 1960, the College officially changed its name to St Colm`s, finally becoming St Colm`s International House in 1998. In 2010, the Church of Scotland decided to sell the property at 23 Inverleith Terrace, and the college closed its doors for the final time.
The archive incorporates records from the institutions of the Free Church, United Free Church and the Church of Scotland, but the bulk relate to what eventually became St Colm`s at 23 Inverleith Terrace. Also included in the archive are the papers of Effie Gray, student, teacher and lifelong supporter of the college.
Dates
- Creation: 1839-2010.
Creator
- United Free Church of Scotland (Organization)
- Church of Scotland, Foreign Missions Board (Organization)
- Free Church of Scotland, Foreign Missions Committee (Organization)
- St Colm's College, 1894-2010 (Organization)
- Gray, Effie (teacher) (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Normal access conditions apply.
Conditions Governing Use
Normal reproduction conditions apply, subject to any copyright restrictions.
Extent
331 Consultation units
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
The honorary archivist partly listed the collection. The archivist kept the Effie Gray papers as a separate series and this arrangement has been maintained, although many of these are papers collected by Gray in relation to the college rather than her own personal papers and, as such, there is considerable overlap with similar types of record in the main archive.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated, 2010, St Colm's International House, Church of Scotland, through the good offices of Rev R. Anderson.
Appraisal
Duplicates have been removed.
- Title
- National Library of Scotland Catalogue of Manuscripts
- Author
- National Library of Scotland
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared Using Local Descriptive Rules
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the National Library of Scotland Archives and Manuscripts Division Repository
Archives and Manuscript Division
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh EH1 1EJ
0131 623 3700
manuscripts@nls.uk