BIPOC Voices in the Victorian Periodical Press

Volumes of Juvenile Missionary Annual (1870) and Juvenile Missionary Magazine (1874) side by side.

BIPOC Voices in the Victorian Periodical Press

Subtitle: An International Recovery Project and Critical Intervention
Editions: First Edition (2023) | Testing Version (2022)

Prefatory Materials

A series of bound volumes of varying colors on several bookshelves.

Project Introduction

Overview, findings, and outcomes

Group of Indian individuals, some sitting, some standing, with older mother and daughter at center.

Project Contributors

Names, affiliations, and project roles

Primary Texts

Title page: Eighty-Second Report of the London Missionary Society for the Year Ending May 1st, 1876.

Periodical Pieces

64 pieces featuring BIPOC creators

Page of periodical with title (“Cuddapah”), subtitle (“Narratives of Native Converts”), and text.

Metadata and Documentation

Attributing the work of BIPOC creators

Critical Essays

Two-page periodical spread, showing separate signed letters from Jan and Karolus.

Ascribing Pen-Personship Through Redolence of Self

Two men, one squatting, one standing, before a small pond behind which are Greek-style buildings.

Editing, Education, and Imitation in Indian Missionary Conversion Accounts

Segment of text with large ship below which is this motto: “Freely ye have received. Freely give.”

The Church Missionary Gleaner and the Multifaceted Portrayal of Colonial Christianity

Title page of The Wesleyan Missionary Notices.

Representing Indigenous Perspectives on Missionary Education in Victorian Periodicals

Group of people standing across the width of a street listening to a missionary who is not visible.

Manipulating Indian Voices in Victorian Missionary Periodicals

Statistical table for missions in locations at various locations around the world.

African Representation in Protestant Missionary Periodicals

Racialized “Authority” and “Civilization” in Victorian Missionary Periodicals

Bookshelves, bookcart, desk with computer and books.

Visiting the Regenstein Library, Chicago, August 2022

Annotated Bibliographies

Title page of The Wesleyan Missionary Notices with illustration of Charles Pamla.

Sources on African Representation in Protestant Missionary Periodicals

A woman seated at a desk writing, while another is seated in front of the desk and writing on floor.

Sources on British Victorian Missionary Work and Periodicals

Recommendations

Recommendations for Research on Racialized Voices in Colonial Archives (pdf)

Recommendations for Publishing BIPOC Voices in Victorian Missionary Periodicals (pdf)

Bonus Materials

Portion of the “Corpus of BIPOC Voices in the Victorian Periodical Press” home page.

Corpus of BIPOC Voices in the Victorian Periodical Press (external)

Lead Image Details

Lead image caption: Joanne Ruth Davis, “Volumes of the Juvenile Missionary Annual (1870) and Juvenile Missionary Magazine (1874) from the Special Collections of SOAS Library” (Photograph, London, 2021 [1870; 1874]), CWML G455, University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (photograph); public domain (periodical volume covers).

Lead image commentary: The “BIPOC Voices” project draws attention to the wide range of global creators whose works and words appear in Victorian-era missionary periodicals such as those pictured here. These elements demonstrate that the periodicals are part of a shared global heritage and that key BIPOC-related elements of the periodicals should be made available to as wide an audience as possible – a foundational idea that has inspired the “BIPOC Voices” project as a whole.