Photographs depicting government buildings, Christian missions, Buddhist pagodas and monks, Muslim mosques, industry, agriculture, and dances in Burma. People depicted include Chins, Karens, Shans, Burmese, and Methodist missionaries. Some of the handcolored lantern slides are marked by the Christian Lecture Bureau in Chicago and others depict a map and sheet music, indicating that they may have been assembled for a lecture.
A recording made in 1970 by the Reverend Harry Harwood, who taught at the same school as Graves but at a later time, includes a commentary on the slides.
Biographical/Historical note:
Williard Edwin Graves (1880-1966) was an American missionary in Rangoon from 1908-1913. He and his wife, Almyra Alford Graves, were commissioned by the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church to teach at the Methodist Episcopal Church School for Boys in Rangoon. Graves later served as principal of the school until his wife's ill health forced them to return to the United States.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 75-7
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional missionary photographs of Burma can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 74-50.
The United Methodist Church's General Commission on Archives and History holds the Willard Edwin Graves Papers.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
