Guide to the Margaret Morton Archibald Papers
Open for research.
Margaret Morton Archibald, Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS) educational missionary to Japan, was born April 1, 1899 in Birmingham, Alabama. From 1918 to 1921 she was an elementary school teacher in Birmingham. In 1923 she left for Southwestern College (Clarksville, Tenn.) to pursue a bachelor’s degree, eventually graduating from Howard College (Birmingham, Ala.) in 1925. In 1928 she was appointed to the PCUS Japan mission, and sailed in late August. After two years of language study in Tokyo, she was assigned to Kinjo Gakuin, a school for girls in Nagoya. In 1941, upon the United States’ entry into the Second World War, Archibald left Japan for Mississippi State College for Women (Columbus, Miss.) to serve as Presbyterian Student Director. She returned to Kinjo in 1947, and continued to teach there until her retirement in 1969. Upon her retirement, Archibald returned to Birmingham, where she was an active member of South Highland Presbyterian Church. She was struck by an automobile and killed October 12, 1983.
Collection consists predominantly of Archibald’s diaries, which she kept intermittently from 1928, and regularly from 1963 to her death in 1983. The diaries typically consist of lists of Archibald’s activities, visitors, travels, and descriptions of weather, extending, later in life, to lists of all her trips by car or bus. Her diaries of 1969 documenting the year of her retirement from Kinjo Gakuin contain Archibald’s daily accounts of student unrest in Japan. Correspondence in the collection is sparse and mingled with clippings and other ephemera, amounting to congratulation letters on Archibald’s retirement, and on her receipt of the Fourth Class Order of the Sacred Treasure from Emperor Hirohito. Photographs include an album from 1931-1933, which contains images of school field trips, conference groups, Japanese acquaintances, and American missionaries and their children at the resort Karuizawa in Nagano prefecture.
The collection is arranged as follows:
SERIES I: DIARIES, 1928-1983
SERIES II: CORRESPONDENCE, PHOTOGRAPHS AND EPHEMERA, 1931-1984
See also RG 481, Leila G. Kirtland Papers, 1857-1954.
Received from Margaret’s brother, Albert M. Archibald, December 1986.
Collection processed in 2010 by PHS volunteer Sue Althouse; guide prepared in 2012 by Records Archivist David Staniunas.
Margaret Morton Archibald Papers, RG 482, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
| Box | Folder | Description | |
| 1 | 1 | Guide to Record Group 482 | |
| SERIES I: DIARIES, 1928-1983 | |||
| 1 | 2 | Diaries, 1928-1932, 1933-1938 (2 v.) | |
| 1 | 3 | Diary, 1939-1941 | |
| 1 | 4 | Diaries, 1953-1955 (3 v.) | |
| 1 | 5 | Diaries, 1963-October 1964 (3 v.) | |
| 1 | 6 | Diary, November 1964-July 1965 | |
| 1 | 7 | Diary, July 1965-February 1966 | |
| 1 | 8 | Diary, April-September 1966 | |
| 1 | 9 | Diary, September 1966-March 1967 | |
| 1 | 10 | Diary, 1967 | |
| 1 | 11 | Diary, 1967-1968 | |
| 1 | 12 | Diary, May-October 1968 | |
| 1 | 13 | Diary, 1968-1969 | |
| 1 | 14 | Diary, 1969 | |
| 1 | 15 | Diary, 1970 | |
| 1 | 16 | Diary, October 1970-August 1971 (2 v.) | |
| 1 | 17 | Diary, August 1971-August 1972 | |
| 1 | 18 | Diary, September 1972-July 1973 | |
| 1 | 19 | Diary, 1973-1974 | |
| 1 | 20 | Diary, 1974-1975 | |
| 1 | 21 | Diary, April 1975-June 1976 | |
| 1 | 22 | Diary, June 1976-March 1977 | |
| 1 | 23 | Diary, March-October 1977 | |
| 1 | 24 | Diary, October 1977-May 1978 | |
| 1 | 25 | Diary, May-December 1978 | |
| 1 | 26 | Diary, December 1978-May 1979 | |
| 1 | 27 | Diary, May-December 1979 | |
| 2 | 1 | Diary, January-November 1980 | |
| 2 | 2 | Diary, December 1980-August 1981 | |
| 2 | 3 | Diary, September 1981-May 1982 | |
| 2 | 4 | Diary, June 1982-March 1983 | |
| 2 | 5 | Diary, March-October 1983 | |
| SERIES II: CORRESPONDENCE, PHOTOGRAPHS AND EPHEMERA, 1931-1984 | |||
| 2 | 6 | Photograph album, 1931-1933 | |
| 2 | 7 | Autograph album and photograph, September 27, 1967 | |
| 2 | 8 | Photographs, Archibald receiving citation at Kinjo Gakuin 80th anniversary, 1969 | |
| 2 | 9 | Correspondence and ephemera, 1950-1969 | |
| 2 | 10 | Correspondence and ephemera, 1969-1983 | |
| 2 | 11 | Memorial correspondence, 1983-1984 |