Guide to the Ruth Aikin Papers
Open for research.
Ruth Aikin was appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions to the West Africa Mission in 1916, and served there until her retirement in 1950. She divided her thirty-four years of missionary service among Lolodorf, Efulan, Metel and Nkol Mvolan stations, where she taught women and children, administered several girls' schools and did evangelistic work.
Ruth Aikin's papers include correspondence, diaries, photographs and miscellaneous items reflecting her missionary service in Africa. The correspondence is nearly all outgoing, comprising Aikin's letters to her family; there is only one folder of incoming correspondence. The diaries are incomplete. Many of the approximately 300 photographs reflect African life and culture and Aikin's own missionary experience, but are otherwise unidentified.
SERIES 1: CORRESPONDENCE, 1916-1970
SERIES 2: DIARIES, 1923-1949
SERIES 3: PHOTOGRAPHS, 1916-CIRCA 1965
SERIES 4: MISCELLANY, 1921-1945
Collection processed and finding aid prepared: 1984
Frederick J. Heuser, Jr., Archivist
| Box | Folder | Description | |
| 1 | 1 | Finding Aid to Record Group 185 | |
| SERIES 1: CORRESPONDENCE, 1916-1970 | |||
| 1 | 2-34 | Outgoing Correspondence, 1916-1950 | |
| 1 | 35 | undated | |
| 1 | 36 | Incoming Correspondence, 1932-1970 | |
| SERIES 2: DIARIES, 1923-1949 | |||
| 1 | none | Volume #1, 1923-1930 | |
| 1 | none | Volume #2, 1931 | |
| 1 | none | Volume #3, 1932 | |
| 1 | none | Volume #4, 1935 | |
| 1 | none | Volume #5, 1936 | |
| 1 | none | Volume #6, 1938-1939 | |
| 1 | none | Volume #7, 1940 | |
| 1 | none | Volume #8, 1948 | |
| 1 | none | Volume #9, 1949 | |
| SERIES 3: PHOTOGRAPHS, 1916-CIRCA 1965 | |||
| 2 | 1-13 | 1916-1965 | |
| SERIES 4: MISCELLANY, 1921-1945 | |||
| 2 | 14 | Station Letters and Reports, 1921-1945 | |
| 2 | 15 | Manuscripts, undated |