Guide to the Margaret Moore Douglas Papers
Open for research.
Rolled photograph in box 2 restricted (fragile).
Margaret Moore Douglas was born in 1875 at White Oak, S.C. She graduated from the Winthrop Normal College in S.C. in 1898, and attended the University of Chicago. She taught in public schools for three years and was an assistant instructor in mathematics at Winthrop Normal College for five years before being appointed missionary to the North Brazil Mission in 1905 by the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. She was posted to the Agnes Erskine College in Recife in the state of Pernambuco. From 1906 to 1908, she took charge of the school while its director, Eliza Reed, was on furlough. She was named the school’s director in 1913, a post she held until her death in 1940. The Agnes Erskine College, established by Reed in 1904, was a Christian school for girls and young women. It operated as a day school until 1917, when it opened a boarding school. In 1937, the school was awarded the Presbyterian Women’s Birthday Offering for its work educating Christian women and girls.
The Margaret Moore Douglas Papers document the years she spent as a missionary in Recife, Brazil at the Agnes Erskine College. The collection includes correspondence (1905-1940); manuscripts and typescripts by Douglas about the school and its students; and photographs. Among the photographs are portraits of Douglas; images of the school, including an undated aerial view; and an album of photos of students and staff of the school. There is also an album of postcards, mostly from Pernambuco. Other materials in the collection include pamphlets about Brazil, the North Brazil Mission, and the Agnes Erskine College; pamphlets written by Douglas; newspaper and magazine clippings in English and Portuguese; Douglas’s certificates of appointment to Brazil; and several documents in Portuguese, possibly concerning authorization for Douglas to work in Brazil. Several of the letters and clippings relate to the 1937 Birthday Offering, awarded by Presbyterian Women to the Agnes Erskine College.
Summary of Box Contents
Box 1: Obituary and memorial resolution, 1940; correspondence, 1905-1940; documents (in Portuguese) probably related to Douglas’s visa, 1923-1924; pamphlets about Brazil, the North Brazil Mission, and the Agnes Erskine College, 1930-1933, 1948 and undated; two pamphlets written by Margaret Moore Douglas, 1927 and undated; personal writings, undated; writings about Brazil,1924-1940 and undated; correspondence with Janie McGaughey about the Presbyterian Women’s Birthday Offering, 1935; clippings (in Portuguese), 1919-1940; clippings about the Presbyterian Women’s Birthday Offering, 1937
Box 2: Photograph album, 1930-1940; postcard album, 1911 and undated; rolled aerial photo of Agnes Erskine College, undated
Box 3: Photographic portraits of Margaret Moore Douglas, undated; photos of Agnes Erskine College, undated; postcards of Brazil, 1907 and undated
University of South Carolina, South Caroliniana Library: Mission to Brazil: the Journal of Margaret Moore Douglas, 1906-1915 (Accession 12084)
Received from Robert L. Douglas, Jr. in 2002.
This collection is minimally processed: materials may not have been ordered beyond their original condition. A preliminary inventory is provided in this guide. Guide revised in 2009 by Jennifer Barr, Archives Intern.
Margaret Moore Douglas Papers, RG 455, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
| Box | Folder | Description | |
| 1 | 1 | Obituary and memorial resolution, 1940 | |
| 1 | 2 | Correspondence, 1905-1937 | |
| 1 | 3 | Correspondence, 1938-1940 | |
| 1 | 4 | Documents in Portuguese, 1923-1924 | |
| 1 | 5 | Pamphlets about Brazil, the North Brazil Mission, and the Agnes Erskine College, 1930-1933, 1948 and undated | |
| 1 | 6 | Pamphlets written by Margaret Moore Douglas, 1927 and undated | |
| 1 | 7 | Manuscripts and typescripts by Margaret Moore Douglas, undated | |
| 1 | 8 | Manuscripts and typescripts by Margaret Moore Douglas, 1924-1940 and undated | |
| 1 | 9 | Correspondence with Janie McGaughey regarding 1937 Presbyterian Women’s Birthday Offering, 1935 | |
| 1 | 10 | Clippings (in Portuguese), 1919-1940 | |
| 1 | 11 | Clippings about Birthday Offering, 1937 | |
| 2 | Photograph album, 1930-1940 and undated | ||
| 2 | Postcard album, 1911 and undated | ||
| 2 | Rolled aerial photo of Agnes Erskine College, Recife, undated [restricted (fragile)] | ||
| 3 | 1 | Photographic portraits of Margaret Moore Douglas, undated | |
| 3 | 2 | Photographic portraits of Margaret Moore Douglas and other subjects, undated | |
| 3 | 3 | Photographs of Agnes Erskine College students, staff, and buildings, undated | |
| 3 | 4 | Postcards, 1907 and undated |