Guide to the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of National Missions Records

Originally organized as the Board of Missions in 1816 and later as the Board of Domestic Missions in 1855, the Board of Home Missions was established in 1870 with the reunion of the Old School (Board of Domestic Missions) and New School (Committee on Home Missions) Assemblies of the PCUSA. It was incorporated by the State Legislature of New York in 1872. The new consolidated Board was charged with continuing the work of its Old School/New School predecessors, specifically in sponsoring mission outreach programs and aiding church erection on the frontier. Between 1870 and the general reorganization in 1923, the Board broadened the scope of its activities considerably. In 1878 it assumed responsibility for the Women's Executive Committee of Home Missions. Though certain synods and presbyteries administered their own home mission work, the majority after 1870 unified themselves under the administration of the Board, though the General Assembly did encourage the larger synods to assume a more adequate share of the total expense of home missions. In 1893 the last of the American Indian missions were transferred from the Board of Foreign Missions to Home Missions and the following year, the Board assumed the responsibility for Jewish evangelization. In 1922, Oriental mission work within the U.S. was placed under the Board's direction. Following the general reorganization in 1923, the work of the Board of Home Missions was transferred to the newly formed Board of National Missions.