American Lutheran Church Women in World Mission Oral History Project / Evangelical Lutheran Church Women in Global Mission Oral History Project Records

There were 247 potential narrators for the oral history project, a potential narrator being a woman (married or single) who served at least 10 years as a missionary between 1930 and 1980, in the countries covered by the project. The potential narrators were divided into three groups:

Of the potential narrators, sixty-three from Stages I and II were interviewed during the years 1985 to 1987. Countries of service represented by these women were Brazil, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, South Africa and Taiwan. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America continued the project during the years 1990-1993, interviewing an additional thirty-four women. In order to accommodate important women representatives from predecessor churches not included in the American Lutheran Church project, the ELCA included some women born prior to 1930 in Stage III. Additional countries represented in Stage III include Argentina, Chile, Ethiopia, Guyana, Liberia, Nepal, and Tanzania. It should be noted that although China is listed as an area of service for several women, China was not officially included in these oral history projects; many Lutheran missionaries to China had already been interviewed by the Midwest China Center.

The Addendum contains oral histories of two of the directors of the world misison divisions of predecessor bodies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church: Theodore P. Fricke and Rolf A. Syrdal.

The oral transcripts are listed alphabetically by narrator within each stage. The listing also indicates country and dates of missionary service.

Information about copyright and permission to quote from the narratives is found in the introductory material preceding each transcript.

The Yale Divinity School Library's copy of this project is missing transcripts of two women present in the list provided for Stage II: Vera Eld and Frieda Foege.