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James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) was one of the most influential missionary statesman of the modern era. Besides founding China Inland Mission (later the Overseas Missionary Fellowship or OMF), his ideas on mission strategy and finances, his writings and speeches, and his leadership has had a continuing impact on the Christian church up to the present day.
The Archives contains many documents that help trace that influence, including the records of the United States branch of OMF. That collections contains two documents that mark the very beginning and the very end of his missionary career.
On September 19, 1853, Taylor left behind in England his fiancée, his unfinished medical studies, his family and his friends to go to China to serve as a missionary. This first term abroad was full of frustrations and disappointments, but the lessons he learned served as the foundation for all his later work. Folder 14 of Box 5 in Collection 215 contains a handwritten notebook with the recollections of Taylor's mother Amelia in which she described that first, emotional departure in 1853. Click to read that notebook.
On June 3, 1905, Taylor died in Changsha, China, where he was supervising the opening of that area to Christian missions. Below is a photograph (from the photo file "Allen, Arthur and Dorothea") of a tea party he attended on the day of his death, where he was surrounded by a small part of the missionaries he had recruited and trained. Come to the Archives to see and read other materials that tell the story of the ministry and influence of this man, whose secret was, "to let my loving Saviour work in me His will."
