Series 01: Alma Smith and Alva Atkins (nee Smith) papers relating to missionary work with the United Aborigines Mission in New South Wales and Western Australia, ca. 1920-2006

MLMSS 8315/Boxes 1-5
MLMSS 8315/Folder 6X
SAFE/MLMSS 8315/Box 2/Folder 1 (Safe 3/246)

series

ca. 1920-2006

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Clippings, Ephemera, Manuscript Notated Music, Notated Music, Photographs

960024

0.80 metres of textual material (5 boxes, 1 folder and 1 outsize folder) of textual material, some files contain photographs

The newcuttings in Box 3, Folder 4 of this series may serve as a guide to the whole collection as they are arranged in chronological order and are indexed and provide an outline of the activities of Alva Smith and Alma Atkins from 1920 to 1977.

BOX 1
Folder 1
Alma Smith journals comprising:
Item 1: Journal referring to events and people at Box Ridge Mission and Coraki including the Smith family of Coraki and includes lists of donors, costs of living and Aboriginal word list, ca. 1922-1923
Item 2: Journal referring to events and people near Coraki and includes sermons and prayers, ca. 1923-1924
Item 3: United Aborigines Mission Auxiliary Minute book for Coraki, 1938
Item 4: Purfleet Donor Journal, ca. 1953
Item 6: Box Ridge Donor Journal, ca. 1964
Item 7: Notebook including addresses, donations and sermons, ca. 1951-1965
Item 8: Notebook containing sermons and list of donors, ca. 1965
Item 9: Notebook containing sermons, ca. 1960s
Item 10: Alma Smith Identity card, 1942

Folder 2
Prayer and sermon notes and scrapbooks belonging to Alma and Alva Smith. Includes photographs, one of the Rien family (Bethshan Holiness Mission, Wyee), ca. 1915-1950s.

Folder 3
Photograph album ‘An Australian pioneer’, compiled by A. E. Ranger about Frederick Green (Alma Smith’s father). Includes photographs of Frederick Green on his property at Wyee. Also includes photographs of members of the Green, Tregonning and Rien families at Bethshan Holiness Mission, Wyee. Photographs were taken in the 1920s and the album created in 1971.

BOX 2
Alva Smith autograph books, ca. 1942-1958
Alva Smith Bible study notes, ca. 1942-1946
Alva Smith nursing qualifications, ca. 1952-1959
Alva Smith’s midwifery course case notes, ca 1953-1954. This folder is RESTRICTED and stored separately at Safe 3/246

BOX 3
Folder 1
Letters to Alva Smith mostly from family members and UAM Mission residents, ca. 1955-1973. Correspondents include: Smith family members, ca. 1955; Purfleet: Chris Edwards, ca. 1950s, Bethshan/Wyee: Mabel Reid, Pete, Freda, Hulbert family, Mr and Mrs Zac Wood, Ida and Fred Long, Elsie, V. S. Harris, Cole family, Martha, Mr and Mrs Perc Wood, A. and H. Gray, Ruth Docherty, ca. 1955; Coraki: Eva, Mum Fuller, ca. 1955; Western Australia (mostly Gnowangerup): Caroline Smith, Ayplin Eades, Rita Wynne, Helen Williams, Molly Coyne, Don Nebro, Aileen Penny, Jennifer Wynne, Rita Dempster, Josephine Williams, Alma woods, Eileen Woods, Lilian Hipwell, ca. 1964-1973

Smith Family Documentation Project, compiled by David Smith, Barry Smith, Ruth Smith and Adrian Atkins, 2009, comprising:

Folder 2
Title on Spine: 'Original documents Folder 1', compiled by Adrian Atkins. letters to Alva and Alma from the Smith Family, United Aborigines Mission Sydney and Melbourne Offices, ca. 1964-1982 as well as residents at Purfleet and Bourke, ca. 1950s -1970s. Some correspondents include: Purfleet: Stella, Pastor Bert Marr, F. J. Carter, Chris, ca. 1951-1968; Bourke: Shirley Morris, Mrs Ferguson, Martha Hunter, Eileen MacKay, Bill Reid, Laurel Andrews, Judy, Hazel Andrews, Frank Faulkner, ca. 1965-1975; Phoebe (Quirindi), Connie MacDonald (Sydney), Long family and Eva (Bethshan, Wyee), Des Morgan (Coraki), Amy and Eddy (New Lambton) ca. 1948-1984. Correspondence between Alma Smith and the Aboriginal Welfare Board regarding the Box Ridge Sunday School building, 1971; Box Ridge baptisms and lists of names, 1967-1973, Box Ridge Mission business meeting minutes 1946-1947, list of donors for Box Ridge Church and school, invoices and receipts for Box Ridge. Includes Aboriginal word list in the section for Coraki. Also includes newcuttings and ephemera.

Folder 3
‘The Smith family: two generations of ministry and service with the United Aborigines Mission (UAM)’, compiled by David Smith, Barry Smith and Ruth Smith and Adrian Atkins, 2009. Includes photocopies of Smith family photographs, taken from 1941 to 1950, most of which are unidentified. Originals housed at PXA 1303.

Folder 4
This folder may serve as a guide to the collection as the newscuttings are in chronological order and are indexed and outline the activities of Alva Smith and Alma Atkins.
‘The Smith family : two generations of ministry and service with the United Aborigines Mission (UAM)’, compiled by David Smith, Barry Smith, Ruth Smith and Adrian Atkins, 2009. Consists of an index and chronologically arranged photocopies of newscuttings about the Smith family, from the mainstream and missionary press, ca. 1920-1977.

BOX 4
Folder 1
Bible study lecture notes, ca. 1960s

Folder 2
Bible study lecture notes, ca. 1960s-1995

Folder 3
Sydney Bible Study Institute serial publications including Synoptic Study of the books of the Bible and Introductory studies to the Bible, ca. 1960s

Folder 4
United Aborigines Mission and other missionary press publications, ca. 1940s-2006

Folder 5
Assorted Christian handouts and flyers, ca. 1957-1986

Folder 6
Songs and hymns, written out mostly by Alma and Alva Smith, ca. 1920s-1950s

Folder 7
Songs and hymns, written out mostly by Alma and Alva Smith, ca. 1920s-1950s

Folder 8
Gospel Harmonica Band Hymnal, ca. 1963

Folder 9
Miscellaneous notes (Playscript, recipe, donor list)

BOX 5
Folder 1
Alva Smith's records relating to Gnowrangerup, Western Australia
Includes lists of names of residents at Gnowangerup, note book containing genealogical details of families from Gnowangerup, Aboriginal word list for Gnowrangerup (on verso of a UAM circular). United Aborigines Mission circulars from Gnowrangerup, Leonora,Warburton Ranges, and Perth, Western Australia as well as miscellaneous newscuttings and publications. Alva Smith papers relating to nursing in Gnowangerup, Western Australia. Includes letters to Alma Smith from the Western Australian Department of Public Health regarding her employment with the Infant Health Service and two unidentified photographs, ca. 1950s-1960s

Folder 2
Alva Smith’s records relating to Bourke, 1965-1968
Letters to Alva Smith from United Aborigines Mission in Melbourne and Sydney, 1968
United Aborigines Mission circulars, 1967-1968
Receipts for donations received, 1967-1968
Letter book of Alva Smith regarding UAM Bourke, ca. 1965-1967 and includes personal letters of David Atkins’, ca. 1971-1989.
Publications about Bourke, ca. 1968

Folder 3
Alma and Alva Smith’s records relating to Box Ridge Mission, ca. 1964-1973
List of names of Box Ridge Mission residents with dates, possibly of baptisms
Correspondence and minute books for Box Ridge Sunday School, 1973
Publication: ‘Observations for the guidance of ministers of religion relative to the celebration of marriages….1937’ annotated with names and dates, possibly of baptisms

FOLDER 6X
Alva Smith's Sydney Bible Training Institute First Grade Diploma, ca. 1946

Partly restricted: Applies to MLMSS 8315/ Box 2/Folder 1 (Safe 3/246)

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Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder