Background
The history of Danmission goes all the way back to 1821 and is described through a wealth of photos. The photos come from Danmission as well as from former and present missionaries. They describe everyday life, culture and the history of the mission.
Wanting to make this history available to the public former General Secretary Jørgen Nørgaard Pedersen has taken the initiative in collecting pictures for an online photo archive.
Preparing the project, laying down criteria, applying for funds and finding collaborators started in 2012. The actual work with the archive began in the summer of 2012 and will finish this autumn (2018).
Out of the originally collected 30.000 photos, the photo archive has used about 15.000 pictures, i.e. glass plate photos, paper photos, negatives and slides. The archive will include a small number of historical movies as well.
The Work in the Archive
The work in the Archive is done by a group of volunteers. Some of these are former employees of Danmission, some are children of missionaries, others take an interest in this work.
Moreover, several people all over the country has contributed additional photos as well as helped to identify and text photos.
Chinese characters for country and locality have been added to photos from China, and Taiwanese characters for names of towns to photos from Taiwan. We have chosen historical as well as present names for countries and towns.
The selected pictures are preliminary sorted out by country and activity.
Activity:
Church Mission – Kirke Mission
School Education – Skole Uddannelse
Hospital Health – Hospital Sundhed
Development – Udviklingsarbejde
Portraits – Portrætter
Work in Denmark – Arbejde i Danmark
Management and Administration – Ledelse og Administration
Daily Life Religion – Folkeliv Religion
The photos were sent off to be scanned and afterwards uploaded in our system. After this began the big work to text the pictures according to texts from the back of the photos and by reference to books and magazines.
The Extent and Delimitation of the Archive
The history of Danmission goes back to the year 1821. Our earliest photos are from the year 1870. The Archive has set an upper limit to the year 2000 when Danmission was formed of the two big mission societies The Danish Mission Society, DMS and Danish Santal Mission. The Archive includes:
Pictures describing the history in the mission countries as well as in Denmark during this period.
Biographies of the missionaries.
The areas of mission.
Films – in You Tube and in the Archive.
Messages / Correction to the Pictures
Some photos have been difficult to text – either due to missing information or illegible writing.
We welcome corrections, comments and clarifications. Send these via the mail icon of the photo in question. The icon appears when opening (clicking on) the picture.
MB – 21-08-2018
Arbejdet i Arkivet
Internationalt samarbejde
Danmission Photo Archive er en del af et international arbejde med at digitalisere og offentliggøre missionhistoriens billeder. Billederne i arkivet indgår også i The International Mission Photography Archive – et skattekammer for missionsintereserede.
Bidragsydere
Stor tak skal gives til følgende fonde, som har muliggjort projektet:
Chr. P. Hansen og Hustrus Fond
Knud Tågholts Fond
Jubilæumsfonden
Der skal også rettes tak til alle de frivillige, som har arbejdet på Arkivet og til de frivillige rundt om i landet, som har bidraget med deres viden.
System og teknik
Billederne er scannet af Memory Scan og gjort søgbare i Fotoware.