Lavinia Scott (1907-) papers
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Lavinia Scott (1907-) papers
- Identifier
- BMRC.NU.SCOTT
- Repository
- Northwestern University, Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies
- Language
- English
- Size
- 1.67 Linear feet
- Dates
- 1930-1959
- Creator
- Scott, Lavinia
Biographical note
Lavinia Scott was a Yale educated missionary to South Africa, sent initially by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (later renamed the United Church Board for World Ministries). After briefly studying Zulu, Scott taught for three years at Adams College (then known as Amanzimtoti Institute), mainly in the teacher training department. In 1936, she became principal of Inanda Seminary, a girls' boarding high school, where she remained until 1969. Inanda was one of the few mission schools to escape takeover by the South African government in the 1950s, becoming a private school supported by the United Church Board for World Ministries and the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa. Scott left Inanda in 1969 to teach at the Federal Theological Seminary in Cape Province, South Africa.
Scope and Contents note
The Lavinia Scott Papers relate to her life and work as a missionary in Natal, South Africa. They consist mainly of letters and other items sent by Scott and her missionary colleagues to her mother, Mrs. G.H. Scott, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and, later, Evanston, Illinois. The correspondence ceased with the death of Mrs. Scott in 1959. While the social and political affairs of South Africa are reflected in the papers to some extent, especially in materials dating from after World War II, they primarily illuminate daily life in the Bantu mission schools.
Processing Information note
This collection was surveyed as part of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium's Survey Initiative on 2010 March 23 by Lauren Kalal and Andrew Steadham.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
The Lavinia Scott Papers were donated to the Department of African Studies in 1959, and were later transferred to the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies. See correspondence of November 19, 1959, and February 17, 1980, in the Africana Archives files.