| Description | This collection comprises a letter book containing copies of her letters to England, 1899-1902, together with notebooks, diaries, bible and photographs of and collected by Mary Brighty relating to her service as a CMS missionary in Persia. One of her diaries and a notebook contain notes about Persian customs and traditions; other diaries contain records of journeys she undertook; and the diary which covers the period of the First World War makes reference to the withdrawal of missionaries from Yezd to Tehran, 1915-1916. One diary also includes entries which predate her involvement with the CMS and some of the photographs also appear to relate to this period. The Persian bible in the collection formerly belonged to Mary Bird, another CMS missionary in Persia, who died in 1914 |
| Administrative History | Mary Ellen Brighty (b c 1874) of St Helen's, Lancashire was accepted as a CMS missionary in 1899 at the age of 25. She departed for the Persia Mission in 1899 after training at The Olives and was stationed at Yezd. She appears to have served with the Persia Mission from 1899 until 1937. Reference: Register of missionaries (clerical, lay & female) and native clergy from 1804 to 1904 (Church Missionary Society, 1905) |
| Custodial History | Deposited with the CMS by Miss M. E. Brighty, 1963; transferred to the Special Collections Department in the 1980s. |