| Description | Relating to the history and operation of CMS bookshops in Nigeria. Comprising papers relating to the Overseas Bookshop Commission established in 1946; administrative records such as committee minutes, annual reports, staff records and correspondence files; finance papers, including audited accounts 1906-1976, of CMS Bookshops Lagos, CMS (Nigeria) Bookshops and Overseas Bookshops Supplies Ltd; miscellaneous papers including research material, photographs and research notes for histories of the bookshops. |
| Administrative History | The CMS bookshops were founded as a way for missionaries to obtain books and teaching materials with which to carry out their evangelical mission and educational work in West Africa. Printing presses were installed in some of the bookshops making it possible to distribute copies of the scriptures translated into the vernacular.
In 1869 the Yoruba Mission Committee voted to build a bookshop in Bread Street Lagos. Claude Wakeman became manager in 1906. Other branches were at Abeokuta, Ilesha and Oshogbo. A bookshop in Sierra Leone opened in 1930.
A Bookshop Commission in 1946 resulted in the setting up of the Overseas Bookshop Managing Committee in London. This Committee was appointed in February 1948 together with a local advisory committee in Nigeria.
CMS (Nigeria) Bookshops as it was known, was incorporated in 1950 and handed over in 1961 to the Church in Nigeria, from then on being the responsibility of the Province of West Africa. Overseas Bookshops Supplies Ltd acted for CSS Bookshops [formerly CMS (Nigeria) Bookshops]. |
| Custodial History | Deposited with the CMS February 1993 by G. Daws, West Sussex (source: CMS catalogue). CMS transferred most of the collection to the University of Birmingham, Special Collections in May 2007 but retained the photographs. In 2017, the collection was withdrawn for use by the CMS. The withdrawn boxes were returned to the University 6 November 2024 with the exception of the photographs which were retained by CMS until they too were transferred to the University in April 2025. |