John Brooke Pinney journals

1868-1877

John Brooke Pinney was an American born Presbyterian minister, serving as a missionary in Liberia on various occasions from 1833-1878. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1828 where he studied law. In 1832 he graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia that same year. The following year Pinney became a missionary in Africa as agent of the American Colonization Society, which constituted him ex-officio Acting Governor of the colony of Liberia. From 1848 to approximately 1872, he was Corresponding Secretary of the New York Colonization Society. Pinney was also one of the organizers of the College of Liberia, now known as the University of Liberia. The John Brooke Pinney Journals consist of two journals Pinney maintained as a missionary for the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. Two separate trips to Liberia are discussed in his jounrals, one in 1868-1869 and the other in 1876-1877. The journals provide descriptions of Pinney's activities and trips to villages, churches in Liberia, people he worked with and knew, schools he visited and/or helped to establish in Liberia, other missionaries, teachers, students and American freed slaves then living in Liberia. He also wrote about the journeys and described the production of various agricultural crops and aspects of world history. The 1876 journal contains minutes of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of the College of Liberia (now known as the University of Liberia) which he copied, with his comments on changes at the college. In addition, written into the journals are letters that Pinney wrote for others which he later transferred for mailing. Transcriptions of both journals are available. Biographical information about Pinney is also available in the collection.