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PREMIÈRE PARTIE – Action philanthropique et développement au Proche-Orient : acteurs, pratiques et expertises (xxe-xxie siècles)

The Mission Complex: Philanthropic Material Networks of Missionary Education in Iraq, 1920s–1950s

Le « complexe missionnaire » : réseaux matériels philanthropiques d’éducation missionnaire en Irak des années 1920 aux années 1950
المجمّع التبشيري: الشبكات الخيرية المادية للتعليم التبشيري في العراق من عشرينيات إلى خمسينيات القرن العشرين
Sopanit Angsusingha
p. 37-60

Résumés

Cet article examine les réseaux philanthropiques matériels ayant soutenu les écoles missionnaires américaines à Bagdad entre les années 1920 et 1950. À partir des publications de la United Mission in Mesopotamia (UMM), de la correspondance missionnaire et des archives financières, il analyse comment les missionnaires ont mobilisé des fonds, des biens et du personnel pour leurs projets éducatifs. En s’appuyant sur la notion de philanthropie comme rapport de pouvoir, il montre comment ces réseaux ont permis l’expansion institutionnelle des écoles tout en ouvrant aux acteurs irakiens un espace d’appropriation. Il soutient que l’éducation missionnaire participait aux premiers discours sur le développement à l’époque mandataire, en offrant des services parallèles à ceux des États britannique et irakien, tout en promouvant des visions alternatives ancrées dans la philanthropie religieuse. En mettant l’accent sur les fondements matériels de ces écoles, l’article met en lumière les enchevêtrements entre éducation missionnaire, discours sur le développement et action locale dans la formation de l’Irak moderne.

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Texte intégral

Introduction

  • 1  Calvin Staudt, “The Beginnings of Missionary Educational Work in Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions(...)

1In his 1925 article titled “The Beginnings of Missionary Educational Work in Baghdad”, published in The Outlook of Missions, a periodical of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in the United States, American missionary Calvin K. Staudt presented his first-year successes in Baghdad to his American readership. “Tourists who have gone through Baghdad recently and who have seen our mission schools have had many words of commendation. They were deeply impressed by the number of students, the fine bearing of the student body, the Christian atmosphere of the school, and a thirst for knowledge and an eagerness for learning that is scarcely to be found anywhere else in the world”.1 Yet beneath these celebrations lay an appeal for sustained financial and material support. The establishment and maintenance of mission schools in Baghdad depended on extensive philanthropic networks spanning local Iraqi elites, missionary circles in the United States and broader denominational institutions. Staudt’s reliance on grants, shipments of textbooks from Beirut and the recruitment of teachers from the American University of Beirut highlights how missionary educational work operated at the intersection of religious, philanthropic and developmental practices.

2This article examines the material philanthropic networks that underpinned American mission schools for boys and girls in Baghdad between the 1920s and the 1950s. Drawing on the publications of the United Mission in Mesopotamia (UMM), a joint initiative of the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches, alongside missionary correspondence and financial records, it analyses how missionaries mobilised funding, goods and personnel to sustain their educational projects. Following Thomas Adam’s definition of philanthropy as the provision of necessary social, cultural and educational services that constitutes a relationship of power between donor and recipient, this article investigates how missionary philanthropy created forms of social influence, but also how Iraqi actors appropriated and reshaped philanthropic frameworks for their own purposes (Adam, 2004, p. 4-5).

3In so doing, this study positions itself at the intersection of mission studies and development studies. It argues that missionary education in Mandate-era Iraq cannot be understood solely through the lens of religious proselytism, nor simply as a cultural extension of colonialism. Rather, the philanthropic networks that supported missionary schooling participated in broader discourses and practices of socioeconomic development that were being forged in the interwar Middle East. Recent scholarship has highlighted how development, far from being a post-World War II invention, took root earlier in colonial and Mandate contexts as a set of material, racialised and psychological interventions into land, labour and society (Pursley, 2020). Missionary education in Iraq must be seen as part of this earlier history of development. It offered services in education and social welfare that mirrored and sometimes complemented British and Iraqi state projects, while simultaneously constructing alternative visions of social transformation rooted in religious philanthropy.

4By focusing on the material and financial foundations of mission schools, including donations, buildings, staffing and student aid, this article shows how missionary philanthropic practices contributed to emerging notions of progress, education and civic responsibility. These networks not only enabled resource mobilisation across continents, they also circulated developmental ideologies through school practices, fundraising appeals and moral narratives. Although they were embedded in unequal power relations, Iraqi communities were not passive recipients. Rather, they participated in shaping new forms of indigenous philanthropy. The article thus situates American missionary endeavours in Baghdad within the broader history of development and transnational philanthropy in the Middle East, highlighting the entanglements of missionary ambitions, colonial governance and local agency in the making of modern Iraq.

Christian Missionaries, Philanthropy and Development in the Middle East and North Africa

5Although several historical works have discussed the financing of religious and philanthropic institutions, the histories of philanthropy and missions have tended to be examined separately. Scholars of religion have largely focused on churches and synagogues, while those studying philanthropy have highlighted secular organisations and the expansion of professional fundraising. An exception to this division was James Hudnut-Beumler’s In Pursuit of the Almighty’s Dollar, which examines the “materialization of religion”, arguing that the process of spiritualising fundraising broadened the reach and diversity of American Protestantism. Missionaries developed new methods of raising funds to create a sense of obligation among potential donors (Hudnut-Beumler, 2007).

6Historiography on Christian missionaries in the Middle East often focuses less on the philanthropic aspect of missionary work and more on the missionaries’ cross-cultural relationship through the lens of imperialism. Scholars such as Ussama Makdisi and Heather Sharkey have reconceptualised missions as sites of multidirectional exchange, where both missionaries and local actors exercise agency (Makdisi, 2008; Sharkey, 2013). Recent studies of missionary schools further challenge the narratives of “secularisation”, arguing that students redirected educational goals away from religious conversion toward interreligious cooperation (Donovan, 2019). Although these works addressed the material and financial dimensions, they seldom treated these subjects as central.

7Historians who have examined the financial aspect of missionary work in the Middle East have shown how Christian missionaries drew on various sources of funding to support their charitable projects. These works show that the missionaries’ increasing interdependent relationships with philanthropists, private foundations and US citizens helped prefigure the emergence of secular philanthropy in the 20th century. Chantal Verdeil and Michelle Tusan demonstrate how the Jesuits in Syria and the Friends’ Constantinople Mission relied on monetary and trade networks established by local and international philanthropists in the Middle East, Europe and America to serve their beneficiaries (Verdeil, 2020; Tusan, 2009). Disputing a simple religion-to-secularity narrative, Verdeil argues that religious organisations remained active in humanitarian work alongside secular NGOs. Similarly, Scott P. Libson argues that the failure of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to secure more funding from donors during the Depression led church officials to cooperate with non-sectarian philanthropies to achieve its goals. Both scholars demonstrate that missionaries helped construct modern global philanthropy, not as an alternative to religion, but in tandem with it (Libson, 2016).

8Other scholars have illuminated how missionary-founded institutions became entangled with emerging development discourses. Cyrus Schayegh identifies the Social Science Research Section (SSRS) at AUB, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, as a key node in a “university-foundation-development-missionary complex” that bridged Western and Middle Eastern networks during the interwar period (Schayegh, 2015). Likewise, Sarah Epping and Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen have shown how American educational and philanthropic ventures in Iraq and the wider Middle East were embedded in geopolitical projects that linked humanitarian, developmental and political objectives (Epping, 2020; Bertelsen, 2014). These studies suggest that missionary education was deeply intertwined with development long before the post-1945 “development era”.

9Recent scholarship has also emphasised how Middle Eastern communities responded to missionary philanthropy by creating their own charitable institutions. Studies by Goldstein-Sabbah, Chitwood and Möller, Fahrenthold and Ener show that Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities in the late and post-Ottoman periods actively engaged in shaping new philanthropic models. The emergence of these modern charitable associations demonstrated local agency and creative adaptation rather than a simple reception of Western practices (Goldstein-Sabbah, 2020; Chitwood and Möller, 2020; Fahrenthold, 2014; Ener, 2003, p. 24 and 138-139). These works highlight the reciprocal dynamics of philanthropic encounters.

10While historians of missions, philanthropy and development have contributed valuable insights, few have examined how American missionary education in Mandate Iraq intersected with early development discourse. Building on studies that link religious philanthropy to development ideologies (Fountain, 2015; Smith, 2017) and those examining development in Mandate Iraq (Satia, 2007; Pursley, 2020), this article argues that missionary schools were embedded not only in transnational networks of material support, but also in the field of socioeconomic “uplift” associated with Mandate-era development projects. Missionary fundraising, educational practices and philanthropic strategies participated in, and sometimes diverged from, the British colonial and emerging Iraqi national frameworks of “development” aimed at producing modern citizens.

11By investigating how missionaries raised funds from American and Iraqi sources and how Iraqis shaped philanthropic practices within mission schools, this article contributes to the historiography of Christian missions, philanthropy and development in the Middle East. It highlights the financial and material dimensions often overlooked in studies of cultural interaction and challenges views of philanthropy as solely a mechanism of social control (Banner, 1973; Mandler, 1990; McCarthy, 2003). Instead, it demonstrates how Iraqi students and parents strategically used their beneficiary roles to influence missionary practices. In so doing, this article emphasises the reciprocal and contested nature of philanthropic relationships in Mandate Iraq.

The American School for Boys and Girls in Baghdad

  • 2  Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Hereafter PHS), Box 1, Folder 1, RG 5 (...)
  • 3  “A New Mission in Mesopotamia,” Oct. 13, 1922, Box 1 Folder 1, RG 509, PHS.
  • 4  R.N. Flew, “Memorandum on the Future of Christian Missions in Mesopotamia,” Box 1 Folder 1, RG 509 (...)

12The post-World War I Mandate context proved a fertile ground for the formation of a joint Christian missionary project in Iraq, the UMM. In the wake of the Ottoman collapse, British colonial governance and emerging discourses of social development in the Middle East, missionary organisations increasingly envisioned their work as contributing not only to religious conversion but also to broader efforts in education, social welfare and community development. Seeing Iraq newly freed from Ottoman control and under British rule, the Presbyterian Church (USA) saw a promising opportunity for a new missionary venture.2 They were eager to begin work swiftly, recognising that political conditions could shift: “The present moment is so peculiarly favourable…that it constitutes an urgency which cannot be disregarded. In view of the uncertainty as to the political development of the future in this area, the Boards are being urged to get a strong foothold at once…”3 As Britain assumed responsibility for Iraq’s administration and development, the Presbyterians considered it unthinkable that the Christian Church should not likewise work to regenerate the region’s religious life.4

  • 5  E. W. McDowell, “Mesopotamia,” 1920, p. 14, Box 1 Folder 6, RG 509, PHS.
  • 6  John Van Ess, “Christian Education in Mesopotamia,” PHS.

13In this spirit, the UMM framed education as both a moral and developmental imperative and used it as a key strategy to support its evangelistic mission. Several missionaries provided moral and practical reasons for the establishment of mission schools in Iraq. In his pamphlet Mesopotamia, UMM missionary E. W. McDowell described the missionary role in developmental terms: “We are God’s agents to prospect and to develop, not the land but the people.” His formulation echoes broader early 20th-century discourses, which emphasised that the moral and intellectual cultivation of individuals was central to the national development of Iraq, as analysed by Sara Pursley (Pursley, 2020, p. 28). McDowell’s emphasis on developing people rather than land suggests that missionary work, like colonial governance, sought to shape not only individual character but also Iraq’s social fabric: “Schools are in demand everywhere, and for both boys and girls. But the mind that is athirst for knowledge will be most often found interested in the moral and spiritual side of life whether in the individual or in the community.”5 John Van Ess, another missionary, likewise underscored the need for a Christian educational enterprise distinct from government schools, which he criticised as “frankly pro-Muhammadan”, and argued that missionary education offered “vastly more intensive and effective” training in secular and moral subjects.6 These views reflected how missionary schooling aligned with broader colonial visions of modernising Iraq’s populace.

  • 7  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 1, “Minutes of the First Annual Meeting of the United Mission in Mesopo (...)

14Consequently, at the First Annual Meeting of the Joint Committee of the UMM on November 11, 1923, the missionaries of the Reformed Church in America (Dutch Reformed Church), the Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Church in the United States (German Reformed Church) decided to organise the UMM and formalise their collaborative efforts.7 As outlined in the UMM meeting minutes of 1923–1924, the primary aim of the UMM was the evangelisation of Muslims in Iraq and the foundation of indigenous “self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing” Christian churches (Willoughby, 1962, p. 1). Yet from the outset, these religious goals were intertwined with ambitions for educational and developmental transformation.

  • 8  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 1, RG 509, “Minutes of the First Annual Meeting”, Nov. 11, 1923.

15To support their evangelistic work, the UMM decided to open two mission schools in Baghdad, one for boys and one for girls to convert young Iraqis. Like Protestant missions elsewhere in the region, the UMM saw education as the primary means of evangelising through Gospel preaching and Christian literature. The Joint Committee requested that Rev. Calvin K. Staudt and his wife Ida Donges Staudt of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) open a boys’ secondary school in Baghdad by fall 1925.8 The Staudts had previously lived and taught in Beirut, Lebanon. Originally from Berks County, Pennsylvania, Staudt graduated from the Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1903 and earned a doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 1908. Ida Donges received her PhB (Bachelor of Philosophy) from Palatinate College. They served in churches in Indiana and Washington before relocating to Beirut in 1919, where he taught Bible and ethics at AUB and she taught at the American Girls’ School (Staudt, 2012, p. xiii).

  • 9 PHS, RG 509, Box 1 Folder 3, Calvin Staudt, The Protestant School.

16The Staudts developed their boys’ school out of a Protestant school established by the Iraqi Protestant community in Baghdad. Initially, Staudt only acted as an educational adviser to the school director. When he saw the possibility of opening a “real Mission School”, Staudt decided to take complete control of the school and secured the official permit from the Iraqi government to open the American School for Boys in Baghdad (ASB) on September 8, 1924. The ASB encompassed primary and secondary levels. By late September, 60 students were enrolled, including three Jews and four Muslims, and enrolment rose to 132 by March 1925. The majority of the students were Protestants and Chaldeans in the 1924–1925 academic year, but there was an increase in the attendance of non-Christians over time.9

  • 10  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 1, “Minutes of the First Annual Meeting”, Nov. 11, 1923.
  • 11  Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford, California, Harry Roscoe Snyder Papers, Box 36.
  • 12  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folders 9–12.

17Although Mrs Staudt was not officially assigned to open a girls’ school, she opened one briefly in October 1924 after observing the poor condition of girls’ education in Baghdad. When May DePree Thoms was assigned by the UMM to open her girls’ school in Baghdad, Mrs Staudt’s school closed in September 1925.10 Staudt nonetheless continued to assist her husband and raise funds for ASB until the school was released from RCUS oversight in 1934. Afterward, the Staudts decided to transfer their school to a Board of Trustees. With assistance from a lawyer and fellow Berks County native, Harvey C. Bickel, Staudt was able to have his school incorporated into the State of Maryland. When Harry Snyder and Lowell Thomas, who held executive positions in the Near East College Association, became members of the Board, ASB became one of eight American schools affiliated with the group.11 Thoms’ American School for Girls in Baghdad (ASG) was officially opened on September 28, 1925. Initially offering six years of primary education, it expanded to ninth grade by 1938. Due to restrictions on the ability of foreign missionary societies to operate schools and own land, the UMM entrusted the school to the American Philanthropic Society of Northern Iraq, which served as its Board of Trustees until it was nationalised by the Iraqi government in 1969.12

Networks of Giving

18The local and international funding streams sustaining ASB and ASG reveal transnational networks connecting religious actors, Iraqi elites, British officials, American Protestant philanthropists and civic youth groups. These financial networks were not only vehicles for resources, but also mechanisms through which missionaries became entwined with developmental discourse. As scholars of missionary and development networks have shown, these systems of exchange did more than transfer resources. They constructed moral authority, mobilised emotional and political support and promoted visions of progress that fused spiritual salvation with material improvement (Hughes, 2013; King, 2019; Koch, 2018; Allpress, 2023). Material support, from tuition payments and property to donations, helped sustain these institutions and circulate development discourses centred on modern schooling, civic engagement and moral formation.

19Missionaries combined grassroots approaches with strategic outreach to raise funds. In Iraq, they visited homes, attended religious festivals and engaged with local churches to foster connections and share Christian teachings. Social events like ticketed concerts and plays not only brought in extra income but also served to cultivate relationships with Iraqi officials and communities. The missionaries also communicated their progress and needs to supporters in America through magazines and letters. These writings became advertising tools that allowed missionaries to personify their educational efforts by promoting “student ambassadors”. During furlough, missionaries delivered talks in churches to raise awareness and solicit donations from their churches or congregations. These efforts reflected broader trends in post-World War I philanthropy, in which education and development were framed as Christian duties.

  • 13  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 7, Calvin Staudt, Report of the American School for Boys in Baghdad, Se (...)
  • 14  Calvin Staudt, “Moslems in the American School for Boys in Baghdad”, Outlook of Missions, no. 4, A (...)
  • 15  Ida Staudt, “A Girls’ School Struggling to Live in Baghdad”, Outlook of Missions no. 7, July 1924, (...)

20On a local level, ASB earned much of its income from tuition fees paid by Iraqi parents. In the 1925–1926 academic year, all students paid high tuition, with the tuition for the Primary School amounting to 47 rupees and for the High School 71 rupees a year.13 This tuition rate suggested that several students in the school came from prominent and wealthy families in Baghdad. In his article titled “Moslems in the American School for Boys in Baghdad”, Staudt raised a few examples of the Muslim boys who attended ASB to demonstrate his school’s success and promising future. One boy named Munther Theki was a nephew of King Faisal’s aide-de-camp. Sayyid Saleh and Sayyid Ibrahim were descendants of Prophet Muhammad. Abdul Hamud Kedery and Jelal Ibrahim Urfali would be classified in America as the “heirs of multi-millionaires”.14 Many Iraqi families, like those in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, chose missionary schools due to the scarcity of state schools. Despite concerns over the proselytising agenda of missionaries, they regarded Western curricula and foreign languages as crucial for social and economic mobility (Russell, 2004, p. 7; Khalaf, 2012, p. 245; Okkenhaug, 2005, p. 48, 62). Iraqi Christian parents were also willing to send their children to fee-charging mission schools so that they could learn the Bible and Christian principles instead of attending free government schools dominated by Muslim-majority curricula.15

  • 16  Staudt, “Moslems in the American School for Boys in Baghdad”, p. 168.

21The substantial income from wealthy Muslim and Christian families enabled the missionaries to provide scholarships and financial aid to poorer, often Christian, students. As Verdeil notes, Catholic schools implemented a system of equalisation to support pupils from poor backgrounds (Verdeil, 2020, p. 28; Donovan, 2019, p. 286). Protestant mission schools like ASB and ASG seemed to apply the same system. Some profits earned from Muslim families were used to offset tuition costs for charity pupils. As Staudt noted, one student, Ali Akbar, a poor refugee from Urmia, received a scholarship for his leadership potential.16 However, recent scholarship has complicated the portrayal of these practices as fully egalitarian. Mirna Wasef’s study of American missionary schools in Assiut, Egypt, demonstrates that scholarship students often faced structural inequalities, including limited access to extracurricular activities and poorer living conditions compared to their wealthier peers (Wasef, 2022). This mix of charity and hierarchy allowed missionaries to frame their work as philanthropic and developmental while still catering to elites.

  • 17  Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Hereafter ERHS), Reformed Ch (...)
  • 18  Staudt, “With Royalty in Baghdad”, Outlook of Missions, no. 3, Mar. 1926, p. 125.
  • 19  “Review of Civil Administration of Occupied Territories of Al Iraq, 1914–1918,” 58, FO 608/94/5, T (...)
  • 20  David D. Baker, “Where is the American School for Boys”, Outlook of Missions, no. 1, Jan. 1932, p. (...)

22Besides tuition, missionaries initially benefited from Iraqi government subsidies. The financial statement of The Protestant School, a Christian denominational school that would become ASB under the UMM, showed that it received a subsidy of Rs. 459.05 from the Iraqi government’s Education Department in 1925.17 Although the school no longer received this government subsidy after it came under UMM oversight in September 1925, this financial support suggested that a Christian school not only had to obtain a permit authorised by the Iraqi government, but also had to rely on the government’s grants-in-aid in addition to students’ tuition. Staudt often emphasised his positive relationship with King Faisal I, describing him as “a friend and patron” of ASB. The King not only approved Staudt’s educational work but also sent relatives to enrol at the school.18 Such endorsements were crucial for missionary fundraising and for presenting ASB as aligned with Iraqi national development goals. The British colonial authorities and Iraqi elites viewed mission schools as training grounds for an administrative class and workforce loyal to the new state, even as missionaries pursued evangelical ambitions.19 In 1932, ASB’s vice principal reported that the Iraqi government even considered granting a piece of land for the school’s expansion, though this plan ultimately fell through amid financial crises.20 The broader colonial context of education as a tool of governance shaped missionary operations in line with the emerging development discourse. Like their counterparts in Mandate Palestine and Syria, American missionaries in Baghdad operated under the shadow of imperial educational agendas that prioritised the training of teachers and bureaucratic personnel as essential to political stability and economic modernisation. While the King’s patronage projected an image of collaboration, missionaries’ appeals to royal and government support reveal their dependence on both colonial and local state structures to sustain their ambitions.

  • 21 PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 7, May Thoms, Report of the American Mission School for Girls, Baghdad, (...)
  • 22  “The Annual Report of the United Mission in Mesopotamia”, Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1929, p (...)

23Under the British Mandate, ASG received support from the British authorities who served as advisers to the Iraqi government. In 1925, Thoms received help from Arthur Lionel Forster Smith, adviser to the Minister of Education, in securing a school permit. While her proposal to teach the Bible in school was initially rejected by the Iraqi Cabinet, it was eventually passed under pressure from the British High Commissioner.21 Local Muslim support also shaped the school. According to the UMM annual report of 1929, although the Board was unable to grant funds for additional equipment, a Muslim landlord who owned the school building was willing to lower the rent and make repairs and sanitary improvements to the building. His action was motivated by the desire for his daughter to attend the school and receive an English-style education.22 This exchange highlights how philanthropic support from local elites was often transactional and driven by aspirations for social mobility.

24The entanglement of missionary education with colonial and state interests reflects the broader dynamics of the Mandate period. While missionaries sought to promote Christian teachings, the Iraqi state, still heavily influenced by British advisers, aimed to build a centralised educational system that could produce loyal administrators and modernise the country. British authorities supported missionary initiatives selectively, seeing them as tools to extend Western influence. Although tensions emerged over religious instruction, local communities often valued the cultural and social capital associated with mission schools, viewing them as pathways to economic and political advancement. This complex interplay between evangelical, colonial and developmental aims shaped the opportunities and limits of missionary education in Iraq.

  • 23  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 27, Estimates, 1930.

25One of the main funding sources for ASB and ASG outside Iraq was the UMM Board’s annual appropriations. To receive these funds, the Boards of Foreign Missions (BFM) of the three cooperating churches submitted budget estimates for each mission station such as Baghdad and Mosul to the UMM Joint Committee. These estimates covered missionaries’ salaries, allowances and institutional expenses. For instance, ASG’s 1927 budget included teachers’ salaries, rent and school equipment, totalling approximately Rs. 11,000 annually, while ASB’s expenses reached Rs. 13,100. By 1930, the combined requests of ASG and ASB accounted for 54% of the UMM Board’s total education budget.23

  • 24  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 27, Appropriations for 1926.

26The Joint Committee reviewed these estimates each summer in New York and approved appropriations for the following year. Funds were disbursed in the fall and shared among the three BFMs based on a 5-3-3 ratio. In 1926, the Presbyterian BFM covered 54% of the budget, while the RCUS and RCA each contributed 23%. Appropriations were paid quarterly and covered missionaries’ salaries, rent, property repairs, administration and educational work.24 Once apportioned, each Board’s treasurer transferred funds to missionaries via check or cablegram.

  • 25  “Finances of the Board”, Outlook of Missions, no. 11, Nov. 1925, p. 511.
  • 26  Allen R. Bartholomew, “An Old Letter to a Board Member”, Outlook of Missions, no. 9, Sep. 1928, p. (...)
  • 27  Staudt, “A Far-Reaching Work in Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 4, Apr. 1934, p. 116; John (...)

27RCUS congregations also supported Baghdad’s educational work. The RCUS Board allocated funds collected from over 1,700 congregations and nearly 300,000 members to its missions in Japan, China and Iraq. Although offerings rose significantly in 1924, enabling expansion without immediate debt, subsequent years witnessed financial shortfalls.25 By 1928, the RCUS Board faced mounting debt and limited fundraising success. Secretary Allen R. Bartholomew attributed the problem to a spiritual decline among congregants, as per capita giving barely exceeded one US dollar.26 The RCUS Board’s financial instability exposed the precarious foundations of philanthropic development efforts, which were deeply vulnerable to economic downturns and fluctuations in donor priorities. This financial instability worsened after 1929, when the Depression severely curtailed contributions. By 1932, the RCUS Board could not cover missionary salaries and reduced appropriations to the UMM. In response, Staudt reduced staff salaries at ASB and, in 1934, the Board terminated the Staudts’ missionary service.27

  • 28  For more information on the Staudts’ contact with the Anglican Church’s Jerusalem and the East Mis (...)
  • 29  The Magic Carpet: A publication of the American School for Boys in Baghdad, Iraq, June 1939, Box 3 (...)

28After their dismissal from the Board’s payroll, the Staudts continued operating ASB independently under financial strain. Without Board support, they relied on a patchwork of funding sources, including their personal savings, private donations from American supporters and limited aid from the British Anglican Church’s Jerusalem and the East Mission.28 By the late 1930s, tuition covered approximately 75% of the school’s operating costs, transforming ASB into a semi-private institution catering to students who could afford to pay. Wealthy Iraqi families became essential to the school’s survival during this period. In 1939, the Staudts incorporated ASB under a new Board of Trustees registered in the State of Maryland, composed of clergy, educators and businessmen.29 This move aimed to stabilise the school’s financial footing and secure long-term support through fundraising.

  • 30  “Synodical Meetings”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 12, Dec. 1930, p. 565.
  • 31  Ida Staudt, “An Intimate Letter Telling of the Varied Experiences of Our Missionaries in Baghdad”, (...)
  • 32  Flora Rahn Lentz, “There is also a Moslem World”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1926, p. 27 (...)

29The RCUS Woman’s Missionary Society (WMS) played a major role in fundraising. Founded in 1884, the WMS grew from 2,000 to over 24,000 members by the 1920s.30 Through newsletters like The Outlook of Missions, the WMS publicised missionary needs and mobilised fundraising drives. For instance, Ida Staudt’s 1924 letter about her school work asked WMS members to subscribe to school magazines and send literature and supplies to ASB.31 Through the WMS, gendered philanthropic networks extended missionary development projects into American civic culture, mobilising women and children as agents of international education work. WMS members also organised mission studies focusing on “Moslem Lands”, which stimulated interest among women, youth and children and generated extra income for the Board.32

  • 33  “Treasurer’s Report for the Triennium, May 1, 1926 to May 1, 1929”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 6 (...)
  • 34  “Synodical Meetings”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 12, Dec. 1930, p. 565.

30The WMS distributed donations as “special gifts” and Thank Offerings. In 1924, for example, it raised a total amount of $ 41,285.36 from nine synods and gave “special gifts” to foreign missions totalling $ 8,302.65, including $ 20 for Iraq. Between 1926 and 1929, the WMS allocated $ 2,000 to Iraq through Thank Offerings, in addition to smaller gifts to individual missionaries and scholarships.33 Through conventions and lectures during furloughs, missionaries like Ida Staudt strengthened these fundraising networks and promoted further support for educational expansion.34

  • 35  “For Use With the February Program”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 12, Dec. 1929, p. 575.
  • 36  “Treasurer’s Report of the Woman’s Missionary Society, May 1, 1929 to May 1, 1930”, The Outlook of (...)
  • 37  “Pioneer Mission Club”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1930, p. 275.

31Auxiliary youth organisations such as Girls’ Missionary Guilds (GMG) and Mission Bands supported foreign missions through fundraising and correspondence. Under WMS guidance, these groups staged Thank-Offering plays and exchanged letters with missionaries. This communication often ran along gendered lines. In her letter in The Outlook of Missions, Ida Staudt asked the Guild girls to send magazines like Asia, the Literary Digest, the New York Times and small gifts for students at ASB and ASG.35 In 1930, the WMS and GMG raised $ 2,500 as part of their Thank-Offering programmes to support ASG.36 The Mission Band later evolved into the Pioneer Mission Club, a boys’ missionary organisation that continued to send support to Baghdad.37 These youth activities reflected broader patterns of philanthropic education campaigns that mobilised children and young people as donors and participants, similar to efforts supporting mission work in the Ottoman Empire, colonial India and Africa (Duff, 2015, p. 78; Maksudyan, 2020, p. 64; Kannan, 2021, p. 234).

  • 38  Ida Staudt, “Busy Days in Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 2, Feb. 1926, p. 79.
  • 39  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 16, Mabel L. Kany to Calvin Staudt, Dec. 20, 1927.
  • 40  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 16, Supporters of Students in Baghdad Boys’ School.

32Scholarships for ASB and ASG students came from RCUS churches, affiliated schools and private citizens in America. Although many students at ASB came from wealthy families who could afford high tuition, others received full or partial scholarships based on their academic merit and character. While most scholarships leaned toward male students, a greater portion of financial aid was allocated to girls over time, reflecting shifting gender dynamics in educational philanthropy. Donors such as Mercersburg Academy and Hale Memorial Church in Dayton, Ohio, supported scholarships for both Sunni and Shiʿa students.38 Donors often requested information and photographs of recipients, seeking to foster personal connections between American congregations and students abroad.39 This practice anticipated later evangelical fundraising strategies, such as World Vision’s child sponsorship campaigns, which similarly relied on visualised giving. As David P. King argues in God’s Internationalists, these tactics formed part of a broader shift toward individualised and emotionally resonant fundraising that became central to modern evangelical philanthropy (King, 2019, p. 74). By 1929, scholarships came from a wide network of churches, Sunday Schools and missionary societies primarily in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri.40

  • 41  Ida Staudt, “Mrs. Staudt Describes Commencement Week at Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 8, (...)
  • 42  Iraq. Mudīrīyat al-Iḥṣāʾ al-ʻĀmmah. al-Taqrīr al-sanawī ʻan sayr al-maʻārif lil-sanawāt al- (...)
  • 43  C. K. Staudt to Allen R. Bartholomew, May 7, 1931. Box 63 Folder 17, Reformed Church Board of Fore (...)
  • 44  ERHS, RCBFM, Received in Cash and Pledge from Dr. Calvin K. Staudt, July 18, 1932; ERHS, RCBFM, Bo (...)
  • 45  Calvin Staudt, “King Faisal’s Death a Loss to Our Work”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 10, Nov. 193 (...)

33For the construction of new school buildings, funding came from the UMM cooperating churches, the WMS and American donors. Since founding ASB in 1925, the Staudts had wished to have their own buildings in Karrada, a suburb of Baghdad. The twenty-two-roomed building was used both as their residence that they shared with other teachers, students and servants, and as a school. From 1925 to 1928, the Stauds reported an increased enrolment in the school every year and emphasised the fact that they had to turn away several boys for lack of space. They regularly ended letters with appeals for funds to rent or build new facilities. By 1930, the Staudts sought to purchase new buildings instead of paying thousands in rent to develop the high school into a college.41 Their efforts to expand educational facilities unfolded alongside British imperial strategies that promoted selective Western-style education and Iraqi nationalist policies aimed at centralising the educational system and expanding public schools.42 This plan also gained urgency amid potential competition from American Jesuits, who were planning to establish a Catholic school in Baghdad.43 Although the Staudts’ fundraising tours in America raised $ 5,860, the RCUS Board’s 1933 financial crisis stalled the project.44 King Faisal’s death in the same year also diminished governmental support for the sale of land.45

  • 46  “How Is the Work of Foreign Missions Progressing?”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 4, Apr. 1932, p.  (...)
  • 47  “Annual Report of the United Mission in Mesopotamia, 1932”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 4, Apr. 1 (...)
  • 48  Hope College Archives and Special Collections, Holland, Michigan, Arabia Mission Records, W88-0316 (...)
  • 49  Henry Tani, “Youth Give Earnings to Projects: Christ’s Workday receipts from groups in many church (...)

34ASG also received funds from the UMM Board and American donors for its buildings. In 1932, a new building, which served as a missionary residence and evangelistic centre, was funded by the RCA.46 As the school expanded to nine grades with 130 students, missionaries launched new campaigns to build a new permanent building that would accommodate more students.47 One of these programmes was the 1951 Bags for Baghdad campaign. Targeting Sunday Schools and youth groups, this initiative involved coin collections and the publication of the Stars in the East booklet, which highlighted UMM educational work in Iraq.48 In parallel, the National Youth Fellowship of the Evangelical and Reformed Church raised funds through activities such as Christ’s Workday where members performed menial jobs in exchange for wages that they would donate to various mission projects, including Bags for Baghdad. By 1952, youth groups contributed $ 2,945, with approximately $ 350 designated for ASG’s building fund.49 These coordinated efforts exemplified how American Protestant philanthropic networks materially sustained missionary education while shaping emerging visions of civic and developmental ideals.

Building Development

35The allocation of funds by the Staudts reveals how missionary development operated through the material transformation of educational space. Rather than simply enabling operational continuity, these financial decisions shaped the material and moral contours of missionary education. They show how American missionaries sought to spread Christian moral order, social progress and modernity through institutional infrastructure.

  • 50  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folders 27 and 16.
  • 51  PHS, RG 89, Box 2, Folder 6.

36The Staudts used their funds to purchase several items and services essential for school work and pay missionaries’ and teachers’ salaries. According to the financial accounts of ASB from 1925 to 1927, their expenditures included furniture for classrooms, running expenses for administration, repairs of property, teachers’ salaries, wages for janitors and yard expenses. From 1929 to 1930, they expanded to cover the cost of dormitory and dining facilities, increased rent for buildings and athletics. By 1932, the proposed budget included new equipment for the school’s library, physics and chemistry laboratories, a social hall for boarding students, student socials and additional books. Expenditures for ASG under Ida Staudt (January–July 1925) similarly covered teachers’ salaries, school equipment and administration.50 As management transferred to Thoms in September 1925, the list of expenditures expanded gradually to include salaries for teachers and office staff, expenses related to the school’s infrastructure such as classroom supplies, furniture and building maintenance, scholarships for students and sister discounts and outreach activities.51 Examining the schools’ financial accounts reveals the shifting development of the schools’ infrastructure and activities which were affected by fluctuating appropriations and special gifts from America each year. Reviewing each school’s total income and expenditures also showed that missionaries sometimes had to operate at a deficit and raise more funds at home to meet yearly expenses. Philanthropy, in this context, functioned not only as religious giving but as a material and political practice. Missionaries channelled money, goods and personnel to produce institutional infrastructure and moral authority. Their spending on school facilities and payrolls demonstrates the missionaries’ attempt to construct a moral sphere that reflected order, discipline and modernity.

  • 52  Staudt, “The Forward Stride”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 1, Jan. 1929, p. 31.

37Besides financial statements submitted to their Boards, the missionaries’ articles in missionary magazines such as The Outlook of Missions and The Messenger further circulated these narratives of development. These publications were part of a transnational philanthropic apparatus through which missionaries secured donations and asserted institutional credibility. They not only reported expenditures but also staged American generosity as spiritually and socially transformative (Robert, 2002, p. 75; Roddy et al., 2018, p. 24-26). An increased appropriation and special gifts in 1928 enabled the Staudts to expand and enhance the infrastructure of ASB. Ida Staudt wrote that a new one-story building was erected to accommodate 360 students, which included classrooms, dining areas and lodging facilities for 24 boarders. The addition of a new playground and sports field allowed for athletic activities and recreational hours for primary schoolboys. Funds were also allocated to establish a reading room within the Staudts’ residence, furnished with reference books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica sent by the Sunday School of Calvary Church in Reading, Pennsylvania, a Webster’s Dictionary and an Arabic-English Dictionary made possible by a gift of $ 200 from the students of Miami University, Ohio.52 These highly visible acts of giving not only endowed the school materially but also reaffirmed the relational circuits that connected American Protestant communities with distant beneficiaries.

  • 53  “Within the Denomination”, The Messenger, no. 18, Sep. 25, 1951, p. 28; Helen E. Baker, “Board App (...)
  • 54  “Within the Denomination”, The Messenger, no. 9, May 4, 1954, p. 29.
  • 55  Nadia Tobia, “Golden School Days”, Feefaa, March 2021, https://feefaa.org/golden-school-days/ [acc (...)

38With appropriations from the cooperating Boards and money from the fundraising campaign, the missionaries also reported construction progress in the missionary magazines. From September 1951 to December 1952, plans for the new ASG building were finalised by the architects but were delayed due to the absence of a supervising missionary and complications related to reclaiming the lot initially purchased.53 Having secured a new site in Al-Mansour neighbourhood, the UMM missionaries convened a groundbreaking ceremony in May 1954, marking the beginning of the construction phase.54 The new building design was developed in consultation with Ellen Jawdat, a Harvard-trained Iraqi American architect. Departing from the traditional Baghdad house design, the architects implemented a new architectural style to match the modern developments in the suburban area of Al-Mansour. The T-shaped layout featured a prominent staircase, with one classroom wing elevated on columns to create shaded outdoor areas. Interiors incorporated new materials such as exposed concrete brick.55 These expenditures reflected more than logistical necessity; they materialised a vision of development that reflected moral authority, modern education and architectural modernism. Similar strategies were visible in government schools in Iraq, American schools run by the Jesuits and Protestants in Baghdad and Basra, as well as missionary projects in Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon, where investments in modern architecture aimed to demonstrate ideological and political influence (MacDonnell, 1994; Kark, 2022; Frémaux, 2024; El Chami, 2021).

  • 56  “The Advance Program 1957–1959”, The Messenger, Sep. 1957, p. 42.
  • 57  Dobbs F. Ehlman, “Advance in the Christian World Mission?”, The Messenger, no. 6, March 20, 1956, (...)

39When the construction neared completion, a photo of the building’s interior appeared in the March 1956 issue of The Messenger, crediting the success to the mission funds from America. In a new fundraising initiative by the Evangelical and Reformed Church in September 1957, the modern building of ASG was heralded as a testament to collective philanthropy.56 The new facility not only provided a suitable learning environment for a larger student body, but also allowed for the recruitment of more missionary teachers.57 The spacious new facility became an incentive for attracting missionaries by offering ample living and working spaces. Alongside other forms of aid such as food, clothing and medicine, physical infrastructure like school buildings became a crucial aspect of Christian witness in Iraq. Not only did built architecture serve as a spatial marker of power, the processes involved in its construction also allowed the missionaries to expand and consolidate their urban presence (El Chami, 2021). Through transnational philanthropic networks, missionaries expanded their sociocultural influence in Baghdad by erecting new buildings.

  • 58  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 16, List of students receiving financial aid, 1932–1933.
  • 59  Staudt, “Moslems in the American School for Boys in Baghdad”, p. 168.
  • 60  Staudt, “From Anatole Digmaloff to Barker Fahmi”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 8, Aug. 1926, p. 36 (...)
  • 61  Staudt, “Fredi Fetto”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 10, Oct. 1928, p. 463.

40Once missionaries received student scholarships either directly from donors or through their Boards, they reported in missionary magazines which students were selected for the scholarships and their qualifications. While only a few poor students at ASB received scholarships in the 1920s, by the 1932–1933 academic year, 28 out of 424 students received financial aid either due to their economic status, academic merits or relationship to members of the teaching staff or the American mission.58 Certain scholarships came with conditions attached as donors expected missionaries to uphold values aligned with their own (Bourmaud, 2020, p. 168). While the Staudts fulfilled their obligation to report back to donors, they strategically distributed scholarships to build favour with various religious and ethnic groups in Baghdad. One of the two scholarships given by Mercersburg Academy went to Ali Akbar, a Persian refugee from Urmia who fled with his older brother to avoid military conscription during the Ottoman campaigns. He was selected not only for his financial need, but also for his academic accomplishments, leadership qualities and active participation in the school’s Brotherhood meetings.59 The other Mercersburg scholarship was given to Ali Ibrahim, a Shiʿa student from Khadimiya. Although Ibrahim was given the scholarship because he could not afford textbooks, granting him an educational opportunity seemed to enable Staudt to reach out to the Shiʿa community in Baghdad.60 Khadimiya was one of the holy Shiʿa cities that objected to Christian missionaries. By keeping Ibrahim at ASB with free tuition, the Staudts hoped to use him as a catalyst for advancing Christian influence among Muslims. The Warner Lentz Scholarship, sponsored by Hale Memorial Church, required that the candidate embody the ideals of Rev. Edwin Warner Lentz, who passed away before his assignment to Baghdad. In his article discussing the winner’s profile, Staudt wrote that Fredi Fetto was selected for this award due to his character, scholarship and Christian spirit. As a thirteen-year-old boy, he earned respect from older classmates and teachers for his honesty and discipline. He actively participated in several activities in school such as the Brotherhood, the Boy Scouts and dramatics. Before the Bible examination, Fetto took his teacher’s place in leading a discussion on Bible lessons with his friends. His characteristics and achievements in school fitted the award’s criteria and convinced Staudt that he would be an effective force in teaching the Christian way of life to Muslims and Christians in the future.61 Thus, scholarships served not only as educational opportunities but also as networks that linked donors, missionaries and Iraqi students. They reflected both missionary strategies of outreach and Iraqi families’ efforts to navigate emerging hierarchies of religious, ethnic and class capital.

Local Philanthropy

41Philanthropic practices were also reshaped and localised by Iraqi students and parents themselves. Through school and community-level organisations, students appropriated and redefined Christian philanthropic ideals to serve communal, moral and social goals. This appropriation demonstrates how Iraqis actively shaped the meanings of socioeconomic progress, citizenship and modernity that exceeded the boundaries of missionary vision or control.

  • 62  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 1, Calvin K. Staudt, Report of the American School for Boys, Baghdad, S (...)
  • 63  Staudt, “The ‘Brotherhood’ in the American School for Boys, Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. (...)
  • 64  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 22, The Bulletin, no. 1, 1933, p. 3.

42Student clubs at ASB and ASG provided platforms for students to engage in different kinds of philanthropic or charitable activities. Founded in 1925, the Brotherhood was a religious organisation modelled after a college YMCA. Its primary goal was to foster a sense of brotherhood among students from diverse social and cultural backgrounds.62 To this end, the Brotherhood introduced students to Christian teachings and guided them toward Christian living through devotional meetings and religious discussions. Students participated in Christian service through committees and activities to embody Christian fellowship. From these weekly meetings, the Brotherhood undertook various initiatives aimed at improving the welfare of the school community such as visiting the sick in hospital, helping friends review lessons and organising fundraising efforts, such as collecting fees from students for constructing a new basketball field.63 Through the students’ collective giving, The Bulletin, the Brotherhood’s newspaper, was published and distributed among students and alumni in 1933. Within the same year, a social service committee was established to promote the Brotherhood’s commitment to community service. With some financial support from the missionaries, this committee launched projects such as providing scholarships to students, donating clothing to those in need and hosting tea parties for labourers in Baghdad.64

  • 65  Staudt, “Busy Days in Baghdad”, p. 79.
  • 66  Staudt, “Our Girls’ Club in Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1927, p. 266.
  • 67  Staudt, “Busy Days at Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 2, Feb. 1933, p. 53.
  • 68  Theophil H. Twente, “Dawn – In the city of a Thousand and One Nights”, The Messenger, no. 11, June (...)

43The Girls’ Club, established by Ida Staudt at ASG, served as a platform for self-development and social service among its members. Through weekly meetings held at the Staudts’ residence, the club members, including Christians, Jews and Muslims, studied English literature, discussed club activities and planned social service projects. In 1926, the club carried out various initiatives to assist the less fortunate in their community. Some of these activities seemed to be inspired or supported by the work of the Iraqi Women’s Society of which Staudt was a member. These initiatives included sponsoring the education of underprivileged girls by covering tuition fees, providing school supplies and donating warm clothing.65 Following a suggestion from English women engaged in relief work in Baghdad, the club also visited a Health Centre, offering assistance to distressed women and children and sewing warm clothes and dresses for the babies there.66 These social service activities continued and expanded in ASG under Thoms. The club initiated a Parent-Teachers’ Association where mothers came up with and paid for a project to provide milk daily for primary school children.67 When Baghdad experienced the Tigris River flood in 1954, ASG girls cooperated with the City Hall in preparing and distributing over 3,000 bags of food that they brought from home to various refugee encampments.68

44The Brotherhood and the Girls’ Club not only promoted fellowship, compassion and social responsibility among students, they also shaped them to become “junior” philanthropists by fostering a culture of service and empathy through their religious teachings and practical activities. Although missionaries and teachers helped provide resources and guidelines on how to conduct social service, the expansion of these projects in various forms suggested that students were able to start their own charitable initiatives. This student-run social service not only served the missionaries’ purpose of spreading Christianity through practical activities but also encouraged the students’ families and local Iraqis to engage in their own philanthropic action.

Conclusion

45The mission schools established by the United Mission in Mesopotamia depended on an intricate web of local and transnational philanthropic networks, which American missionaries actively cultivated through diverse mechanisms such as magazine articles, church talks, correspondence campaigns and appeals to both American and Iraqi donors. In Baghdad, missionaries enlisted the support of elite families, secured backing from the Iraqi government when possible and leveraged connections with British authorities to consolidate their schools’ standing within the shifting context of the Mandate and early post-independence governance. Material support, including financial contributions, educational supplies and personnel, allowed missionaries to expand their urban presence and institutional influence.

46These philanthropic practices reflected and reinforced gendered and socioeconomic hierarchies. While missionaries framed their work as humanitarian service, they also advanced a developmental temporality that positioned Iraqi society as immature and in need of Western guidance. In this sense, missionary philanthropy aligned with broader Mandate-era development discourses which, as Pursley has shown, served to defer political transformation in the name of fostering maturity and progress. Missionary efforts thus both participated in and diverged from colonial development paradigms. While reproducing hierarchies of power, they also opened spaces for Iraqi actors to engage in new philanthropic practices and assert local agency.

47The transfer of the American Schools for Boys and Girls in Baghdad to independent Boards of Trustees during the 1940s illustrates the fluidity of these philanthropic relationships. Faced with financial instability and political shifts, missionaries collaborated with businessmen and professionals to sustain their initiatives outside missionary control. This transition reflects broader patterns identified by Verdeil and Libson, wherein Christian philanthropy contributed not to secularisation, but to the emergence of hybrid forms of philanthropic modernity.

48By recovering the material foundations of missionary education and examining the power dynamics embedded in philanthropic exchanges, this article contributes to the growing body of scholarship that rethinks the entanglements of religion, development and empire. It situates American missionaries as early and active participants in the field of development, while foregrounding the reciprocal, though unequal, relationships they forged with Iraqi society. Through this lens, mission schools appear not only as sites of religious instruction, but also as arenas where philanthropy, education and development converge to shape the social and political fabric of modern Iraq.

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Notes

1  Calvin Staudt, “The Beginnings of Missionary Educational Work in Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 9, Sep. 1925, p. 411.

2  Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Hereafter PHS), Box 1, Folder 1, RG 509 (Oct. 13, 1922).

3  “A New Mission in Mesopotamia,” Oct. 13, 1922, Box 1 Folder 1, RG 509, PHS.

4  R.N. Flew, “Memorandum on the Future of Christian Missions in Mesopotamia,” Box 1 Folder 1, RG 509, PHS.

5  E. W. McDowell, “Mesopotamia,” 1920, p. 14, Box 1 Folder 6, RG 509, PHS.

6  John Van Ess, “Christian Education in Mesopotamia,” PHS.

7  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 1, “Minutes of the First Annual Meeting of the United Mission in Mesopotamia,” Nov. 11, 1923.

8  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 1, RG 509, “Minutes of the First Annual Meeting”, Nov. 11, 1923.

9 PHS, RG 509, Box 1 Folder 3, Calvin Staudt, The Protestant School.

10  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 1, “Minutes of the First Annual Meeting”, Nov. 11, 1923.

11  Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford, California, Harry Roscoe Snyder Papers, Box 36.

12  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folders 9–12.

13  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 7, Calvin Staudt, Report of the American School for Boys in Baghdad, Sep. 1925-Apr. 1926. In 1925–26, the Indian rupee (Rs), the currency in circulation in Iraq under the British Mandate, was tied to sterling (£). During and after the war, the rupee operated under a “managed float”, but in 1926 it was re-stabilised at 1s 6d. One shilling sixpence equals 18 pence, so at this rate £1 = Rs 13⅓. Since sterling was on the gold standard at the prewar parity of £1 = 4.86 US dollars ($), one US dollar was worth roughly Rs 2.75. Annual tuition of Rs 47 for the Primary School and Rs 71 for the High School thus amounted to about $17–26. For comparison, day labourers in Baghdad earned around Rs 2 (≈$0.73) per day, and skilled workers such as carpenters earned Rs 2–3.5 (≈$0.73–$1.28). Tuition therefore represented several months of wages, placing ASB well beyond the reach of most working-class families. See Tirthankar Roy, 2000, The Economic History of India, 1857–1947, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, p. 236; Lawrence H. Officer, “Dollar–Pound Exchange Rate from 1791”, MeasuringWorth, 2002, http://www.measuringworth.com/exchangepound/ [accessed in August 2025]; Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Edmund A. Walsh, SJ Papers, Box 6, Folder 395, Excerpts from a letter of Fr Rice, 23 July 1932.

14  Calvin Staudt, “Moslems in the American School for Boys in Baghdad”, Outlook of Missions, no. 4, Apr. 1926, p. 168.

15  Ida Staudt, “A Girls’ School Struggling to Live in Baghdad”, Outlook of Missions no. 7, July 1924, p. 315.

16  Staudt, “Moslems in the American School for Boys in Baghdad”, p. 168.

17  Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Hereafter ERHS), Reformed Church Board of Foreign Mission (hereafter RCBFM), Box 63, Folder 27, Financial Statement of Protestant School, Jan. 1–Aug. 31, 1925.

18  Staudt, “With Royalty in Baghdad”, Outlook of Missions, no. 3, Mar. 1926, p. 125.

19  “Review of Civil Administration of Occupied Territories of Al Iraq, 1914–1918,” 58, FO 608/94/5, The National Archives of the UK (TNA).

20  David D. Baker, “Where is the American School for Boys”, Outlook of Missions, no. 1, Jan. 1932, p. 29.

21 PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 7, May Thoms, Report of the American Mission School for Girls, Baghdad, 1925–26.

22  “The Annual Report of the United Mission in Mesopotamia”, Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1929, p. 266.

23  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 27, Estimates, 1930.

24  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 27, Appropriations for 1926.

25  “Finances of the Board”, Outlook of Missions, no. 11, Nov. 1925, p. 511.

26  Allen R. Bartholomew, “An Old Letter to a Board Member”, Outlook of Missions, no. 9, Sep. 1928, p. 409.

27  Staudt, “A Far-Reaching Work in Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 4, Apr. 1934, p. 116; John H. Poorman, “The Semi-Annual Meeting of the Board”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 1, Jan. 1935, p. 13.

28  For more information on the Staudts’ contact with the Anglican Church’s Jerusalem and the East Mission, see Box 85 Folder 3, Jerusalem and the East Mission, GB165-0161 Records, 1841–1970s, Middle East Centre Archive, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University.

29  The Magic Carpet: A publication of the American School for Boys in Baghdad, Iraq, June 1939, Box 39, Baghdad Legation, 1936–1963, RG 84, NARA.

30  “Synodical Meetings”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 12, Dec. 1930, p. 565.

31  Ida Staudt, “An Intimate Letter Telling of the Varied Experiences of Our Missionaries in Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 11, Nov. 1924, p. 520-521.

32  Flora Rahn Lentz, “There is also a Moslem World”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1926, p. 271.

33  “Treasurer’s Report for the Triennium, May 1, 1926 to May 1, 1929”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1929, p. 286-288.

34  “Synodical Meetings”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 12, Dec. 1930, p. 565.

35  “For Use With the February Program”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 12, Dec. 1929, p. 575.

36  “Treasurer’s Report of the Woman’s Missionary Society, May 1, 1929 to May 1, 1930”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1930, p. 286.

37  “Pioneer Mission Club”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1930, p. 275.

38  Ida Staudt, “Busy Days in Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 2, Feb. 1926, p. 79.

39  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 16, Mabel L. Kany to Calvin Staudt, Dec. 20, 1927.

40  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 16, Supporters of Students in Baghdad Boys’ School.

41  Ida Staudt, “Mrs. Staudt Describes Commencement Week at Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 8, Aug. 1928, p. 366; Calvin Staudt, “The American School for Boys at Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 4 Apr. 1930, p. 171.

42  Iraq. Mudīrīyat al-Iḥṣāʾ al-ʻĀmmah. al-Taqrīr al-sanawī ʻan sayr al-maʻārif lil-sanawāt al-thalāth 1930/31–1932/33 (Baghdād: Maṭbaʻ at al-Ḥukūmah, 1934) 1, 32, 36, 39. The number of government primary and elementary schools increased from 289 in the 1929–30 academic year to 381 in 1932–33. The number of secondary and intermediate schools in 1930–31 was 19, which increased to 26 in 1932–33.

43  C. K. Staudt to Allen R. Bartholomew, May 7, 1931. Box 63 Folder 17, Reformed Church Board of Foreign Missions, ERHS.

44  ERHS, RCBFM, Received in Cash and Pledge from Dr. Calvin K. Staudt, July 18, 1932; ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 16, Budget of Estimated Receipts and Expenses, 1931.

45  Calvin Staudt, “King Faisal’s Death a Loss to Our Work”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 10, Nov. 1933, p. 312.

46  “How Is the Work of Foreign Missions Progressing?”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 4, Apr. 1932, p. 174.

47  “Annual Report of the United Mission in Mesopotamia, 1932”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 4, Apr. 1933, p. 117.

48  Hope College Archives and Special Collections, Holland, Michigan, Arabia Mission Records, W88-0316.10, Box 1, Bags for Baghdad, 1951.

49  Henry Tani, “Youth Give Earnings to Projects: Christ’s Workday receipts from groups in many churches go to special causes”, The Messenger, Feb. 1952, p. 28.

50  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folders 27 and 16.

51  PHS, RG 89, Box 2, Folder 6.

52  Staudt, “The Forward Stride”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 1, Jan. 1929, p. 31.

53  “Within the Denomination”, The Messenger, no. 18, Sep. 25, 1951, p. 28; Helen E. Baker, “Board Appoints Six New Missionaries”, The Messenger, no. 23, Dec. 4, 1951, p. 4.

54  “Within the Denomination”, The Messenger, no. 9, May 4, 1954, p. 29.

55  Nadia Tobia, “Golden School Days”, Feefaa, March 2021, https://feefaa.org/golden-school-days/ [accessed in April 2024].

56  “The Advance Program 1957–1959”, The Messenger, Sep. 1957, p. 42.

57  Dobbs F. Ehlman, “Advance in the Christian World Mission?”, The Messenger, no. 6, March 20, 1956, p. 19.

58  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 16, List of students receiving financial aid, 1932–1933.

59  Staudt, “Moslems in the American School for Boys in Baghdad”, p. 168.

60  Staudt, “From Anatole Digmaloff to Barker Fahmi”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 8, Aug. 1926, p. 366.

61  Staudt, “Fredi Fetto”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 10, Oct. 1928, p. 463.

62  PHS, RG 509, Box 1, Folder 1, Calvin K. Staudt, Report of the American School for Boys, Baghdad, Sep. 1925–Apr. 1926.

63  Staudt, “The ‘Brotherhood’ in the American School for Boys, Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 11, Nov. 1927, p. 510-512.

64  ERHS, RCBFM, Box 63, Folder 22, The Bulletin, no. 1, 1933, p. 3.

65  Staudt, “Busy Days in Baghdad”, p. 79.

66  Staudt, “Our Girls’ Club in Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 6, June 1927, p. 266.

67  Staudt, “Busy Days at Baghdad”, The Outlook of Missions, no. 2, Feb. 1933, p. 53.

68  Theophil H. Twente, “Dawn – In the city of a Thousand and One Nights”, The Messenger, no. 11, June 1, 1954, p. 15.

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Sopanit Angsusingha, « The Mission Complex: Philanthropic Material Networks of Missionary Education in Iraq, 1920s–1950s »Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 158 (2/2025) | 2025, 37-60.

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Sopanit Angsusingha, « The Mission Complex: Philanthropic Material Networks of Missionary Education in Iraq, 1920s–1950s »Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée [En ligne], 158 (2/2025) | 2025, mis en ligne le 01 décembre 2025, consulté le 22 janvier 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/remmm/23958 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15c8z

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Sopanit Angsusingha

Georgetown University
sa1386[at]georgetown.edu

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