About the document

The provenance of this document is evident. It was written by Schreuder 16 November 1844 in Umlaze to "Bestyrelsen for det norske Missionsselskab", i.e. the head office of the Norwegian Mission Society (NMS) in Stavanger, Norway. The letter was received by the General Secretary and kept among the records of this unit of the NMS administration.

In the catalogue of the Mission Archives it belongs to collection A-1045, "The office of the General Secretary", box 130, "Incoming letters, from the Mission fields", folder 1, "Incoming letters 1844-1848, South Africa".

Of all the documents in the Mission Archives this document is most likely the oldest item received from a mission field of NMS. It is, however, known that Schreuder sent at least two letters from South Africa to Norway earlier in 1844, but the location of these originals is currently not known by the Mission Archives.

At some point in the early 20th century (perhaps around 1920) binders with steel rings were introduced in the archives of the NMS administration. A lot of documents were mounted in these binders, and the holes can be seen in the left edge of this letter. When the collection was catalogued in 1983 (or perhaps earlier) the documents were removed from the binders and placed in the current folders and boxes.