The American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) Istanbul branch library contains many unique primary historical sources that are either unavailable or hard to find locally or internationally. Included among them are pamphlets and periodicals produced by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), one of the most active US-based international religious and philanthropic organizations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Founded in 1810 and chartered by the state of Massachusetts in 1812, the ABCFM first began working in Izmir in 1820. Up to c. 1960, the Board founded and operated schools, hospitals, and printing presses throughout Anatolia and its surroundings. From the early ‘60s to the new millennium, its educational, publishing, and medical efforts continued under the care of successor US-based organization, and they endure today under the ownership and management of a Turkish foundation.
In January 2011, ARIT Istanbul received the library of the ABCFM’s Istanbul office. Roughly 3,000 items comprise the collection, which includes many items produced by the Board’s publication department, as well as the Redhouse Press—the publication department’s successor after 1960. Among the highlights of the collection is the periodical, The Orient.
Figure 1. Coverage of the early days of World War I. Besides local news, The Orient also reported on international events.
“The Orient”
In March 1910, the American Board’s Istanbul office launched an English-language weekly newspaper. The paper’s first five issues appeared under the title Bosphorus News and were published for private circulation only. On 20 April, the periodical was issued with a new name, The Orient, and distributed publicly. Its aim was “to report to the English-speaking friends of Turkey news from all parts of the [Ottoman] empire, to interpret the significance of this news, and to record events of particular interest in the life of the institutions which the American Board has founded in that empire.”[1]
[1] Missionary Herald, vol. 107, 1911, p. 6
Figure 2. The Orient reported on the institutions of the American Board, including a hospital in Anatolia.
Six volumes of The Orient were issued without interruption until 29 December 1915, when the paper was discontinued. After World War One, it resumed publication with volume 7, in 1919. A little over three years later, in January 1923, the newspaper was suspended again, with volume 9, this time permanently. In its last year of publication, the paper appeared monthly rather than weekly.
Figure 3. Besides Türkiye, the American Board worked in the surrounding region, including Albania. Its efforts there were covered in The Orient.
One of the few English-language periodicals published locally in the early nineteenth century, The Orient is a vital primary source for the history of Turkiye and its surroundings during this era, which witnessed the end of the Ottoman Empire, the First World War, and the establishment of the Turkish Republic. With its focus on current events, the paper offers a unique record, as well as a distinctive American perspective, of early twentieth-century Turkish and Middle Eastern politics, economy, and society. ARIT’s holdings contain all nine (mostly complete) volumes of the newspaper.
Figure 4. The Orient offered an advertising opportunity for local businesses.
Dr. Brian Johnson, ARIT Istanbul
