1860 UNITED PRESBYTERIAN. Important Carte de Visites of Missionaries to the Islamic World.

A very fine group of c.1860 carte de visites of various United Presbyterian missionaries to the Muslim world. They were each in the U.S. in 1860, the same period that the photographer O. H. Willard of Philadelphia was active. Each quite scarce and a unique assemblage. 

1. Dr. John Crawford [1827-1906]. An early American missionary to Damascus, Syria, under the auspices of the United Presbyterian Church of North America. He was not only an earnest missionary, but an explorer of some note, having discovered the tomb of Saladin, c.1860. See also his work as a sort of guide to Syria and Damascus as illustrated in a diary we previously offered, HERE.

Mentioned p.212, 283 of Henry Harris Jessup, Fifty-Three Years in Syria [1910]. 

2. Rev. S[amuel] C[urrie] Ewing [1831-1908] & Catherine Bradford Ewing, Cairo Egypt. Sent to Egypt under the auspices of the United Presbyterian Church of North America. Arrived in 1860

They labored for 47 years in Egypt and feature prominently in Presbyterian missions in Egypt during the entire second half of the 19th century. At his death in 1908, the New York Times described him as among the "oldest and best known missionaries in the United Presbyterian Church." Andrew Watson's 1904, The American Mission in Egypt, 1854 to 1896, mentions Ewing nearly 100 times. 

3. Rev. Dr. John Hogg [1833-1886] & wife, Alexandria, Egypt. Originally sent to Alexnadria by a Scottish agency [1856], The Scottish Society for the Conversion of the Jews, Hogg joined the American delegation and was re-commissioned with the United Presbyterian [American] mission in 1860 after a repeated lack of funds from the Scottish society.

Andrew Watson's 1904, The American Mission in Egypt, 1854 to 1896, mentions Ewing nearly 300 times. An excellent 14pp account of his life is available HERE.

4. Rev. E[phraim] H. Stevenson, Sealkote [i.e. Sialkot], North India. Born in 1820, he was first Ordained by the Ohio Presbytery as a pastor [1852] and sailed as missionary to Sialkot in 1856. He labored there until at least 1864, and on account of significant illness, returned to the United States. He was later President of the Female Seminary at Oxford, Pennsylvania. There is some discrepancy in the record as to the length of his service, since his repeatedly noted as having served 20 years in India. It seems this is an exaggeration or misunderstanding and that he did in fact return in 1863 or 1864. 

5. Rev. R. A. Hill & Wife, Sealkote [i.e. Sialkot], N. India. Hill was co-worker to Ephraim H. Stevenson in Northern India. He also returned to the United States in 1863. An unusual format CDV. 

The two above [Hill and Stevenson] appear to have resided in Sialkot during a very tumultuous period. The region in Northern India was largely Muslim, and their period of service coincides the residence of the Islamic Messiah, or Mahdi, in the town [1861-1867]. The residence of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad there and his perceived role as end times prophetic figure in Islam, led to extreme rather anti-Christian sentiment in an already hostile environment.