George T. McKee sound recordings of his recollections relating to missionary work in the Belgian Congo
place: label: Place
content: Belgian Congo
label: Place
content: Congo (Democratic Republic)
topic: label: Topic
content: Missionaries
culture: label: Culture
content: Luba (African people)
label: Culture
content: Kuba (African people)
abstract: label: Summary
content: The collection consists of recordings made by George McKee while recounting his and his wife Elsie's work as a Presbyterian missionary in the Belgian Congo.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: George Taylor McKee, a pastor and missionary, was born December 12, 1887, in Hope Arkansas. While attending Arkansas College in Batesville, AK, he met Elsie Howell Maxfield. The two were married in November of 1910. McKee received a Bachelor of Divinity from Theological Seminary in 1910, and a Doctor of Divinity from Arkansas College in 1925. From 1911 until 1941, the McKees served as Presbyterian missionaries in the Belgian Congo. It was only due to the interruption of war and other outside factors that the couple returned permanently to America in 1941. After returning home, George McKee served pastorates in Arkansas and Louisiana before retiring from the ministry in 1959.

Due to his long service in the Belgian Congo, George McKee received the Belgian Award and Knight of Leopold II. In 1973, he was honored as Arkansas College's Distinguished Alumnus. Elsie McKee died in Arkansas in 1970 at the age of 83. George McKee died in 1980 at the age of 92.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 10 Sound cassettes (60 min. cassettes)
label: Extent
content: 1 Item (folder)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1970's
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2025-06
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound cassettes
scopecontent: label: Content Description
content: The collection consists of recordings made by George McKee while recounting his and his wife Elsie's work as Presbyterian missionaries in the Belgian Congo from 1911 - 1941.  After their marriage in 1910, George and Elsie McKee traveled to Africa in the service of the Southern Presbyterian Mission Board.  They worked in the Kasai district of the Belgian Congo for almost 30 years. Three of their four children were born in Bibanga, one of two mission stations McKee co-founded in the Belgian Congo.  During the early 1970s, after the death of Elsie, McKee began recording his reminiscences speaking into the microphone of an audio cassette player.  

Most of McKee's reminiscences are stories of missionary life in the Congo and the people with whom he worked - the Kete, Kuba, Luba Kasai, and others.  Some recordings detail McKee family history, George McKee's childhood, call to mission, courtship and marriage to Elsie.

Included in the collection is a brief index of the topics of the tapes, put together by McKee's son Charles T. McKee and his sister Sarah McKee Burnside.

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.

Cassette information taken from tape labels.  Content has not been verified

Tape I  (side A) Family. Parents; (side B) Family. Hope. Fordyce. school. home

Tape II (side A) Fordyce, KY; Courtship. College; (side B) Seminary. call to missions. wedding. 1st trip

Tape III (side A) 1st term Luebo/ Ibanche. Mutoto/Lusambo; (side B) 1st term Mutoto/exploration. trip to US/ Elizabeth

Tape IV (side A) 1916 trip to Congo; (side B) Lapsley to Luebo. 1971 visit. Elizabeth named

Tape V (side A) Begin Bibanga; (side B) Bibanga. Mbua Matumba, ev[angelist] Kasonga Tshiabuanga

Tape VI (side A) Bibanga. Vanderstock; (side B) Chistmas

Tape VII (side A) Bbanga furlough 1930; (side B) Kasha general

Tape VIII (side A) Kasha. Help; (side B) Kasha

Tape IX (side A) Stories. Furlough 1941; (side B) Stories. Vermesh coffee. pets

Tape X (side A) Mutoto. Bibanga; (side B) Stories/Bibanga. funeral of Mbua Matumba
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Department of Anthropology has ethnology objects collected by George and Elsie McKee under accession number 2090184.

The University of Arkansas Libraries, Special Collections Department, holds the Maxfield, Allen and McKee Family Papers (MC1742).