Mrs. Marion Guendolen Stuart, along with her husband and fellow Baptist missionary Dr. Harland F. Stuart, arrived in the Philippines in 1920. The Annual Report of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society for that year related “the coming of the first of the new recruits in the persons of Mr. and Mrs. H. F. Stuart” to Iloilo on the island of Panay.

The Stuarts came to assist in the administration of Jaro Industrial School, where Harland would serve as principal from 1922 to 1938. During that time, he oversaw remarkable growth as the school transitioned to Central Philippine College. To this day, there is a building named after Dr. Stuart on the campus of Central Philippine University, as the institution is now known. (Central Philippine University).

The present binder and slide collection come from a lecture given by Mrs. Stuart, entitled “Twenty Five Years in the Philippines”. While the exact date and occasion for the lecture, which may well have been given more than once, are unknown, the present photographic reproduction was published by the Board of Missionary Cooperation of the Northern Baptist Convention (NBC).
The twenty-five years of the title likely refer to the NBC’s presence in the Philippines, rather than Mrs. Stuart’s own tenure. A handwritten piece of scrap paper noting what slides are missing or damaged has been dated 8/10/37, only 17 years after she and her husband arrived. The contents of the lecture, a general overview of the growth of Baptism in the region, together with several references to events in the early half of the 1930s, bears that assumption out.

The first page of the lecture, which includes both type-written text and reproductions of slide images, shows a map reading “Manila / A key to the orient / Make Manila / A Radiating Centre / For the Gospel.” “The Philippine Islands,” the lecture begins, “rise out of the Pacific to the southeast of China, just north of the equator. They were discovered by Magellan in 1521 and named for the Spanish king, Philip, who imposed upon the Philippines the Spanish government, language and religion.” It goes on to note that “the Islands remained under Spanish domination, (though not without some uprisings), for more than 375 years.”

“The central group of islands is the Visayan,” reads text beneath a map showing the Philippines super-imposed over the western United States, “and just in the center of these is located our Baptist work.” There are anthropological details sprinkled throughout, intentionally or not. “The native Filipinos belong to the Malay race, but the majority of the land owners and politicians are “mestizos” of Spanish and Asiatic origin, who are educated and cultured according to Spanish ideals…the men and children have largely adopted American cut clothing.” A photograph of a “wayside market-woman” notes “[t]he women of the Philippines take a large part in the commercial life of the country…There are many women of large capacity and fine character among these itinerant merchants.”
Some religious history is provided, including background on the enforced prevalence of Catholicism and the appearance of Baptist missions in the country, which started in 1900 following the American invasion of the Philippines in 1898. Slide No. 12 features a photograph of Rev. Eric Lund and Pascual Araneta, two of the three individuals responsible for translating the Bible into the Visayan dialect. The next page shows the first chapel in the Jaro marketplace, crowded with congregants following a Sunday service. “The building,” the lecture notes,” has been replaced by a wooden structure on the most prominent corner in town.”

Flipping through, you can see horse carriages, automobiles, and boats, all used to access different portions of the islands. There are sections focusing on the Baptist Missionary Training School, which was established in Iloilo in 1904 by Anna V. Johnson, and the local hospitals, many of which were run by religious groups. A page on the Capiz Home School notes “few American children could surpass these little Filipinos in memorizing and reciting Bible verses, and their repertoire of hymns has no limit.”

There are numerous photographs of the grounds of Central Philippines College and individuals who studied at the school. Alberto Franco, “a young man of unusual ability and consecration,” went to America to study at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, returning to minister to his people. He was, according to the lecture, “the second trained Filipino preacher.” Teofila Demandante is featured, praised for her inclusion of “Bible stories and Old Testament heroes at the morning exercises of the public school.”
Most charming, perhaps, is a photograph of a young child of around 5 or 6, shown standing in a bright white shirt of standard Malay style. “It doesn’t take much money to provide clothes for the family. The dark portion beneath the white shirt of this small boy is not a pari of pants. But he is just as happy.”

The final page, Slide No. 48, shows three young Filipina women. One stands draped in the U.S. flag, another in the flag of the Philippines, and the third stands in a white shirt holding a candle aloft. “These three young people…are presenting a tableau of their own invention representing America and the Philippines standing side by side with the light of Christ held high to guide each country and its people. Surely this is a fitting thought to leave with us. The Light of Christ for America and the Philippines.”

The slides themselves do not exactly corresponded with the printed text. There are 35 slides that correspond with the lecture book, as well as an additional 14 slides from a different lecture. These slides show various graphs, charts, and text related to Missionary work. There are also another 18 slides from a third lecture. These hand-colored slides show Missionary work across the globe and a few generic religious scenes.