This collection is not fully processed and may not be available for research. Contact archives staff to schedule an appointment.
Series Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject ot all copyright laws.
Collection contains negatives, slides, and color transparencies taken by Evan Schneider or his father Gilbert in Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Algeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and the Sahara, from 1947 to 1999. Also contains vintage silver prints, 16 mm film, CDs, manuscripts, letters, writings, articles (self-published and other) relating to the Schneider's missionary work in the Mambilla region of Cameroon. Some materials relate to the Afo-A-Kom return in 1973.
Biographical / Historical:
Gilbert Schneider (1920-1999) and his wife Mildred Voth (1920-2016) were missionaries to Cameroon between 1945 and 1961. Sponsored by the North American Baptist Commission, they moved to the Mambilla region of Cameroon, and helped build and manage the New Hope Settlement, a hospital for leprosy patients in Mbingo. While abroad, the Schneiders had two children, Evan Schneider and Linda Schneider.
Evan Schneider was born in Cameroon in 1949. He grew up amid the Kom Kingdom in Mbingo, before the family returned to the United States in 1961. They moved to Ohio in 1963, where Gilbert began graduate studies and Mildred worked as a registered nurse. In 1985, Evan received a master's degree in Visual Anthropology at Oregon State University and went on to be a professional photographer. After his father's death in 1999, he returned to Mbingo to establish a memorial fund to benefit the New Hope Settlement and construct the Schneider Memorial Vocational Rehabilitation Center. Currently, Schneider lives in Oregon and is the Chief Photographer at the Oregon Historical Society.
Related Materials:
Gilbert Schneider and Mildred Schneider family papers, 1911-2016 (Coll 570), are held at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Restrictions:
This collection is not fully processed and may not be available for research. Contact archives staff to schedule an appointment.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject ot all copyright laws.