The material in this collection consists primarily of correspondence, negatives, and photographs, all concerning family events, college years, career decisions, and a two-year period spent by Albert and Muriel Nichols in Sierra Leone as missionaries. Most of the negatives and photographs are not identified, but span the decade of the 1920s and contain some scenes photographed in Africa.

The bulk of the correspondence (folders 1-6 to 1-15) was exchanged by Albert and Muriel with family members and friends during the years spent in Africa at Freetown, Sierra Leone, where Albert was Director of Industrial Arts at Albert Academy. These folders are divided by months and years where dates are known. Folders 1-12 to 1-15 contain undated correspondence which was sent from Sierra Leone between 1923 and 1905, when Dr. and Mrs. Nichols were living there. The remaining folders include correspondence, a few documents, and clippings for dates between 1904-1952. Folders 2-5 to 2-7 hold undated correspondence which did not originate in Africa. All pictorial postcards are in folder 2-4.

The content of the folders with correspondence from Sierra Leone ranges over the whole spectrum of life in an urban missionary school in the 1920s. Most of the letters were written by Mrs. Nichols to her family and give an intimate and candid picture of relationships with other missionary personnel, both British and American, the native population, and successes and failures of communication and evangelizing. There is comment on physical beauties and problems of environment, African tribal customs, including polygamy, responses of Africans to white western culture, and descriptions of African church services. The curriculum and effectiveness of teaching methods are discussed, as are length of missionary terms, expenses, and entertaining duties.

Folder 1-7 contains a copy of The Academy News, describing all the types of services offered at Albert Academy and praising the contribution of Dr. Nichols as Director of Industrial Education. In folder 1-10, a letter written January 19, 1925, describes Christmas in Sierra Leone. Also in this folder is a memo describing plans for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the United Brethren Mission in Africa. Folder 1-12 contains a pen-and-ink drawing of the Nichols' house in Freetown. Other folders also include occasional drawings by Dr. Nichols of activities at the school.

Of particular interest is folder 2-1 (see also folder 1-11) which contains an exchange of letters between Dr. Nichols and the members of the Executive Committee of the Foreign Missionary Society of the United Brethren in Christ concerning Dr. Nichols' proposed changes in regulations for the management of the Albert Academy manual training workshops. These letters offer a study of the interaction of state-based governing mission boards with field committees who are charged with working in the indigenous setting. A basic disagreement over methods of educational missions and inability to resolve areas of responsibility in this instance was the cause of the Nichols' terminating their work in Africa. Copies of the regulation included in these folders also reflect the operation of mission schools in Sierra Leone at this period. Folder 2-1 also contains a report, dated 1926, titled "The Provision of a Christian Literature for Africa." The paper discusses the languages then translated on the African continent, numbers of books available and by whom produced, and suggests the need for more indigenous Christian literature as an urgent need for the mission field.

The order of this collection was established by the processor either by date where known or from external and internal evidence of individual letters. Not all letters are complete.