These papers consist of the personal archive of the Very Rev John Anderson Graham DD, founder of the Kalimpong homes, and much of the general archive of the Homes themselves from the beginning of Graham's ministry there in 1889 until 1972.

The importance of the collection lies in the detailed account it gives of the early development and later growth and organisation of one of the Scottish mission centres in India, and in the light it throws on the social and educational problems of 'Anglo-Indian' people, [people of mixed European (paternal) and Indian (maternal) heritage in India], which the Homes were designed partly to alleviate.

The correspondence of Dr Graham and his wife (boxes 1-4) is of particular interest. Whenever they were apart they wrote to each other almost every day, and sometimes several times a day. Apart from being the record of their partnership, this series of letters gives an extremely detailed picture of the day to day working of the Homes. Dr Graham's diaries (boxes 6-8) are important for similar reasons. The general correspondence of the Homes which contains all Dr Graham's letters after his wife's death in 1919, and also much that relates to fund raising in Great Britain as well as to the Homes themselves, carries the general history of Kalimpong down to 1962, after which the correspondence tails off coming to an end in 1972. James Purdie's correspondence (boxes 13-14) is of great interest as showing the problems of individual 'Anglo-Indian' people, [people of mixed European (paternal) and Indian (maternal) heritage in India], especially in the years after 1947.