Solf (1862-1936) became president of the municipality of Apia, Western Samoa, in 1899, after serving as a district judge in German East Africa. In 1900 he became governor of Western Samoa when that country became a German colony. He remained in that post until 1911 when he became Secretary for the colonies in the German government. After World War I, he served as German ambassador in Japan. The Solf papers have been filmed on reels PMB 581 - 589.

The papers comprise:

1. letters to family (3 volumes), 1885-1935
2. personal honours, 1927-34
3. congratulations on 70th birthday, 1932
4. publications, speeches, etc. 1886-1932 (Continued on PMB 582)

Please see PMB 581 for full entry.

The documents comprise:

1. Official and political papers and correspondence re presidency of the municipality of Apia, 1899
2. Miscellaneous papers and press clippings, re presidency of the municipality of Apia, 1899
3. -9. Official and political papers and press clippings re governorship of Samoa, 1900-1906 (7 vols). These include an unpublished paper by Dr Erich Schultze on 'The development of the political situation in Samoa'. Dr Schultze was Solf's successor as governor.

Please see PMB 581 for full entry.

Official and political papers re governorship of Samoa, 1906-13 (7 vols). One volume for 1908-09 concerns the Lauaki revolt.

Please see PMB 581 for full entry.

Documents relating to his ambassadorship in Japan, 1928, and papers written in retirement, 1929-32. The latter include 'Refutation' of Count Bulow's memoirs, a proposal to appoint Solf German Foreign Minister, Solf's mission re minorities in Hungary and German committee on Palestine. (Bulow was Foreign Minister of Germany in 1899 when the acquisition of Western Samoa was negotiated as a German colony).

Minutes of meetings of the Samoan District Committee of the London Missionary Society for June 1836 - July 1851 and March 1898 - May 1905.

Minutes of meetings of the Samoan District Committee of the London Missionary Society for December 1916 - February 1929

Minutes of Missionaries' Committee, 1929-1938 and Minutes of the Mission Council, 1935-1951, of the London Missionary Society (Samoan District)

The Oceania Marist Province Archives Series (OMPA) is the result of a special project during which records of the Catholic Church in islands of the Western Pacific were copied by Father Theo B. Cook, SM in collaboration with the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. (Cook was born Theodorus Bernardus Wilhelmus Kok but chose to go by the name Cook in Australia: Povey, 2010). The OMPA series covers the Diocese of Tonga (OMPA 1-25), Diocese of Samoa and Tokelau (OMPA 26-74), Marist Fathers, Rome (OMPA 80-100), Diocese of Wallis and Futuna (OMPA 101-126), Diocese of Port Vila (OMPA 127-178), Archdiocese of Noumea (OMPA 179-360) and the Oceania Marist Province Archives (OMPA 361-400).

Detailed indexes were prepared for the six diocese and those records copied in Rome. These can be found at http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/pambu/collections/microfilm.php or compiled in The Catholic Church in the Western Pacific: a guide to records on microfilm (Robert Langdon, ed.), Canberra, 1986.

This collection depicts the life and work of Australian missionary school teacher Richard Arbon in Samoa, and his work
predominantly on the island of Savaii on behalf of the Uniting Church World Mission – formerly the Central Methodist Mission.

'A Paradise of the Gods. Writings and Drawings of Handley Bathurst Sterndale’ (2020) is an unpublished digital edition edited by J.J. Overell. In 1870, Handley Bathurst Sterndale worked as a surveyor on the island of Upolu, Samoa, for the German trading company Goddefroy & Sohn. In this capacity, he made an expedition across Upolu, making notes and sketches about the journey as he went. In 1871, on Motu Kotawa on the islet of Pukapuka atoll in the Cook Islands, he worked these notes into the manuscript ‘Upolu; or, A Paradise of the Gods’, and worked his sketches into finished drawings. Some accounts are not his first hand observations and others are demonstrably wrong. Sterndale sought to have the manuscript published, but was unsuccessful in finding a publisher before his death in 1878. After his death, it was listed in a catalogue among the publications of Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington of London, but the manuscript never made it to print. It is now available as PMB MS 1442.

The original notebooks have since been lost, but the surviving manuscript and drawings have been passed down to Sterndale’s descendants. This collection brings together 73 of Sterndale's drawings of Samoa, Cook Islands and other islands of the Pacific. The images were digitised by photographer Rod Howe. The images are of scenes witnessed or imagined on his journey, including plants and animals, people, nature and village life.