Blue Mountains, St Thomas, Jamaica, ca.1875-ca.1940

Photograph of the Blue Mountains, the longest mountain range in Jamaica. The photograph is taken at a distance; vegetation is visible in the foreground and the mountain range in the background. The Blue Mountains are in the east of the island and they border the parishes of Portland, St. Thomas and St. Andrew.; This belongs to a series of Church of Scotland Foreign Missions Committee lantern slides relating to Jamaica. In 1800 the Scottish Missionary Society sent three missionaries to Jamaica. Two died of yellow fever within weeks of arrival but the third became a pioneer missionary. In 1824 a second venture travelled to Jamaica by invitation of local planters to instruct their slaves. Scottish missionaries worked at Montego Bay in the 19th century and in 1836 the first presbytery of the Jamaican Church was constituted here.