Overview
| Repository: |
Yale University Divinity School
Library
409 Prospect Street New Haven, CT 06511 Email: divinity.library@yale.edu Phone: (203) 432-5301 |
| Call Number: | Record Group No. 8 |
| Title: | China Records Project Miscellaneous Personal Papers Collection, |
| Dates: | 1834-2002 |
| Physical Description: | Total archival boxes 369+; total linear footage 161+' |
| Language(s): | Materials in English. |
| Summary: | The China Records Project Miscellaneous Personal Papers Collection is an open collection. It currently contains material from more than 325 individuals, primarily Protestant missionaries to China. The time period covered is approximately from 1834 to 1998. The China Records Project was initiated by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A in 1968. The aim of the project was to insure the preservation of the personal records of former missionaries to China and to provide a central repository where these papers would be available to historians. The Yale Divinity School Library was chosen as this central repository in 1969 and has continued to solicit and accept China-related papers since that time. |
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| Finding Aid Link: | To cite or bookmark this finding aid, use the following address: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/divinity.008 |
| Request Materials: | To view manuscript and archival materials at the Yale Divinity Library, please submit the request form at http://www.library.yale.edu/div/request.htm. |
| Catalog Record: | A record for this collection, including location information, may be available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog. |
Administrative Information
Provenance
Gifts of various donors.
Information about Access
Open to qualified researchers.
Cite As
China Records Project Miscellaneous Personal Papers Collection, Record Group No. 8, Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library.
Historical Sketch
The China Records Project was initiated by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A in 1968. The aim of the project was to insure the preservation of the personal records of former missionaries to China and to provide a central repository where these papers would be available to historians. The Yale Divinity School Library was chosen as this central repository in 1969 and has continued to solicit and accept China-related papers since that time.
The first Protestant missionary to China was Robert Morrison, who arrived in 1807. Elijah Coleman Bridgman was the first American missionary to China, sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1829. Protestant missionaries were active in China until ca. 1950 when they were forced to leave by the new Communist government.
Description of the Records
I. Papers of Individuals
II. Oral History Transcripts
The collection consists of more than 360 boxes, with no individual accounting for more than three linear feet. Some collections that were formerly part of this record group have now been given separate record group numbers.
The papers in the first series of this collection are arranged alphabetically by name. When the information was available, each missionary's sending agency, geographical location in China and period of service have been noted. A key to abbreviations used to represent the mission sending agencies is given below. The designation "L" in the indications of period of service means that these are approximate dates derived from listings in available copies of the Directory of Protestant Missions in China (1902, 1904-05, 1908-11, 1916, 1921, 1923-24, 1926-30, 1932-36, 1940, 1950). An asterisk following the name of an individual means that at least a portion of the papers of that individual are available on microfilm (and therefore accessible via Interlibrary Loan.)
Some photographs in the collection have been digitized and are available through the Internet Mission Photography Archive (IMPA) - http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/arc/digarchives/mission/. If availability in IMPA is indicated, search the IMPA database using the name of the individual, e.g., search for "Edward Abbott Papers."
The records in this collection include biographical information, correspondence, diaries and journals, writings, printed material, tape recordings, artifacts, photographs and maps. The medical, educational and evangelical work of both men and women missionaries in China is reflected in the material. Social issues such as footbinding, opium reform, education of women, cruelty to animals and child labor are also touched upon. The material is particularly valuable for the descriptions of daily missionary life and work which it provides. Missionary opinion about major social and political issues is less prevalent in the material, although personal accounts of some political events (such as the Boxer Rebellion and the internment of missionaries by the Japanese) are given.
The Oral History Transcripts of Series II are from the Chian MIssionaries Oral History Project conducted at Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, CA in the early 1970s.
Other record groups that are part of the China Records Project include:
1. Foster
Family Papers (ABFMS, YM; Swatow, Changsha; 1886-1927)
2. Arthur
Judson Brown Papers (PN; missions and ecumenical leader)
3.
Kenneth Scott Latourette Papers (YM; missions historian)
4.
Hartwell Family Papers (SBC; Shanghai, Chefoo, Tungchow, Canton, Hwanghsien;
1859-1940)
5. Smith Family Papers (ABCFM; Foochow;
1901-1951)
6. William R. Johnson Papers (MEFB; Nanchang, Nanking;
1906-1942)
7. Campbell Family Papers (ABFMS; South China;
1887-1946)
9. Lyman Hoover Papers (YMCA; Peking, Shanghai,
Chungking; 1930-1948)
10. Miner Searle Bates Papers (UCMS;
Nanking; 1920-1950)
11 - 11F. Archives of the United Board for
Christian Higher Education in Asia
12. Dwight Edwards Papers
(YMCA; Peking, Shanghai; 1906-1946)
13. Archives of the Chinese
Christian Student Association
14. Archives of the Board of
Trustees of Lingnan University
15. Ellison and Lottie Hildreth
Papers (ABFMS; South China; 1913-1927)
16. Thomas Torrance Papers
(CIM and ABS; Szechwan; 1896-1934)
17. Records of the Church of
Christ in China Border Service Department
18. Paul Hayes Family
Papers (MEFB; Wuhu, Anhwei; 1921-1935)
19. George and Mary
Schlosser Papers (American Free Methodist; Honan; 1908-1949)
20.
Albert and Celia Steward Papers (MEFB; Nanking; 1908-1950)
21.
Esther Tappert Mortensen Papers (Nanking; Ginling College, 1929-1953)
22. Daniel and Jane Balderston Dye Papers (ABFMS; West China,
1911-1949)
23. Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers (MEFB; Fukien
and Korea; 1880-1910)
24. James Claude Thomson Papers (PN)
25. Karl and Ada Scheufler Papers (MEFB; Fukien Province,
1921-1926)
82 Manly Family Papers (MEFB; Szechwan (Sichuan)
Province, 1893-1943)
126 Lorenzo and Ruth Bennett Morgan Papers
(PN, Medical)
142 Elsie Clark Papers (MEFB; Hwa Nan, Fukien
Province, 1912-1918);
176 Katherine Shapleigh Papers (ABCFM,
Tientsin, Sung. 1896-1897; CIM in Yangchow,Ku.,1905-1926)
177 Roy
and Clara Creighton Papers (PN, 1915-1926, 1933-1948)
183
Wakefield Family Papers
Abbreviations for missions agencies used in this finding aid:
ABCFM -American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
ABFMS -American Baptist
Foreign Missionary Society ACM -American Church Mission
ALM
-American Lutheran Mission
AUG -Augustana Synod Mission
BMS -Baptist Missionary Society (British)
CBM -Church of the
Brethren Mission
CCC -Church of Christ in China
CIM
-China Inland Mission
CLS -Christian Literature Society
CMML -Christian Missions in Many Lands
CMS -Church
Missionary Society
ChCC -China Continuation Committee of the
National Missionary Conference
EPM -English Presbyterian
Mission
FCMS -Foreign Christian Missionary Society
FFMA -Friends' Foreign Mission Association
LCMS -Lutheran
Church Missouri Synod; pre 1947 MELCM; pre 1927 ELSM
LMS -London
Missionary Society
LUM -Lutheran United Mission
MEFB
-Methodist Episcopal Church
MES -Methodist Episcopal Church
South
MGC -Mennonite General Conference
MMS
-Methodist Missionary Society
PN -American Presbyterian Mission,
North
PS -American Presbyterian Mission, South
RC
-Roman Catholic
RCA -Reformed Church in America
RCUS
-Reformed Church in the United States
SBC -Southern Baptist
Convention
SDA -Seventh Day Adventist Mission
SVMM
-Student Volunteer Movement
UCC -United Church of Canada
UCMS -United Christian Missionary Society (Disciples of Christ)
WFMS -Women's Foreign Missionary Society of Methodist Episcopal
Church
YM -Yale in China Association
YMCA -Young
Men's Christian Association
YWCA -Young Women's Christian
Association