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. 165 |
| Creator: | Ballou, Earle Hoit, 1892-1987 |
| Title: | Earle and Thelma Ballou Papers, |
| Dates: | 1911-1997 |
| Physical Description: | Total archival boxes 21; total linear footage 8' |
| Language(s): | Materials in English. |
| Summary: | Substantive correspondence, photographs, and slides document the Ballous' life and work in China. Earle and Thelma Ballou were missionaries in Tientsin [now Tianjin], North China, serving under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions from 1916 to 1948. |
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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.165 |
| 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
Gift of the Ballou family.
Information about Access
Open to qualified researchers
Cite As
Earle and Thelma Ballou Papers, Record Group No. 165, Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library.
Historical Sketch
Earle Ballou was born in Saxton's River, Vermont on May 17, 1892. After graduation from Yale College in 1912 he served as Academic Secretary of Dwight Hall, the Yale YMCA for one year and then attended Hartford Theological Seminary. Earle married his hometown friend, Thelma Havens, in March, 1916. Thelma Havens Ballou was born in Chester, Vermont on December 8, 1890. For two years after her graduation from Middlebury College she taught English, history, biology, and German at Springfield High School, Springfield, Vermont, and then attended the Kennedy School of Missions in Hartford for one year.
Earle was ordained as a Congregational minister in June, 1916. The Ballous left for North China in July 1916, where they served under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Earle and Thelma were stationed in Tientsin (Tianjin) and Peking. Their first son, Hubbard, was born in 1917 and he was later joined by three brothers.
While in China Earle worked closely with the Chinese churches both in Tientsin and as Secretary of the North China Kung Li Hui and the National Christian Council of China. During the Second World War he was detained by the Japanese in Manila until September 1943 when he was repatriated on the Gripsholm. After three years as Executive Secretary for the United Board for Christian Colleges in China, he returned to China, only to be recalled in 1948 to be Acting Secretary for China for the American Board. From 1950 to 1959 he was Executive Secretary of the Congregational Christian Service Committee. He then was called upon by Church World Service to be interim director of a project in Hong Kong for five months and served the National Council of Churches in New York until his retirement in 1961, when the Ballous returned to their hometown, Chester, Vermont.
Earle Ballou died in 1987 and Thelma in 1988. Additional information about their lives and work is available in Thelma Ballou: From the Green Mountains to the Middle Kingdom, a biography published by the Ballou's daughter-in-law Patricia K. Ballou in 1997.
Description of the Papers
This collection is notable for the regular, detailed correspondence of Earle and Thelma to their families in the United States. The same time period, from 1916 through 1940, is documented thoroughly by both Earle and Thelma, offering the opportunity of comparison between their differing views on issues and events. The correspondence is made more valuable by the availability of a biography of Thelma, Thelma Ballou: From the Green Mountains to the Middle Kingdom, by Patricia K. Ballou, which provides information about the Ballous' families and background. The Personal Items and Memorabilia series includes documentation of North China American School, where the Ballou children attended and of Yenching University, which Hubbard Ballou attended. An interesting set of glass slides showing mission activities and other scenes in China completes this collection. Additional materials were donated by the Ballou family in 2011, including correspondence, memorabilia, and the sermons/addresses by Earle Ballou found in Series VI.
The Ballou Papers complement papers of other ABCFM North China missionaries held by the Yale Divinity Library, including those of Hugh Hubbard, Harold Matthews, and Constance Buell.