Special Collections and University Archives collects in the topical area Missionaries to foreign countries, with a focus on the Far East.
Our collections exist to be used. When students work directly with primary source materials, historic photographs, and documents that are old or unique, they discover an excitement and passion not generated by textbooks.
Primary source documents can inspire, but they also teach about learning to verify sources, tracking down connections, finding evidence from content and from physical clues.
Special Collections and University Archives collects in the topical area Women, Gender, and Sexuality, including Women’s Back to the Land movement, women linguists focusing on gender issues in language, women who have affected the political process and cultural landscape.
Papers. 1933-1950. 1 box.
Hazel M. Atwood was a Congregational missionary nurse in Foochow, Chine from 1921 to the 1940s. The collection includes correspondence; material about the Willis F. Pierce Memorial Hospital (formerly Foochow Christian Union Hospital); missionary documents; and newsletters, bulletins, and biographical material.
(Ax 855)
Papers. 1926-1949. 1 box.
Mae Boucher was a missionary nurse for the Methodist-Episcopal Church in Yenping, Fukien Province, China. Her papers contain a diary, 1926; letters, 1926-1930; and two photograph albums. See also the China Missionary Miscellany Collection.
(Ax 262)
In J. Martin and Miriam Benade papers. 1894-1975. 3 ft.
J. Martin and Miriam Benade were Presbyterian missionaries in Lahere, Punjab, India from about 1912 to the 1960s. The collection includes correspondence, notes and outlines about India, pamphlets, published materials, and reports as well as papers by her parents, Albert and Ella McGaw, who were also Presbyterian missionaries to India.
In the Arthur and Mabel Billing Papers. 1910-1960. 2 boxes.
Mabel Spohr and Arthur William Billing were missionary teachers in Foochow, China until1957. The collection includes Mabel Billing's diary, 1939-1943; correspondence; and publications.
(Ax 652)
In Arthur and Annie Boyce Papers. 1903-1966. .25 cubic feet.
Arthur and Annie Boyce were missionaries in Iran. Their papers contain pamphlets about missions in Iran and manuscripts by Arthur Boyce.
(Coll. 158)
In Henry Olin Cady. Letters from China (xerox copies). 1886-1904. 1 folder.
Henry Cady was a Methodist Episcopal Missionary to China. He went to China in 1996, was one of the founders of the West China Mission, and was stationed at Chungking and Chentu (Chengtu). He married Hattie Yates in 1894. The collection contains copies of excerpts from original letters which were later destroyed. The letters were intended to form an epistolary history of the West China Mission. There are about 300 letters. Most of the letters are to Cady's mother, from Cady, and after 1894 from Hattie Cady.
(A 194)
Letters. 1937-1938. 10 letters.
Elizabeth Carlyle worked as a nurse at the Isabella Fisher Hospital, Tientsin, China. The letters in the collection were written to her mother and describe the conquest of Tientsin by the Japanese.
(A 165)
Letters from Paraguay. 1922-1925. 46 letters.
Hazel Chamberlain was a missionary teacher in Villarica and Concepcion, Paraguay. She was sent by the Inland South American Missionary Union of New York. The letters are to her mother and to various friends. There are also photographs of mission personnel and buildings.
(A 195, PH 230)
Papers. 1918-1930. 2 boxes including 266 letters.
Monona Cheney was a Methodist-Episcopal missionary teacher in China from 1920 to 1930. The collection contains letters to her family, manuscripts, and photos of Chinese life.
(Ax 275)
In Arthur B. Coole Papers. 1908-1974. 1.5 ft.
Ella Endres Coole and her husband Arthur B. Coole were Methodist-Episcopal missionaries in North China Between 1924 and 1947. Their papers include correspondence, manuscripts, printed matter, and memorabilia. Some correspondence and miscellaneous papers of Arthur Coole's parents, Thomas and Cora Coole, medical missionary and teacher respectively, who served in China from 1904 to 1914 and again from 1922 to 1930.
(Ax 793)
Letters Received. 1897-1920. 1 folder. Eliza Anne Hughes Davis was a Methodist-Episcopal missionary teacher to Kiukiang, China. The letters are family letters, mostly from the Reverend George Hughes, 1895-1903, and from Jennie V. Hughes, the principal of Knowles Bible Training School in China, 1900-1920.
(A 285)
Autobiography. 1947. 109 pages.
Elizabeth G. Lewis Dunbar was educated at the University of California Medical School. In 1916, she became a medical missionary to India and remained there until 1947. Her papers consist of the manuscript of her autobiography.
(A 294)
Letters. 1937-1941. 9 letters.
Clara Pearl Dyer was a Methodist Missionary teacher at Alderman School, Changli, Hopei China. The letters describe school affairs and Chinese politics.
(A 198)
In Edward E. Giffen Letters. 1894-1896. 46 letters.
The letters are zealous letters by Methodist missionaries in Hangkow.
(A 298)
Papers. 1939-1958. 1 box.
Ruth Gress was a Methodist missionary who went to China in 1939. The papers include correspondence, printed letters from Nanping missionaries, a report on Christian missions in China, and mementos.
(Ax 423)
In Adam and Clara Groesbeck Papers. 1897-1941. 4.5 ft.
Clara and Adam Groesbeck were Baptist missionaries in the Kwangtung Province of South China from 1897 to 1927 and 1931 to 1935. Their papers include diaries, correspondence, sermons, notebooks, books, and pamphlets.
(Ax 818)
Autobiography. n.d. 306 pages.
Mrs. Groff-Smith was both the daughter and the wife of commissioners in the China Maritime Customs Service. Her autobiography includes comments on Chinese politics and customs, 1890 to 1941.
(CB G 893)
Papers. 1921-1976. 3.25 ft.
Irene Forsythe Hanson was a Presbyterian missionary to China from 1926 to 1951. The collection includes a diary, 1927 to 1931; correspondence; manuscripts; slide-show scripts; subject files; newsletters; and station reports.
(Coll. 28, PH 096)
Manuscript. 1973. 1 folder.
Barbara Hayes was the wife of a Presbyterian missionary in Peking, China, from 1917 to 1943. The manuscript is a biography of her husband, John David Hayes.
(Ax 296)
Letters. 1884-1928. 63 items.
These letters by Emily Hobart, the wife of a Methodist missionary in Peking and Tsun Hua, China, describe Chinese occupations and scenes.
(A 188)
Papers. 1916-1965. 1.5 ft.
Vera Frances Ingerson was a Presbyterian mission station nurse in Syenchun, Korea from 1916 to 1942, then a teacher at the Girl's Academy in Syenchun. The collection includes letters, diaries from 1916 and 1965, reports, photos, and mementos.
(Ax 516)
Papers. 1913-1943. 1 folder.
Myra Jaquet was a teacher and principal at the Methodist mission's Gamewell School in Peking, China. The papers contain correspondence, including a letter about her 1943 Gripsholm voyage, and notebooks describing the work of a mission teacher. The notebooks are illustrated with photographs. See also the Myra L. Snow letters.
(A 180)
In Henry Veere Lacy Papers. 1909-1950. 1 ft.
Jessie Ankeny Lacy was a Methodist-Episcopal missionary teacher in Fukien Province, China from 1909 to 1949. The collection includes letters to family and friends.
(Ax 412)
Papers. 1905-1954. 1 folder.
Edna Lawrence was a nurse with the Presbyterian Mission Hospital in Taegu, Korea. The collection includes miscellaneous letters and papers about Presbyterian missions in Korea.
(A 205)
William W. and Josephine McAnlis Papers. 1942-1965. 0.25 ft.
Josephine and William McAnlis were Presbyterian medical missionaries to the Philippines from 1925 to 1964. The collection includes diaries, correspondence, and writings.
(Coll. 105, PH 071)
Papers. 1913-1951. 0.25 cubic ft.
Virginia M. Mackenzie was a United Presbyterian missionary teacher in Japan, 1919 to 1959. The papers include letters, 1949 and 1950, and material about missions in Japan.
(Coll. 160)
Papers. 1895-1978. 2 ft.
Idabelle Lewis Main was a Methodist missionary teacher in China. She went to Tientsin, China in 1910, and in 1923 to Shanghai as assistant secretary of education for the Methodist Church in china. In 1926 she became president of Hwa Nan College, Foochow, and returned to Shanghai in 1930 as secretary of the China Christian Education Association. She married William A. Main in 1932. Between 1937 and 1941, she worked with refugees in shanghai. She returned to Foochow in 1946 as president of Hwa Nan College until 1949. From 1950 to 1954, she taught at Bennett Junior College in Rio de Janiero. The papers include letters to her family, 1911 to 1949; correspondence, 1895 to 1978; diaries 1910 to 1965; memoirs and photographs.
(Coll29, PH 092)
Paul and Esther Melrose Papers. 1929-1949. 1 box.
Esther and Paul Melrose served as Presbyterian missionaries in China from 1916 to 1944. The collection includes correspondence, diaries, and manuscripts.
(Ax 761)
Papers. 1925-1976. 1 ft.
Thelma Mills was a Methodist missionary teacher to Tientsin, China from 1925 to 1927, and a Young Women's Christian Association consultant in Taiwan from 1968 to 1971. The collection includes diaries, correspondence, speeches, and photographs.
(Ax 857)
Bruce and Anna Jarvis Papers. 1927-1928. 1.5 ft.
Anna Moffet was a missionary administrator in China from 1920 to 1945. Another of Anna Moffet's projects was lobbeying to establish Mothers' Day Holiday as a national holiday in the United States. The Bruce W. Jarvis Papers include Moffet's letters, scrapbooks, photographs, and clippings about the war between the Nationalists and the South Chinese.
(Ax 386)
Papers. 1925-1939. 1 box.
Margaret M. Moninger was a Presbyterian missionary teacher in Hainan, China. Her papers include correspondence, manuscripts, including that of a Hainanese colloquial dictionary; a scrapbook; and photographs.
(Ax 705)
Seymour E. and Sarah Moon Papers. 1914-1950. 1.5 ft.
Sara Moon was a missionary teacher in the lower Congo. The papers include letters speeches, books, and photographs.
(Ax 646)
Papers. 1929-1963. 10.5 ft.
Esther Morse was a Presbyterian missionary doctor in China from 1930 to 1943 and from 1946 to 1953; in India from 1944 to 1945; and in Lahore, West Pakistan, from 1954 to 1963. The collection includes 14 volumes of diaries; descriptive letters to her family; the Hainan News Letter series, 1929 to 1936; and photographs.
(Ax 860)
Papers. 1943-1979. 0.75 cubic ft.
Gladys Oberlin was a nutritionist and Methodist missionary to Brazil from 1950 to 1976. The collection includes correspondence, loose diary pages, lecture notes, photographs, and material on nutrition and multipurpose food (MPF).
(Coll. 50, PH 047)
Jay C. and Lucile Oliver Papers. 1905-1969. 7.5
The Jay C. and Lucile Oliver Papers include correspondence with relatives and friends about life in China and material about the YMCA.
(Ax 647, PH 231)
In Herbert H. Pommerenke Papers. 1923-1946. 1 ft.
Jean and Herbert Pommerenke were Presbyterian missionaries in China from 1930 to 1946. Their papers include correspondence and newsletters for missionaries.
(Ax 722)
In James Howell Pyke Correspondence. 1900-1951. 1 box.
The Pyke Family were Methodist missionaries in China. The main letter series are by members of the Pyke family about missionary life and personal matters.
(Ax 766)
Letters from Oregon. 1849-1870. 11 letters.
Almira Adeline David Raymond and her husband, William W. Raymond, were mission farmers who arrived in Oregon in 1849 as part of the mission "re-enforcement." Almira Raymond wrote detailed letters to her parents, the James Davids of Amsterdam, New York, from the Willamette Mission and later from Taney Point, Oregon. Her letters reflect the hardships of mission life and the ambiguous attitude of the missionaries toward the Indians.
(A 104)
Letters from China. 1922-1957. 3 folders.
Elsie I. Reik was a missionary teacher in Foochow, China, whose letters to her family describe her work and experiences.
(A 166)
Frederic G. and Myra S. Scovel Papers. 1930-1972. 2 ft.
Myra and Frederic Scovel were Presbyterian medical missionaries in China from 1930 to 1951. The collection includes a copy of part of a diary that Myra Scovel kept during their internment by the Japanese from 1941 to 1942; correspondence; manuscripts; and published material.
(Ax 707)
Mementos. 1922-1925. 1 folder.
Edith Shufeldt was a Methodist missionary teacher in Peking, China. The collection includes clippings, programs, and broadsides.
(A208)
Letters from China. 1945-1946. 1 volume. 15 letters.
Edith Winifred Simester was a missionary teacher at the Anglo-Chinese College in Foochow, China. The letters are from her students. There is also a letter book of transcriptions of letters from Simester to her mother.
(A 183, PH 229)
In James Edwards Skinner Papers. 1889-1959. 3 ft.
Susan Lawrence and James Edwards Skinner were medical missionaries in China for thirty years. The collection includes letter, 1922 to 1948; diaries, 1903 and 1920 to 1942; photograph albums; and a broken file of the Yenping Pagoda Herald (later the Foochow News), 1924-1940.
(Ax 209)
In Dennis V. Smith Letters. 1915-1926. 165 letters.
Hazel and Dennis Smith were Methodist Episcopal medical missionaries in Peking, China. The jointly signed letters to his parents comment on social and political conditions in China.
(AX 422)
Correspondence. 1921-1947. 111 letters.
Myrtle Smith was a Methodist missionary teacher in China. The correspondence describes her experiences there.
(A 164, PH 218)
Papers. 1952-1973. 1 folder.
Lura McLane Smith was a Presbyterian missionary teacher to Korea. The collection contains material about foreign missionaries in Korea. See also the Roy K. Smith Papers (Ax 706).
(A 293)
Charles Eugene and Viola L. Smith papers. 1922-1973. 9 ft.
Charles Eugene and Viola Leora Smith were missionaries with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in the Congo from 1923 to the 1960s. The collection includes diaries, 1922 to 1924, 1928, and 1937 to 1945; manuscripts; correspondence; administrative files; and a photo album.
(Ax 437)
Letters from China. 1928 -1944. 14 letters.
Myra L. Snow was a missionary teacher in Tientsin, China, whose letters describe her school experiences and her reactions to the Chinese. The collection also includes a 1937 letter from Lora Battin and a 1944 letter from Myra Jaquet describing the Japanese invasion and life in a concentration camp.
(A 186)
David Stanton and Luella R. Tappan Papers. 1913-1966. 2.25 cubic ft. (5 containers)
Luella Rice Tappan was a Presbyterian missionary to China, 1921 to 1949. The Tappans provided sanctuary for Chinese refugees during the Japanese invasion in 1939. The collection includes diaries (written primarily by Luella), 1913-1966; manuscripts; correspondence, 1921 to 1965; and issues of the Hainan News Letter, 1929 to 1949.
(Coll. 103, PH 070)
Papers. 1921-1956. 1 ft.
Lyrel G. Teagarden was a missionary teacher for the Disciples of Christ at Luchowfu, China, 1920 to 1951, and later in Jamaica from 1952 to 1956. The collection includes correspondence about China, a fictionalized account of her stay in China, newsletters, day journals, and memorabilia.
(Ax 749)
Letters Received. 1931-1966. 258 letters.
Grace Terrell was a benefactor of Emma W. Wilson, a Methodist missionary in Tientsin, China, and Seoul, Korea, and of several Chinese and Korean students in America. The letters are from the students Terrell helped.
(Ax 264)
In the Charles G. Trimble Papers. 1914-1964. 1 folder.
Edith Alford Trimble's husband was a missionary in China. His collection contains descriptive letters written by Edith Trimble from China.
(A 174)
Papers. 1908-1974. 3 ft.
Letha Evangeline Ward Wakeman was a Baptist missionary to the Congo, 1922 to 1926 and a worker with the Oregon Migrant Ministry from 1955 to 1974. The collection includes diaries, 1921 to 1961; records of the Oregon Migrant Ministry; and correspondence. Also included are Effie Ward's (Wakeman's mother) memoir, a biography of Wakeman by Colena M. Anderson, and Congo mission publications.
(Ax 795)
Selected Papers. 1916-1978. 0.24 cubic ft.
Suzanne Emma Weddell was a missionary teacher and an advocate of women's rights. The collection includes biographical and travel material, booklets by Weddell, and photographs.
(Coll. 47, PH 055)
Papers. 1902-1966. 2 ft.
Laura Maude Wheeler was a missionary teacher in northern China from 1903 to 1948. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, a journal about China (1938), and a booklet by Wheeler, Recollections of My Chinese Days (Pasadena, California, 1947).
(Ax 372, PH 121)
Papers. 1925-1941. 0.5 ft.
Eleanor Wilson was a missionary in Japan and later in Micronesia from 1925 to 1950. She was ordained a Christian Church minister and captained the missionary ship Morning Star VI. The collection includes letters to her family, 1925 to 1951; photographs; and the published work "Too Old? A Saga of the 'South Pacific'" (n.p., n.d.) Some of her letters are in the Cormack Papers.
(Ax 611)
Papers. 1929-1973. 1 folder.
Elizabeth Curtis Wright was a Presbyterian missionary teacher in China from 1919 to 1924, 1926 to 1941 (when she was interned for six months by the Japanese), and 1946 to 1948. The collection contains reminiscences of the church in China under Communist rule, correspondence, and a pamphlet, My Memoirs.
(A 301)
[Identification of item], Date (if known), Collection Title, Collection Number, Box and Folder number [or photo ID number], Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.
Special Collections and University Archives is the primary repository for the University of Oregon’s archives, rare books, historic photographs, and one of the largest historical manuscripts collections in the Pacific Northwest. Our mission is to acquire, preserve, and make available a clearly defined set of primary sources and rare books, reflecting the written, visual, and audio history and culture of Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and selected aspects of American and world history. Our diverse collections support all types of research, from K–12 education to international scholarship. We strive to play an active and creative role in the teaching, research, and service missions of the University.
Historical Collection Strengths
1501 Kincaid Street
Eugene, OR 97403
P: 541-346-3053
F: 541-346-3485
