Examples of Collection
China
Stephan Girard Papers
Merchant, banker, philanthropist.
Papers, 1769-1831. Film. ca. 600 reels.
"From the Board of Trustees of the Estate of Stephen Girard, these films are the complete archive of one of the largest mercantile and financial operations in the United States of his day. The collection includes correspondence, with translations of letters in French (139 reels); bank records, account books, ledgers, cash books, journals, etc.; papers, documents, and records of trading voyages, arranged by vessel and date; records of Girard's country house, "The Place"; records of real estate, rents, etc.; prices current in ports of the world. There is a card index of correspondents and ships (14 reels)."
Murphy D. Smith's "The Stephen Girard Papers," Manuscripts (Winter 1977): 14-22, provides an overview of the collection.
This invaluable collection includes information on the China Trade.
The originals are stored at Girard College, and curated by Elizabeth Laurent. However, for long term research, working with the microfilm at APS is better because Girard College doesn't have real workspace or a staff to handle regular research visits.
Eugene Opie Papers
B Op3: Boxes 1, 2, 8 (among others)
"Opie's long interest in China is reflected in material on the American Bureau for Medical Aid to China, the United China Relief, and Chinese medicine in general"
Elisha Kent Kane Papers
B K132: Series I: Boxes 5, 7. Series IV: Vol. 4
"In his first assignment, Kane joined the diplomat Caleb Cushing on the first American diplomatic mission to China in May 1843. The voyage to the Far East was the first of many adventures for Kane, which included a daring descent into a Philippine volcano, apparently inciting controversy among locals. At the completion of trade negotiations in June 1844, Kane resigned from the Cushing Commission and elected to remain in China for six months, operating a hospital boat with a young English surgeon. Although the venture was successful financially, Kane contracted cholera and was forced to abandon his practice and return home. By the time that he reached Philadelphia in the summer of 1845, he had logged thousands of miles and visited five continents."
Simon Flexner Papers
B F365
Items of interest:
Buttrick, Wallace: 17 folders
China Medical Board: 12 folders
Greene, Roger S.: 10 folders
Houghton, Henry S.: 2 folders
George Gaylord Simpson Papers
Ms. Coll. 31: Boxes 5 & 9 (Travel Diaries to China and Japan)
"One of the seminal figures in the emergence of the Modern or Neo-Darwinian Synthesis during the mid-twentieth century, George Gaylord Simpson (1902-1984) helped define the unique contribution made by vertebrate paleontology to the life sciences."
JAPAN
Benjamin Smith Lyman Papers (1835-1920)
B/L 982:
Box 3: Correspondence 6/20/1872-8/18/1874 (as well as boxes 2-13)
Box 34: Geological survey of Hokkaido 1873; Diary – August 13, 1873 – November 4, 1874;
Partial Printed Finding Aid (as well as guides to the other half of the collection, which resides at UMass at Amherst) can be found in the library. It is not online. Much of the collection is in Japanese.
The collection is currently being re-boxed, which means the old (partial) finding aid will be of no use. Hopefully a new one will be printed. Ask a librarian if you’re interested.
These diaries are pretty technical in nature. They include weather notes and what mines were discovered at which location, but not much more. Expenditure reports are also found here.
Curt Stern Papers
Ms. Coll. 5: Boxes 1, 2 (mixed among many other non related things)
"Stern's various areas of scientific interest are documented in the collection: the chromosome theory of heredity, role of gene mutation and chromosome rearrangements in evolution, action and interaction of genes during individual development, and particularly his contribution to the development of human genetics as a discipline."
Thomas M. Rivers Papers
B R52: Box 1
There are nearly 200 photographs, more than half of which depict the research hospital in Guam and its personnel, and a smaller number of powerful photographs depicting members of the American military in Nagasaki, Japan, ca.1946, that provide graphic testimony to the devastation unleashed by the atomic bombing.
Books
The following books, available at APS (and probably other libraries as well), could be very useful in research:
The Books of the Fairs
Materials about the World’s Fairs, 1834-1916, in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries
016.6061 SM65B Reading Room
A bibliography. With some pictures. APS has all this on microfilm
J. Stephen Catlett, Editor. A New Guide to the Collections in the Library of the American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. 1987.