Bryn Mawr College Special Collections, Examples
Andrew Henry Woods Collection
A.H. Woods Journals
(1872-1956)
1 of 1
Large Notebook titled “1891-1904” and tied with red ribbon
Page 171: [Andrew Henry Woods is debating whether he wants to go to Canton College to teach even though he is a trained physician.]
Page 174: “I decided to go [teach in China] if properly called by the board and assured of proper support. My reason are: “1 )Although I am educated a physician and surgeon & like that work best, many others can be gotten and in fact are waiting to enter into that work – more that can now be sent. 3) The college will by educating and Christianizing nature, do a more thorough, more efficient & more enduring good for this nation. It is better to filter their stream at its source than try to distribute clean water in cups to each family.”
Page 210: March 19, 1900 [In Singapore] Returned to the city and saw many evidences of thrift & ingenuity in the Chinese workmen who do most of the business there.
Page 213: [Canton College started with 7 ‘young men’; didn’t have any property yet]
Page 216: [Debates giving up medicine to be a teacher]
Page 216: May 16: The landlord is trying in Chinese fashion to cheat me by using bad material and poor equipment – windows &c.
Pages 218-219: June 24-July 17: [Worries about Boxer Rebellion]
Page 223: Sept. 10: The people are showing more hostility than ever to foreigners
[During this whole time, he regularly played tennis (at the club)]
Pages 223: Nov. 6: Chow [a student] is a strange, incomprehensible problem: a mind rendered fairly keen by exercise, but the matter on which he has developed it seems to be worthless. He knows nothing of Geography, mathematics, sciences, universal history.
Page 227: Dec 20: Today and yesterday I walked out into Chinese territory and secured 4 Christmas trees…Beijing friends definitely burned to death.
Page 228: Jan. 19: A Shu [A Xu] didn’t want to wash my windows, but did it. To revenge himself he came to my room sham-less, so I sent him to dress. Hope he will not leave us, for he is an excellent workers.
Page 230: Feb. 13: to Temple of 500 Genii,, seeing galaxy of as ugly idols as perverted genius could devise…The nasty looking priest tried to frighten us into increasing our Kam Sha by locking the doors, but Swan’s Cantonese vocabulary skewed it….[Feb 19: Description of Chinese celebrating New Years Day, visit to Temple of Horrors, and Examination Hall.]
Page 232: March 6: I can tell my servant to do most of the household duties, can ask patients to ordinary questions, can read the Romanized colloquial of Mark and Luke, and can carry on a paro conversation with a caller
Page 233: Have been reading Booker Washington’s autobiography – intensely simple, inspiring.
[Questions infallibility of bible, but then adds that it is something he “loves and reveres”]
Page 246: Feb. 21, 1902: [Returns to Philadelphia]
--I skipped section when he was in America--
Page 262: March 9: Bible study is scattered & hopeless. I am reading carefully the narrative about Jesus, and his words are always full of power & stir me. But the doctrines of verbal inspiration of the Book, only Revelation of God’s will, &c are to me proving false timbers upon which I have been trained to rest. Now they sink beneath my weight, and the many [?] discourage me.
Page 263: April 19, 1903: There boys are a promising lot, but show traits that make me feel greatly discouraged. The highest class, upon whom we have done 3 years of earnest, plodding work, shows really no friendless or feeling of kindness toward us. Jesus lived an admirable, perfectly strong, true and [?] life among a population utterly devoid of appreciation not only of his qualities, but of his motive. I can see that to help these obtunded[?] Natives, we must bear this course[?] and expect no different treatment. If there were a plot against my life, I can not feel sure of even a single student who would imperil himself to inform me of it, though I have a vague hope that two might make some effort – Song Pui Yuk and Ngo Ue Yun.
Page 264 (the page if flipped): April 20, 1903: C.C.S: The essential, covert impoliteness of Chinese students. Makes us sore in spirit…Mr Wannanaker…[is] hurt by their ungentle handling. Of course, their breaches are not such as can be reordered[?] by school discipline. It is simple that fact that heathenism cannot produce the essential nature of a gentleman, and where we are led to expect a response such as only a refined nature can give, of course we retire disappointed…They do search Confucius, for in him they think they have writ clear the marks of the best man-hood. Yet there it is that such a nature as this man’s is clearly outlined, and they will not come to him to get what Confucius vainly tried to point them to. It is just a little reproduction of the tragedy in Judea 1900 years ago, and which always goes on where real unselfishness tries to aid gross conceit and blind self interest.
Page 265: May 3, 1903: An intense anti-foreign feeling is being fomented among our boys, and entire unappreciativeness and ingratitude are evident. Kwan, Mok, and F. Cli’an left us for Tientsin because they do not like our rules. Two of them we have supported for 3 years are more. This leaves our highest class comprised of one knave, and one slow, heavy plodder.
Page 266: May 31, 1903: heard Chinese sermon, of which I understood only general drift.
Page 269: October 13, 1903: I cannot now become a medical missionary for two reasons – (1) I believe my powers used in direct labors with the young men of any section of China as an education (medical or academic) will produce far better results than my energies given to practice on bodies most of which are pretty nearly mind-less and totally lacking in significance in the regeneration of China…
--
See also:
Blue Notebook titled “1915-1918”
Folder of loose-leaf diary entries: 1905-1914 [all concerning time in Canton]
A.H. Woods
Journals
2 of 2
Journal titled “1918-1928
Journal titled “1929-1945” All post-China
Journal titled “1946-1956” [time of death]
Speer Family Papers
Box #10
March 26, 1927
Public sentiment here and in Great Britain, and the efforts of these two governments and of Japan have all been so kindly toward China and so restrained, and as I believe, so sincere in the effort to help China, that it would be tragic if any outbreaks in China are allowed to reverse all this goodwill.
January 25, 1927[From Margaret Bailey Speer]
Innumerable people who have friends or relatives in China are appealing to mother and me to assure them as to whether their dear ones are in imminent and deadly peril. It is good to be able to speak peace to all these troubled souls.
April 21, 1927 {From MBS]
It was good to get this morning your cablegram addressed to mother reading – “Peking perfectly safe – not coming home at present…”
May 9, 1927
Mother thought, however, you would be interested in several paragraphs from one of Mr. Lobenstine’s last letters... “At Wuhu I found everything in readiness for a big anti-Christian demonstration and saw one of the anti christian posters prepared for the occasion. It showed clearly the deadly hatred of the extreme Lefts of Christianity…Chinese churches are facing a period of extreme difficulty…
You have heard doubtless before this full accounts of the way in which Jack was killed…His death coming…at a time when all the professors and students, including the foreigners, were prepared to welcome the Southerners, came as a terrible blow to the faith in the Nationalist Government of the University and other groups…
Officially he [Chiang Kai-shek] was in control of events in Nanking, but everyone believes that the Nanking incident was staged, in part at least, in order to discredit Chiang Kai-shek in the eyes of foreigners and to lesson his power.”
…In a later letter dated April 9th, Mr. Lobenstine writes: “The missionary situation in China at the present is one which causes grave concern. Something almost in the nature of a panic has taken hold of the missionary body.”
Box #35
MBS Aug 27, 1925 – Oct. 29, 1925
Traveling to Japan: [pg. 3] “We nearly fell out of the window with excitement, watching the little villages and the paddy fields, the terraced hills and the neat little paths. Especially after the great empty reaches of Canada, everything seemed tremendously neat and tidy.” [later traveled to Korea, without much description]
November 15, 1925 [from MBS to Mother]
[traveling to Buddhist temple]: “We had our luncheon there and talked to the priests who were all very friendly…The temple buildings are very well kept up, and are all really beautiful.” [continues with a positive tone and dismisses worries about violence]
February 13, 1927 [addressed to “Friends of Asia”
“I am glad you know enough of China to understand that it isn’t as dangerous a place to be in as the newspapers evidently make out. Lakeville couldn’t be more peaceful than Peking, and though no doubt the time will come when the Nationalists arrive and eventually Christian colleges in the north will get a taste of some of the troubles of the South, now at any rate we are going our ordinary ways undisturbed. A doctor from Tsinan who suddenly rushed home with his newly acquired wife because they were worried by conditions here, has been the laughing stock of the whole community.”
Margaret Trumbull Corwin
Correspondence during travel to Japan, China, Canton. Describes Canton Christian College, Canton hospital. She writes enthusiastic, positive perceptions of Asia throughout. All writing is from a traveler’s perspective, with detailed narrative of her travels, but not a detailed look into daily life of Asia based on thorough knowledge about Asia at the time.
On the other hand…
Folder 3
September 16, 1926
“It is most amusing to get near a Chinese war. According to all the newspapers as near as Peking and even Nanking Hankow was the heart of active warfare. The northern and southern armies had been fighting in the town across the river and there was frequent shooting. But such shots—such absurd little firecrackers. They took one or two pot-shots at our boat as we went by and we did see the water splash where a bullet fell short…They must have some sort of toy pistols. On the other hand, the river at Hankow if full of warships, most of them British—that could simply wipe out the place in a few moments if they should open fire.”
“…The whole attitude toward the war is extraordinary. No one seems to care which side wins and business continues as usual in the most surprising way…the indifference or rather non-partisanship seems to extend to the Chinese as well as the foreigners…Apparently the fighting doesn’t mean anything more than an election. It is simply the way of deciding who are to be the next political leaders.”
Sept. 18, 1926
Fortunately the southerners seem to be by far the best disciplined troops, and people seem to be being converted rapidly to the southern side. They feel that there is more hope of a stable government from them than from any other source, and anything stable is China’s greatest need.
Mary Ritter Beard Collection on women in politics in Japan after World War II
Box:
Japanese Women
From WWII – 1951
Folder 1:
- 1946
- Press releases concerning enfranchisement of Japanese women in post WWII politics
- Descriptions of ‘Diet Women’
Hand written draft letter from female members of the Diet, Chiyo Sakakibara:
Dear and reverent all the female friend in the world:
We Japanese women as mothers and sisters and wives feel and understand how your hearts are broken with such deep sorrow and pain having your sons, brothers, husbands and other relatives and friends been injured and killed in the war…
…Because our country took a part in causing the second world war on account of the wrong policy of its leaders we the women of Japan only ask you straightforwardly “Forgive us for our mistake.” Our poor young soldiers, too, fought for their fatherland which they believed was straining to bring peace on earth.
-Statement after election from KATO Shizue:
…I was elected by an overwhelming majority but now I am being seized with a sort of melancholia…My melancholia was caused also by a large number of conservative persons who gained seats in the Imperial Diet this time…The emancipation of women will be possible by socialism only.
Folder 2
- Press Releases
- Summary of first session of Diet (as it relates to women)
- 1946-1947
Folder 4
My Travel to the United States – Miss Taki Fujita
[page 2] During my stay in the United States, I was particularly impressed by the following three words, because they signify “what America is” to me. Those were “cooperation”, “organize” and “grass-roots democracy”.
[page 3] I went back to the Bryn Mawr College, where I studied for four years twenty-five years ago…[page 7] Even in a country of abundance, university education is often too heavy a burden for the parents. Side-jobs are, therefore, constitute [sic] an important problem for American students as well as Japanese students. American people, who understand the value of labor, and respect the spirit of independence, are our seniors in this point.
[page 13] The legal status of women in the States is lower than that of Japanese women. Only a few states have the equal wage provision, which in Japan, is nationally enforced by the Labor Standards Law.
Michi Kawai Christian Fellowship records
Box titled:
Michi Kawai Christian Fellowship Papers or Neuendorffer/Kawai
Folder 1:
[introduction to the collection]: The documents and correspondence relate to the Michi Kawai Christian Fellowship an association established in the early 1950’s by Esther Sinn Neuendorffer, Class of 1904, to raise funds for a school for young women founded by her classmate Michi Kawai [Keisen Jogaku-en – Junior College, Senior and Junior High School]…
The documents, though businesslike in nature, evoke a number of interesting stories: a life long bond between two Bryn Mawr College students of different nationalities from the Class of 1904; a young Japanese woman being educated in the United States at the turn of the century and the prolific career which followed; the support of the education of women both in Japan and the United States before feminism was even a concept; international understanding and support on the heels of a world war.
Michi helped establish the YWCA in Japan. Founded Keisen Jogaku-en, a school a community college of young women in 1929; fund raised for the International Christian University in Tokyo.
Her life is described in My Lantern and Sliding Doors, found at BMC.
Folder 7
Fundraising pamphlet titled: “A Special School for a Special Need”: Michi Kawai, Christian leader and internationally known educator, dreamed of a school founded on Christian principles, which would train young women in horticulture and animal husbandry, to work in rural areas of Japan – to teach, to train others for the improvement of living conditions.
There is much correspondence concerning fundraising
Katherine Binney Shippen Papers
Photo Albums
- Pictures of Foochow, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Nanking, China, 1924-1925
- Photo Album of Japan (Kyoto, etc.) and Shanghai, including a picture of a poor person with the caption “Eating Dirt”, the Great Wall, Summer Palace, etc.
Box titled: K.B.S Shippen (25/7/4)
Manuscript copy of With a Sense of Wonder, Katherine B. Shippen, 1979
[page 43, after just arriving in Shanghai] And we talked to a nice young couple newly arrived from the Middle West to the United States. They had been sent for a term of five years –five years! How could they possibly stay in China all that time? The smells, the dirt, the strange yellow faces!
[Page 48] You might expect since we were with missionaries we would be oppressed with too much praying, but this was not the case. Missionaries then believed that they could help the Chinese more by showing them Western ways of health and agriculture than by proselytizing.
[page 52] The more I think of Mary Mills the more I admire her. Here she was in the middle of China, keeping house like a brave little suburban housewife, running everything smoothly and efficiently, doing everything exactly as if she had been at home in the United States…You might have said that our meals that year in Nanking were intolerable—and indeed they were…It really was not the cooks fault. I’m sure he could have done quite well if Mary had let him cook his own native Chinese food. But Mary lived in a house that was Western in style. She had brought her own china and silver from America, she wanted American food on the table.
[page 56] “And why is that little pavilion there among the graves? [they asked their Chinese teacher]” So people can leave unwanted girl babies there.” But we knew from having watched them that the Chinese loved their babies. Only the greatest poverty could have persuaded them to go near that little pavilion.
M. Feurer Plass Papers
Box 2 of 4:
Photo Album: Unidentified Pics from East Asia and S.E. Asia (including Hong Kong) – [they capture everyday life of Chinese better than most]
Envelope of pictures: Manila, Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, Japan, Shanghai, Indochina, Canton
Box 1 of 4: Correspondence
Cassette and Transcript of Oral Interview