United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia records

Record Group Number 11 represents the official archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, the United Board for Christian Colleges in China, the Associated Boards for Christian Colleges in China, and earlier committees related to the formation of these Boards. The collection documents the work of these organizations and provides extensive, detailed, and substantive information about the Protestant colleges and universities in China which were the focus of the Boards' activities prior to 1955. The records date from 1882 to 1974, with a concentration on the period 1922 to 1957.

The first two series are office files from the New York headquarters of the Boards. Board activities documented range from policy development to fund-raising, publicity, cooperative arrangements and special projects. The materials remain in their original arrangement, filed alphabetically by the names of individuals, organizations, or subject headings. A detailed cross reference list for Series II serves to clarify the occasionally idiosyncratic designations of subject headings and alerts the researcher to information about specific educational institutions or topics located in the files of individuals. There are records in Series I and II which duplicate or supplement documents available in Series IV. No effort has been made to extract these records from their original setting for placement with similar materials in the China college files. Prominent correspondents in these Series include William Danforth, John K. Fairbank, Daniel J. Fleming, W. Ernest Hocking, Edward H. Hume, Henry R. Luce, Henry W. Luce, Edwin M. McBrier, John R. Mott, I. M. Pei, Anson Phelps Stokes, Hollington Tong, Henry P. Van Dusen, and Mary E. Woolley.

While the Consolidated General Files of Series I and II are predominantly correspondence, Series III consists primarily of official papers, minutes and reports. The compilation of materials in this "New File" provides a succinct overview of the development, operations and internal structure of the United Board and antecedent bodies.

Extensive correspondence, minutes, reports and publications in Series IV document the formation, policy and programs of the Protestant colleges and universities in China. Invaluable information regarding the work of Chinese and Western leaders in the field of education, such as Lincoln Dsang, T. T. Lew, Herman C. E. Liu, Liu Shu-ming, Francis C. M. Wei, Wu Yi-fang, M. Searle Bates, Joseph Beech, Arthur J. Bowen, Hiram H. Lowry, J. L. Hawks Pott, J. Leighton Stuart, Matilda C. Thurston, and others, is provided. The history of various attempts to unify or correlate the work of specific institutions can be traced through the records.

Detailed reconstruction of life on the China College campuses is made possible through statistical records, student essays and transcripts, faculty reminiscences, publicity releases and documentation of the Colleges' physical plants, administrative procedures, curricula, extra-curricular activities and financial affairs. The impact of political events on the programs of the China Colleges is well documented. To cite just one example, a series of newsletters from Yenching, 1951 to 1953, provide interesting comment by British faculty members Ralph and Nancy Lapwood on campus life after the Communist takeover, including descriptions of "Study Groups" organized among the faculty, workmen and staff of the University and the Anti-3 Movement.

The following list indicates the approximate linear footage of records included in the China College Files of Series IV. These figures exclude oversize material and related material located in other series. They serve only to indicate the relative amount of documentation available for the various institutions:

A searchable database containing many photographs from Series V is available. The abundant films, photographs, slides and sound recordings of Series V are primarily related to the China Colleges, but are also an excellent source for general views of Chinese people, buildings and scenes, particularly in Beijing (Peking) and West China. As in the case of Series IV, there is considerable variation in the amount of material available for each college or university.

Series VI documents the work of organizations which were colleagues of the United Board in the support and coordination of higher education in Asia. Records are fragmentary for most of these organizations, but fairly substantive for the Cooperating Board for Christian Education in Chosen, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and the Princeton-Yenching Foundation. Of particular note in the Series are reports, statistics and documents related to the Correlated Program for Christian Higher Education in China, filed with materials of the China Christian Education Association. A small amount of material related to institutions supported by the United Board after 1955 is included in this Series. The publications found in Series VI are pamphlets, reports and articles used for reference by the United Board and antecedent bodies. Larger reference works and monographs received with the archives have been added to the Library's general collection.

The strengths of this collection lie in its documentation of Protestant colleges and universities in China and American efforts to encourage their growth from 1922 to 1950. Valuable information related to a variety of peripheral topics is also available throughout the collection. Material concerning a scholarship fund established at Lingnan University, for example, includes correspondence and biographical documentation of Yew Fun Tan, one of the students in the Educational Mission sent to the United States by the Chinese government in 1872. After being placed with a New England family to learn English and prepare for school, Yew Fun Tan graduated from Yale in 1883. In the Yenching University files, correspondence of Mary H. Stuart describes the 1922 World Student Christian Federation Conference in Beijing (Peking). Many other examples could be cited. The individuals associated with the China Colleges tended to be well-educated and intelligent; their correspondence and writings provide a valuable perspective on life in China, and particularly on the political turmoil which characterized this time period.

While it seemed wise to retain the original order of the extensive Consolidated General Files of Series I and II, and the correspondence in Series IV, the remainder of the collection has been essentially organized "from scratch." This combination of organizational techniques has led to a less than ideal situation for the researcher who must search through several listings to discover all possible sources of information related to a specific individual, institution or topic. It is hoped that researchers will have the patience and common sense necessary to exploit the wealth of documentation available in this collection.