Scope and Contents
The bulk of this collection relates to Bernard Read's scientific research and writing regarding pharmacology. A full listing of titles of his writings is in the first folder of Series 3. Added to the collection in 2014 was an unpublished typescript manuscript by Read titled "Vegetable and Plant Drugs."
Extensive correspondence of Read records his interactions with colleagues in China and elsewhere. The collection also provides valuable documentation from the period when Read was interned by the Japanese during World War II. Also of interest is the correspondence from Katherine L. Read to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Henderson, who were missionaries in Burma, and correspondence between Katherine and Bernard during their separation caused by World War II.
The collection includes a biography of Bernard Read written by his wife and son, and an annotated copy of a memoir written by Katherine L. Read with Robert O. Ballou, which documents the work of her parents, Albert and Cora Henderson.
Added in 2014 were more than 500 3" x 3" glass slides accompanied by a listing of identification by number. The slides include plant, insect, and animal specimens, microscope slides of chemical compounds, archaeological sites in China, scientific equipment, individuals, class groups, scenes in China.
Dates
- 1902-1964
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Robert E. Read.
Arrangement
- I. Family Correspondence, 1918-1949, n.d.
- II. General Correspondence, 1902-1964, n.d.
- III. Writings of Bernard E. Read, 1917-1949, n.d.
- IV. Personal Items and Memorabilia, 1919-1951, n.d.
- V. Glass Slides, 1920s, n.d.
Extent
11 Linear Feet (24 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
These papers document Bernard Read's work as a scientist in China from 1909 to 1949, as well as the life of his family in China and his internment during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, 1941-1945. Bernard Read was not directly engaged by a missionary agency but spent the first part of his career in China at the Peking Union Medical College, a union venture related to various mission agencies. Read left the Peking Union Medical College due to disagreements with its leaders, and went to work for the Henry Lester Institute, an organization financed by an American businessman in Shanghai.
Biographical / Historical
- 1887 May 17
- Born in Brighton, England
- 1895-1903
- York Place Secondary School
- 1903-1909
- Pharmaceutical Training
- 1903-1907
- Business training, Hove, Sussex, London
- 1908-1909
- College of Pharmacy, M.P.S., Ph.C.
- 1909-1915
- Lecturer in Chemistry and Pharmacy, Peking Union Medical College
- 1916-1917
- Johns Hopkins Medical School, Biochemistry, with summer classes at Chicago University and Harvard
- 1917-1918
- Yale University, Nutrition, M.S.
- 1918
- Married Katherine Luella Henderson
- 1918-1925
- Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Peking
- 1923-1924
- Yale University, Pharmacology, Ph.D
- 1924
- University of Chicago, Pathology
- 1925-1932
- Professor of Pharmacology, Peking
- 1932-1936
- Head of Physiological Sciences, Henry Lester Institute of Medical Research, Shanghai
- 1936
- King Gold Medal, Peking Natural History Society
- 1941-1945
- Interned by Japanese during WW II
- 1946
- Director of Henry Lester Institute
- 1946-1949
- Chairman, Chinese Mission to Lepers
- 1947
- Chairman, Canadian Aid to China and Nursing Aid Committee, China
- 1932-1949
- Member of Union Community Church, Shanghai
- 1949 Jun 13
- Died in Shanghai
- Title
- Guide to the Bernard and Katherine Read Papers
- Author
- Compiled by Elizabeth Pipes and Martha Lund Smalley
- Date
- 2000, 2014
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared According To Local Divinity Library Descriptive Practices
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Yale Divinity Library Repository