Identity elements
Reference Number
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1978-1992 (Creation)
Extent
4.5 cu.ft. (12 boxes)
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Audio cassette tapes, typescripts, correspondence, financial documents, and grant proposals comprise the records of the China Oral History Project.
Included are 125 audio cassettes that represent 54 of the 56 total interviews conducted (there are no recordings available for two of the interviewees). In addition, a typescript of his/her transcribed interview is available. The average interview runs from three to four hours and focuses primarily on each interviewee's experiences as a missionary in China. Of particular interest are the missionaries' accounts of the Japanese occupation of China during the Second World War and the Communist Revolution which followed.
Arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Access conditions
Access to Episcopal Church records is governed by the Archives Public Access Policy. Research requests must be submitted in writing.
Technical access
Rights and permissions
The Archives is able to respond to limited requests for reproductions subject to copyright restrictions, internal policy, and the condition of the source documents.
Languages of the material
English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related records and archives
Notes element
Specialized notes
- Abstract: The China Oral History Project began as the brainchild of the Reverend Leslie Lindsey Fairfield, who served in the Episcopal Missionary District of Shanghai from 1935 to 1940. His goal was to document the experiences of the missionaries in China so as to not lose that important chapter in the history of the Church’s missionary work. In 1977, he approached Archivist V. Nelle Bellamy, with the prospect of initiating an oral history project, which would target some 60 former China missionaries. Fairfield set the project in motion in 1981, when he enlisted William Moss, former President of the National Oral History Association, as a volunteer interviewer. In 1984, a steering committee was formed. By the project's end, it had identified 85 missionaries and/or missionary couples. Of that number, eleven were deceased by the time the interviewing got underway. The three interviewers conducted a total of 56 interviews over the course of the project. One missionary couple, the Fairfields, gave two of the 56 interviews. Nineteen potential interviews were abandoned due to funding issues.
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Bellamy, V. Nelle (Subject)
- Fairfield, Leslie Lindsey (Subject)