Title: Gertrude M. Hoffman Papers, 1933-1936
ID: RG 30/311
Creator: Hoffman, Gertrude M. (1912-1981)
Extent: 1.75 Linear Feet
Date Acquired: 02/02/1999
Languages: English [eng]
The papers of Gertrude M. Hoffman consist of two series: Series 1. Correspondence, and Series 2. Albums. The correspondence series comprises letters written to her family while she was teaching at the Oberlin Shansi Memorial School in Taigu, Shanxi, China, from 1933 to 1936. These letters describe her daily activities, classes taught, Chinese customs observed, visits to other parts of China and to Japan and Korea, and her study of the Chinese language. The March 1936 correspondence discusses the Communist army's movements in Shanxi Province which caused Hoffman and her colleagues to leave Taigu for Beijing. Hoffman's letters frequently mention other teachers and fellow Americans in China; they include Raymond T. Moyer (A.B. 1921), Paul Corbin (B.D. 1903), Joseph Hamilton (A.B. 1933), Richard G. (Dick) Irwin (A.B. 1932, A.M. 1936), Elizabeth (Betty) James (Mrs. R.G. Irwin; A.B. 1932, A.M. 1936), Mark Wu, Josephine Hamilton (Mrs. H.E. Van Meter; S.Mus.B. 1935, A.B. 1939), Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Wilbur, and Mr. and Mrs. Myron S. Burton.
Series 2 comprises two dis-bound photograph albums with attached photographs and postcards dating from Hoffman’s time in China and reflect the people, places and activities with which she engaged as a representative from Oberlin. The albums significantly complement the correspondence series and provide images of persons with whom she corresponded, and of places mentioned in her letters.
Accruals:
Accession No: 1999/008, 2016/039.
Access Restrictions:
Unrestricted.
Acquisition Method:
The correspondence was donated to the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association by Donald O. Hoffman in 1997, and deposited in the Archives in 1999. The photograph album pages were given to OSMA by Jeanne Hoffman Berger; OSMA transferred them to the Archives in August 2016.
Related Materials:
The following collections in the Oberlin College Archives contain materials relating to missionary work in China:
15 Records of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association
38/1 Missionaries
21 Oberlin File; Section II; Folder 21 (Rowena Bird letter, 1900)
30/67 George Nelson Allen
30/76 Willard L. Beard
30/49 Paul Leaton Corbin
30/130 Everett D. Hawkins
30/26 Margaret Portia Mickey
30/260 Raymond T. Moyer
30/42 Missionary Letters of C. N. Pond
30/145 A. Clair Siddall, M.D.
30/322 Francis F. & Emma B. Tucker
30/288 Herbert & Josephine (Hamilton) Van Meter
30/58 Mr. and Mrs. George L. (Alice Moon) Williams
30/21 George Frederick Wright
See RG 15 Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, Subgroup II, Series 4 and Subgroup IV, Series 1 for letters and reports from Gertrude (Cheney) Hoffman.
RG 30/288 includes letters from Gertrude Hoffman's mother, Francis Cheney, to Josephine Hamilton Van Meter's parents concerning their daughters' experiences in China and news about the Communist army in Shansi.
Finding Aid Revision History:
Processed by Melissa Gottwald, July 2001. Revised by Anne Cuyler Salsich, August 2016.
