Archives West Finding Aid

The Lyrel Teagarden Papers bring together personal accounts and fictional stories related to Teagarden's missionary work. Most of the materials in this collection concern Teagarden's long career in China--where she lived in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Luchowfu. Her letters provide details into her teaching and missionary routines as well as the political events that impacted China in the 1920s through the 1940s. She described the stark contrast between the wealthy and poor in Luchowfu; the persistence of droughts and subsequent famines; and the perilousness caused by bandits and later by the war with Japan. The Teagarden Papers' correspondence files pertain only to her missionary work in China. They end in 1951 when she, along with most Christian missionaries, left China after the installation of the new Communist-led government. These letters are valuable for their account of missionary work and its intersection with local and national politics in China. They also offer unique insights into the assumptions and impressions of an American missionary woman who spent considerable time in a location far removed from most missionaries in China. Some of Teagarden's earliest letters might prove to be of particular interest to researchers. The letters themselves average 7.5 feet in length and are written on hand-painted stationary.

Teagarden's remote location make this collection unique. Special Collections & University Archives houses a wide array of manuscript collections related to the lives of women missionaries to China. Teagarden spent most of her missionary career in Luchowfu, west of Nanjing, a place where there were few other foreigners. Consequently, she offers a different perspective on missionary work and a unique contribution to these holdings.

The Teagarden Papers also contain manuscripts, photographs, and journal and newspaper clippings, nearly all of which relate to Teagarden's service in China. The clippings offer brief glimpses beyond the viewpoint of Teagarden--of missionary work in Luchowfu and of major events that concerned these missionaries (such as the 1938 flight of Teagarden along with three other missionaries from western China to Shanghai after the Japanese attack). The collection's two literary manuscripts were both authored by Teagarden. "A Course For Children's Centers" is a religious curriculum booklet she and other missionaries developed following World War II. The manuscripts "The Little Black House" is a fictional account based on Teagarden's experiences in China. The story takes place during the Nationalist Revolution of 1927 and the Japanese invasion of 1937. The photographs associated with this collection consist mostly of photos taken at the Blind Girls' School (in 1938) and during Teagarden's 1927-28 visit to Japan.