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Emily Hatfield Hobart's legacy is one of self-sacrifice, and her papers are remarkable for the perspective they offer on the domestic affairs of missionary life in China. Born August 14, 1860, Emily Hatfield spent her young life in Evanston, Illinois, was educated at Northwestern University. She married Reverend William M. Hatfield in 1881, then joined him on a Methodist mission to China. Arriving there in 1882, the Hobarts first lived in Peking for several years (with annual summer vacations in the western highlands to avoid the seasonal epidemics of smallpox and scarlet fever sweeping the crowded city), as Rev. Hobart acclimated to the demands of missionary work. Mrs. Hobart meanwhile studied Mandarin in order to better teach groups of native women the Christian doctrine, a task which she undertook with considerable disdain. A dedicated daughter to her adoring parents, and a loving sister to her three siblings, Mrs. Hobart similarly committed herself to beginning and keeping a large family. She was pregnant for most of her young life, losing several children to prenatal and early childhood complications while also raising to maturity two daughters, Elizabeth ("Bessie") and Louisa ("Louie"), and two sons, Robert ("Bob") and Marcus.

Since western elementary education was unavailable, Mrs. Hobart took responsibility for her childrens' schooling, which added considerably to the demands of her daily life. Once Rev. Hobart received charge of a mission, the family moved west to Tsun Hua in 1893, although civil troubles began there shortly afterward in 1895. Although she made clear her devotion to raising her family in China, Mrs. Hobart grew increasingly lonely for her relations in the U.S. following another miscarriage in 1896. Her uneasiness was compounded by two months' convalescence from a nearly fatal illness during the summer of 1898, and when Mrs. Hobart recovered she ended seventeen continuous years in China as she and her children went to live with her mother in Florida.

After her children were grown, however, Mrs. Hobart travelled back to her husband in Peking in 1909, returning alone to the U.S. in 1913. In 1927 Mrs. Hobart rejoined her husband for work in the large Shautung mission, just as major civil strife began with Chiang Kai-shek's three-year terror campaign against hundreds of thousands of communists in Chinese cities. Although she was encouraged to leave Shautung for safety in Tsinan on April 28, 1928, Mrs. Hobart felt she would be deserting her duty, and she remained along with her husband within the mission compound for protection. However, on the following day Mrs. Hobart was fatally shot through a window of her home by nationalist troops firing over the compound's walls. Rev. Hobart succeeded her in death shortly after his return to the U.S. in April, 1932.

In memory of her sacrifice, Northwestern University erected an all-women's dormitory in 1928 which was named Hobart House in honor of Mrs. Emily Hatfield Hobart as an alumna. Today, this building houses the university's Women's Residential College.