Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Edith Shufeldt entered Methodist missionary service in 1922 and was sent to Tientsin (Tianjin) in northern China. Shufeldt served as a teacher at one of the missionary schools in Tianjin (probably Gamewell School or the Keen School); she also spent some time in Peking (Beijing). She appears to have remained in China until the late 1940s, when communist political victories forced most foreign missionaries from the country. The collection is unclear about Shufeldt's activities during World War II.
The Edith Shufeldt Papers bring together disparate documents and sources from Shufeldt's two and a half decades as a missionary in northern China. This collection contains correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings (from Chinese and American newspapers), and photographs. It is difficult to track Shufeldt's experiences in China or as a missionary from these documents; nevertheless, they offer a variety of insights on missionary work during this period. The few letters and associated photographs offer insights on civil war in China during the 'warlord years,' and an account on the 1939 "Bombing of Chungking."
The reports and newspaper clippings in the Shufeldt Papers are on disparate topics but reflect the breadth of missionary involvement. The reports consist of the 1922 findings of the Peking meeting of Christian students (who advocated for an end of racism and war); the 1924-1925 Social Hygiene Department's Annual Report; the 1924-1930 Farmer's Union Report on China; and the 1949 special report on China from the Foreign Missions' Conference. Shufeldt retained copies of a 1947 newspaper series on current changes in China from the Minneapolis Tribune. Other newspaper clippings report on politics and missionary activities in China.
For more information on missionary women who resided in China during the same period as Shufeldt, see the Myra Snow Correspondence (A 186), the Myra Jaquet Papers (A 180), and the Elizabeth Wright Papers (A 301) all of whom lived in Tientsin (Tianjin); or the Elsie Reik Letters from Foochow (Fuzhou), China (A 166) and the Edith Simister Letters from China (A183) who lived in Foochow (Fuzhou); or the Clara Dyer Letters from Ch'iangli, China (A 198) who lived in Ch'iangli. All of these collections are housed in Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Oregon Libraries.