ORU_A183.xml Guide to the Edith Winifred Simester Papers 1930-1952 Simester (Edith Winifred) Papers Finding aid prepared by Veta Schlimgen, Manuscripts Processor Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives ©2006
1299 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1299 spcarref@uoregon.edu http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2020-12-22. Finding aid is in English Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), 2nd Edition. University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives
1299 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1299 spcarref@uoregon.edu http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll
Edith Winifred Simester papers Simester, Edith Winifred A 183 0.25 linear feet 1 containter, 4 folders 1930-1952 Edith Simester was a Christian missionary in China and later Brazil, serving from the 1930s through the 1950s. The collection includes incoming correspondence and transcriptions of letters to her mother. 1 containter, 4 folders English .

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 Dacorso Filho, César Dacorso Filho, César Simester, Edith Winifred Women Christian educators--China--Correspondence Women missionaries--China--Correspondence Methodist women--China--Correspondence Mothers and daughters--Correspondence Missions, American--Brazil Missions, American--China Women missionaries--China--Photographs Women Religion Missionaries Correspondence Photographs

Born into a Methodist missionary family in China, Edith Simester attended Chinese schools before moving to the United States where she attended college and graduate school. In 1930, Simester entered missionary service and moved to Foochow (Fuzhou) in northern China where she worked as a teacher in a missionary school. She remained in Fuzhou until 1946 (however, it appears that she was in the United States during much of World War II, from 1937-45) when she returned to the U.S. to care for her ailing mother. Simester took a missionary post in Brazil, in order to be closer to her mother who died in 1952.

The Edith Simester collection includes incoming correspondence from missionary colleagues and from former students. Also included is a one-volume letterbook with transcriptions of letters from Simester to her mother, dated February 24, 1945-September 6, 1946. Collection also include photographs from Simester's service in China.

This collection is remarkable because it demonstrates the connections between foreign missionaries in China. Unlike similar collections in this repository that offer materials authored by an individual missionary woman, the Simester collection brings together a small assemblage of correspondence authored by Methodist missionary women from Tientsin (Tianjin), and Ch'angli, to Peking (Beijing). Thus, the Simester collection offers insights into communication between missionary women. Simester also received a number of letters from former students upon her 1946 departure from China. Many wrote from Chinese universities to express their regret upon her departure. The collection also includes several letters from a Brazilian correspondent, César Dacorso Filho.

 Guide to the Edith Winifred Simester Papers

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