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Rolla Edwards Hoffman, medical missionary for the United Presbyterian Church in the USA, served in Iran for 42 years. Dr. Hoffman was born in Leipsic, Ohio in 1887. He graduated from Berea College in 1908, spent the first year of medical school at American Medical Missionary College, and received his M.D. from Western Reserve University in 1913. He worked in Tehran during 1915-1916, 1932-1933, and 1940-1942. He was in charge of the American Hospital in Meshed from 1916-1947 and the Christian Hospital in Resht from 1948-1957.
In 1919, Dr. Hoffman married Helen Easton, a nurse working in Iran. They had two children, Elizabeth and Harriet. Helen Hoffman died in 1949. Dr. Hoffman married Dr. Adelaide Kibbe Frame, widow of Dr. John Davidson Frame and a medical missionary with 28 years of service in Iran, in 1950.
The collection includes 381 letters from Dr. Hoffman, 1915-1957. The majority are to his family in Ohio and discuss medical, social and family news. His major correspondents are Dr. Joseph Cochran, 20 letters, and Dr. Hartman A. Lichtwardt, 27 letters, both medical missionaries in Iran. There is also an exchange of 20 letters between Dr. Edward Blair, a medical missionary in Iran, and others concerning the nursing situation in Iran in 1937-1938.
There are 9 station letters from Meshed, 14 personal reports from medical missionaries, 11 itinerating reports from 1918-1948 and 22 medical reports from the hospitals at Meshed and Resht. Also included is the manuscript of Dr. Hoffman's autobiography, Pioneering in Meshed, The Holy City of Iran; Saga of a Medical Missionary, 9 articles on Iran and a folder of tear sheets of articles by Dr. Hoffman and others about Iran.