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Myra Anna Jaquet (1884-1971) was as a Methodist missionary in northern China from 1911 to 1942. She worked as a girls' instructor at a missionary school in Peking (Beijing). By the early 1920s, Jaquet had moved southeast to Tientsin (Tianjin) where she served as one of the instructors (and, for a short time, as principal of girls' education) at the Gamewell School. In December 1941, the Japanese confined Jaquet as a prisoner of war. After six weeks imprisonment, she joined other missionaries who were interned at the British concession near Peking (Beijing). Along with other Americans, Jaquet was repatriated in 1943. Jaquet lived in New York until 1946 when she returned to Tianjin.
The collection constitutes a small but significant collection of documents recounting the life of a missionary woman in early 20th century China. Jaquet lived and worked in China for over thirty years, during one of the most transformative periods in the recent history of this nation. Jaquet arrived in Peking (Beijing) on the heels of the revolution that overthrew the Ch'ing Dynasty. Yet, the revolution and its aftermath only occasionally appeared in her papers as when she discussed the persistent dangers foreigners courted in the early 1910s. During the 1920s struggles over local authority appear in Jaquet's papers when she discusses recruitment and retention of students. World War II effectively shut down the missionary school (in Tianjin) and Jaquet was interned as a prisoner of war.
Certainly, some of the richest material consists of Jaquet's personal journals. These resources--intended for distribution among friends and relatives in the U.S.--offer details of her missionary work. Jaquet seemed particularly proud of the successes she and other teachers had among local children in Tianjin. She recounted increases in enrollment, the plays girl students staged, and how they advanced academically. Jaquet noted how many girls continued on at missionary universities in China or the United States. The fact that some of the students sought only an education--rather than conversion--at Gamewell school did not seem to bother Jaquet; she seemed committed to providing these girls with an education. Interestingly, Jaquet included a number of stories written by her students in her letters (in addition to those written by Jaquet herself). Jaquet also described religious services, sermons, and meetings as well as the advancement of Dr. Liu, the first female graduate of the North China medical school run by the missionaries who later headed the Gamewell School. Another teacher at the Gamewell School was Myra Snow, who arrived in 1928. Researchers should consult her collection of letters (A 186) as well as the collections of Edith Shufeldt (A 208), and Elizabeth Wright (A 301) (who both lived in Tianjin); those of Clara Dyer (A 198), Elsie Reik (A 166) or Edith Simister (A183) are also related.
In 1942, her fellow repatriated American missionaries agreed that Jaquet should write the account of their internment. The narrative of her arrest, imprisonment, and subsequent internment with other American (and British) missionaries is housed in the Myra Snow collection (A 186). The final journal in the Jaquet Papers offers a glimpse into her life after repatriation. Jaquet lived in New York and in 1946, she returned to Tianjin. Her papers offer some notes on what happened to the people and places during the intervening years.
Jaquet included photographs of people and places in her personal journals. Other photographs in this collection consist of the English and Chinese land deeds to the mission in Tianjin.