Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1924-1979 (Creation)
Extent
1.87 cubic feet
Name of creator
Biographical history
Jenny Sophia Lind (1893-1988), American Missionary, was born on August 31, 1983 in Tioga, Pennsylvania. Her father, August Lind, was born in Sweden on October 27, 1857 and came to America as a young man, locating at Morris Run for short time, later coming to Tioga, where he spent the rest of his life. He was married to Matilda Johnson who died June 10, 1920, and he was an active member of the Tioga Methodist Church during his entire life in Tioga. Her parents were of thrifty, industrious Swedish stock. She received her education in the Mansfield State Normal School, Pennsylvania; Missionary Training Institute, Nyack in New York; Hartford School of Missions and School of Religious Education (Bachelor of Religious Education). She worked as a pre-missionary employment for sixteen years in rural schools, Tioga in Pennsylvania (1912-1914), Alleghany County academy in Cumberland, Maryland (1914-1917), Kuling American School in China (1924-1926), and Public School in Morristown, New Jersey (1927-1928). She returned to the U.S.A. when the Kuling school was closed by Civil War.
Lind was appointed a missionary on May 28, 1929 by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church and return to China. She taught in Knowles Bible Training School, Kuikiang, China (September 1929-1935), Knowles-Rulison Joint School as well as Principal and Treasurer (November 1936-June 1942), Baldwin Girls School and Nanchang Academy, China (April 1948-June 1950), Colegio Americano, Porto Alegre, Brazil (March 1945-February 1947), at Aoyama Gakuin, Tokyo, Japan (January 1951-February 1953), Fukuoka Jo Gakuin, Fukuoka, Japan (September 1954-July 1957), and Aoyama Gakuin, Tokyo, Japan (September 1957-July 1960). After official retirement in 1961, she taught at the Kuling American School to Yokohama, Japan to 1964. Lind went furloughs (1935-September 1936; August 1942-March 1945). During that furloughs, she attended numerous schools of high education. She died on March 27, 1988.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The collection contains materials relating Lind's personal activities as a missionary. There are seventeenth diaries in this collection. They range in date from 1924 to1979. The years 1926 to 1928 and 1939 are missing. Entries in these diaries are only a few lines and discuss daily events, school activities, Bible meetings, and weather conditions. Many of the diaries reflect China's social unrest because of Western intervention. One diary makes note of mid to late twentieth century China and is a good resource for a student of Chinese culture as impacted by Protestant mission work. Another diary describes the military occupation in Kimkiang and communist regime in Nanchung. There is one more diary which describes historical sites of Egypt, the Middleast and Europe.
Correspondence is dated from 1935 to1962 and relates to family and friends, including "Memories of China" in 1951.
There are two memory scrapbook, dated 1960 and 1964 respectively, which were created by Lind's Bible Class Students. A third scrapbook is a 1959 graduation commemorative yearbook from Aoyama Woman's Junior College in Tokyo, Japan. The final part of this collection contains various clippings, programs, pamphlets, and photographs related to Lind's work and family.
System of arrangement
By record type and then by date within record type.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
There are no restrictions regarding this collection.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Detailed use restrictions relating to our collections can be requested from the office of the archivist at the General Commission on Archives and History. Photocopying is handled by the staff and may be limited in certain instances. Before using any material for publication from this collection a formal request for permission to publish is expected and required.
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Frances Bray collection.
Microfilm Edition of the Missionary files series of the Board of Missions of the Methodist Church
Mission Biographical Reference Files
Drew University Methodist Collection Reference Files
Related descriptions
Notes element
General note
When citing material from this collection please use the following format: Direct reference to the item or its file folder, Jenny Lind Collection, United Methodist Church Archives - GCAH, Madison, New Jersey. Do not make use of the item's call number as that is not a stable descriptor.
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Prepared by Myong Shin Jeon, Student Assistant and Mark C. Shenise, Associate Archivist
Access points
Subject access points
Name access points
- Methodist Episcopal Church (Subject)
- Methodist Church (U.S.) (Subject)
- United Methodist Church (U.S.) (Subject)