Brief Description: The Blough Family Collection contains numerous letters, documents, poems, journal entries, and photographs from 1907 to 1945. The bulk of the collection spans the years of 1913 to 1922 and details Anna Blough’s, the third oldest child of the Brethren family, journeys and mission work in China. Anna Blough’s letters span from 1907 to 1922, the year that she died from typhus while working in China. These letters detail her two mission trips to China, and the people and culture that she encountered there. In addition to these letters, there are numerous responses from her family and loved ones, Anna’s essays and journal entries from her time in China, reports on the famine in China to the Church of the Brethren, and photographs and postcards from China in the early 1900s. This collection gives us an insight into the work of missionaries in this time period, Chinese culture, the difficulties of adapting to the Chinese language and culture, and the lives of a Brethren family in the early 1900s.

Record Series Number: MSS/MSS-0016

Created by: Blough, Anna V. (1885-1922), Blough, Elizabeth Lavina Hoots, Blough, Elmer Ellsworth, Blough, Mary Susan Miller, Blough, Robert Oscar, Blough, Uriah S., Bright, J. Homer, Bright, Minnie Flory, Crumpacker, Anna, Crumpacker, Franklin H., Early, Henry Clay (1855-1941), Eshelman, E. E., Flory, Edna, Lichty, Mary, Metzger, Minerva, Minnich, H. Spenser (1893-1982), Oberholtzer, Elizabeth W., Shick, Jennie May Blough, Snavely, Everett H., Snavely, Ida Belle Blough, Wampler, Fred. J. (Frederick Jacob) (1883-1957), Wampler, Rebecca C.

Volume: 0.42 Linear Feet

Arrangement:

Series 1. Anna Blough Journals, Essays, and Sermons

Series 2. Reports of the Mission Family Commission and Miscellaneous Reports

Series 3. Correspondence

Series 4. Death of Anna Blough

Series 5. Pictures and Postcards