Photograph Album of Methodist Episcopal Missionaries to China

ca. 1900-1917
Manuscript Collection #1308
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Creator(s)
Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church of Detroit
Physical description
0.16 Cubic Feet, 1 archival box, consisting of a photograph album
Preferred Citation
Photograph Album of Methodist Episcopal Missionaries to China (#1308), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
No restrictions

Photograph album documents missionaries from Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church of Detroit (Michigan) in China (ca. 1900-1917). Photographs depicting local life and scenery such as street scenes, a Peng (tent cart), street vendors, Chinese Theatre scene, temples, Boxer ruins used as a boarding school and teachers and their students, are accompanied by ephemera such as programs, memorials and prospectuses.

Biographical/historical information

In 1881 David Preston purchased two lots on the corner of Cass and Sheldon and the Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal congregation was organized in 1883. For 25 years the church was home to many of the city's oldest families and one of the most aristocratic churches in Detroit. Then in 1918 church member started to decline and in ten years membership went from 767 to 275. This was because members of the church moved from the surrounding neighborhoods into the city. In 1928 the church was renamed to Cass Community Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev Lewis Redmond brought significant change to the church during his time, 1953-1979, by creating evening programs, Bible study, Project Scout, Senior Center, the 4 C's (the Concerned Citizens of the Cass Corridor), and started a campaign to save Burton Elementary School. The Cass Community Methodist Episcopal Church has been a part of several missionaries in and out of the United States.

Scope and arrangement

This collection contains a single scrapbook of pictures, news clippings, programs, and photographs. A few of the items include dates, with the earliest date being 1896.

Administrative information
Custodial History

October 3, 2017, 0.16 cubic feet; Photograph album documents missionaries from Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church of Detroit (Michigan) in China (ca. 1900-1917). Photographs depicting local life and scenery such as street scenes, a Peng (tent cart), street vendors, Chinese Theatre scene, temples, Boxer ruins used as a boarding school and teachers and their students, are accompanied by ephemera such as programs, memorials and prospectuses. Purchased with state funds from Denning House Antiquarian Books & Manuscripts.

Source of acquisition

Purchased from Denning House Antiquarian Books & Manuscripts

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Metadata Rights Declaration
Key terms
Corporate Names
Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church of Detroit
Methodist Episcopal Church--Missions--China--Pictorial works
Topical
Missionaries--Michigan--Detroit--Pictorial works
Places
China--Pictorial works
Container list
Box 1 Folder a Item 1 Tremont Street Church, Boston, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 2 Clipping on the origin of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 3 Cass Ave. M.E. Church - Chapel dedicated Dec. 1883, Church dedicated-, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 4 The Young Ladies' Foreign Missionary Society Programme for 1896, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 5 Clipping of E.E. Hale quote, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 6 Mrs. J.B. Roe - Organizer of Cass Ave. Young Women's Foreign Missionary Society - January 7, 1896, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 7 Rev. A.B. Storms and Wife, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 8 A Memorial, Mary Clarke Nind, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 9 Mrs. Mary C. Ninde and Miss Russell, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 10 Prospectus, 1898, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 11 Miss Florence Mitchell, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 12 Peng or tent cart - Take your choice of these carts - for a trip with us over any one of the three districts, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 13 Open Ox cart, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 14 The only girl's school in a town of 10,000, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 15 Chinese children love to play-, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 16 Temple of "Pure Knowledge." The gates are hung full of tiny bells that make music in the breezes, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 17 One of our choicest Bible Women - mainstay of our Training School, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 18 Kindergartens, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 19 Kindergartens, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 20 This kettle is always boiling - ready to fill your teapot, or serve you a fragrant bowl, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 21 His summertime dress - a dodo but how he loves the picture card, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 22 Gathering fuel is the household duty of many a child - and it often takes all his playhours to gather enough to fulfill the family needs, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 23 The old buckboard on its last trip. The missionary feels safer on a donkey, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 24 Would you like to worship these?, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 25 Looking thru the Old to the New, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 26 Do they look forward to Christmas?, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 27 Venders [sic], 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 28 At a Chinese Theater. There are no reserved seats., 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 29 One of the best kept up temples I have seen but closed and guarded by fierce dogs, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 30 China's future citizens in one of our new Boy's day schools, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 31 Plowing with an ox and a donkey, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 32 A Ladies Aid Society, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 33 Much welcomed as the missionary Both bring the gospel message, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 34 The wayside Delicatessen, Hot pancakes - help yourself!, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 35 If you travel with us you will have to sleep on a kang-, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 36 Teacher and Bible Woman at Everlasting Peace Village, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 37 One of the small town churches which threatens to be closed by the 'cut' in General Board Appropriations!, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 38 Clipping on Miss Hayashi, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 39 A Maiden of the Land of Cherry-Blossoms, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 40 A Japanese Madonna, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 41 Berdice Lawrence, West China, 1896-1919
Box 1 Folder a Item 42 Unknown list of names, 1896-1919