Guide to the William Hervie Dobson Papers

Descriptive Summary

Title

William Hervie Dobson Papers

Inclusive Dates

1893-1964

Call Number

RG 204

Creator(s)

Dobson, William Hervie, 1870-1965.

Quantity

1.00 cubic foot

Restrictions on Access

Collection open for research

Repository

Presbyterian Historical Society, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147-1516 USA

Biographical Note / Administrative History

Biographical Note

William Hervie Dobson was born in Vineland, N.J. In 1897 he was sent as a surgeon to the Yeungkong Station, South China Mission. The first Presbyterian missionary to learn the Yeungkong dialect, Dobson worked in the Canton region as evangelist, surgeon, and teacher until 1940 when he was honorably retired from the mission field. Married in 1899 to Effie W. Moore (d.1916), at the time of his death Dobson was survived by his two sons: Hervey and Connelly.

Collection Overview

The collection consists of correspondence, daybooks, photographs and one folder of miscellaneous material. The bulk of the collection covers the early years of Dobson's work in the Yeungkong mission and at the Forman Memorial Hospital (1897-1904). The correspondence is highly descriptive and contains Dobson's first impressions of China as well as narrative accounts of the daily life and duties of a missionary doctor. Included in this series is an account of the Boxer Rebellion. The majority of the photographs in the collection cover the period of 1901-1904.

Organization and Arrangement

SERIES I: Correspondence, 1893-1904, Box 1 Folders 2-11
Arranged chronologically by year.

SERIES II: Daybooks, ca.1897-1898, Box 1 Folder 12

SERIES III: Photographs, ca. 1897-1964 Box 1 Folder 13; Box 2 Folders 1-4
Arranged chronologically by year.

SERIES IV: Miscellany, 1897-ca.1940, Box 2 Folder 5

Related Material

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Gift of Ann Fa'alogo, 7-85.

Processing Information

Collection processed and finding aid prepared: 1986
Janet Brice Bishop, Assistant Archivist

Catalog Headings

The following headings have been used to index the description of this collection in the society’s electronic catalog.

Personal Name Subject

Dobson, William Hervie, 1870-1965.

Corporate Subject

Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. South China Mission.

Forman Memorial Hospital (Yangjiang, China)

Topical Subject

Presbyterian Church Missions, Medical China.

Hospitals China.

Geographic Subject

Yangjiang (Guangdong Sheng, China)

China History Boxer Rebellion, 1899-1901.

Genre-form

Photographs. aat

Journals. aat

Collection Inventory

Box	Folder	Description

1	1	Finding Aid to Record Group 204

		SERIES I: Correspondence, 1893-1904

1	2	1893-1896
	3	1897
	4	1897
	5	1898
	6	1898-1899
	7	1899
	8	1900
	9	1901-1902
	10	1903
	11	1904

		SERIES II: Daybooks, ca.1897-1898

1	12	ca.1897-1898

		SERIES III: Photographs, ca.1897-1963

1	13	ca.1897-1904

2	1	1901-ca.1904
	2	ca.1935-1940
	3	1963
	4	n.d.

		SERIES IV: Miscellany, 1898-ca. 1940

	5	1898-ca.1940

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Guide to the William Hervie Dobson Papers

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