Descriptive Summary
Creator(s)
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Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not be available on Pearl or in their entirety.
Biographical Note / Administrative History
Early in 1836, the Spaldings, under appointment by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to the Osage Indians, met Marcus Whitman who had returned from Oregon to recruit missionaries and settlers. Whitman persuaded the Spaldings to go to the Northwest as Presbyterian missionaries. The Spaldings and Whitman and his bride made a hazardous six months journey, the wives being the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains. The Spaldings established a mission among the Nez Perces in the Lapwai Valley in present Idaho. They opened a school and set up the first printing press in the Northwest. Spalding also trained the Indians in farming.
After the massacre of the Whitmans in 1847, which the Spaldings escaped, it was twenty-four years before Spalding could return to Idaho as a missionary. The remaining three years of his life were spent in controversy with the Indian agent, but were also fruitful in the work among the Nez Perces and other Indian tribes of the area.
Collection Overview
Organization and Arrangement
SERIES II: Transcripts of Letters, 1840-1847
SERIES III: Manuscript Biography, ca. 1908
Alternative Formats
To browse this collection's digitized materials visit Pearl.
Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not have been digitized in their entirety.
Administrative Information
The accuracy of the transcribed letters can be determined only by checking the originals.
Collection processed and finding aid prepared: 1991
Glenn Colliver, Assistant Archivist
Catalog Headings
Collection Inventory
Box | Folder | Description | Alternative Formats |
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1 | 1 | Finding Aid to Record Group 283 | |
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| SERIES I: CORRESPONDENCE, 1833-1850 | |
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1 | 2 | 1833-1850 | Digital |
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| SERIES II: TRANSCRIPTS OF LETTERS, 1840-1847 | |
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1 | 3 | 1840-1847 | |
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| SERIES III: MANUSCRIPT BIOGRAPHY, ca. 1908 | |
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1 | 4 | "Rev. and Mrs. H.H. Spalding - Their Life and Work," by Rev. George L. Deffenbaugh *Probably read at Synod of Washington which met at Moscow, Idaho, Sept. 11, 1896 | |
1 | 4 | "Rev. Henry Harmon Spalding - Mrs. Eliza Hart Spalding. A Biographical Sketch," by Rev. George L. Deffenbaugh (Lapwai, Idaho), ca. 1908 |