Descriptive Summary
Creator(s)
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Biographical Note / Administrative History
Sarah Clarke was born in 1889 in Liberty, Kentucky. After graduating from Kentucky Female Orphan School in 1906, she taught in Kentucky public schools. The Presbyterian Church in the U.S. appointed her as a missionary in 1912 but could not send her to the field due to lack of funds. In the meantime, she took correspondence courses from Moody Bible Institute and studied on campus in Chicago in the summer of 1914. She successfully applied to the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA) for a missionary appointment and sailed for Japan in August 1915. After two years of language study, she was assigned to Hokuriku Girls' High School in Kanazawa to teach English, Bible, and several other subjects.
The PCUSA Board of Foreign Missions transferred Clarke to Hiroshima in 1922 where she worked with groups of children and youth in her home and at church and also taught English classes in a government school. Furlough study culminated in an A.B. degree from the University of Kentucky in 1929.
In January 1934, Clarke resigned in order to marry Rev. Dr. Albert Oltmans (1854-1939), a missionary with the Reformed Church in America. They lived in Japan, and she continued to teach occasional English classes at Meiji Gakuin in Tokyo as well as assist her husband in his work as the Japan Secretary of the American Mission to Lepers. After her husband died in 1939, Sarah Clarke Oltmans was reappointed as a missionary by the PCUSA Board of Foreign Missions. She taught at Meiji Gakuin and Joshi Gakuin from April 1940 to October 1941, when she returned to the United States because of the impending war. She completed a master's degree in education at the University of Kentucky in 1942.
After serving on the staff of Covenant First Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati for six months, Oltmans went to Manzanar, California, in August 1943 to teach high school English at the Japanese Relocation Center. In July 1945, the Board of Foreign Missions appointed her to the Syria Mission. She arrived in November 1945 and was assigned to teach at both the Presbyterian Boys' School and the Presbyterian Girls' School in Tripoli, Lebanon. She received permission to leave the Syria Mission in June 1947 in order to prepare to return to Japan.
From March 1948 until her return to the United States in May 1953, Oltmans taught at Meiji Gakuin in Tokyo. Before leaving Japan, she received the Fifth Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Japanese emperor in recognition of her work in the field of education. She officially retired on May 27, 1954. After retirement, she worked as a substitute teacher and taught Sunday School classes in Lexington, Kentucky. She also continued to write about her missionary experiences and speak to churches and other groups in the Lexington area. She died September 23, 1991, at the age of 102.
Collection Overview
The collection documents Oltmans' work as a missionary educator in Japan and Lebanon, her teaching stint at the Manzanar Japanese Relocation Center in California during World War II, and her relationship with Clarke family members in Kentucky. It is arranged in six series: biographical materials; correspondence; talks, essays, and writings; subject files; clippings; and photographs.
The bulk of the collection consists of Oltmans' personal letters to her mother Jennie Clarke and sister Evelyn Clarke in Midway, Kentucky. Arranged chronologically, the letters discuss family matters as well as Oltmans' experiences as a missionary, a teacher, and an author and lecturer. Subjects covered include the Great Earthquake of 1923; the effect of the Oriental Exclusion Act; references to growing tensions in the 1930s and specifically to the death of Robert Reischauer in the bombing of Shanghai in 1937; the wartime union of Protestant churches in Japan; and financial difficulties experienced by both the Board of Foreign Missions and by Oltmans' family. Letters from August 1943 to April 1945, written when Oltmans worked for the U.S. government at the Manzanar Relocation Center, document conditions and programs at the center and Oltmans' work as a teacher and translator. Correspondence from October 1945 to June 1947 documents Oltmans' arduous journey to Syria during wartime, her adjustment to missionary life in the Syria Mission, her travels around the Middle East, and her thoughts on the U.S. role in Middle Eastern politics. Letters written after her return to Japan in 1948 document life in occupied Japan and the changing relationships between foreign teachers and Japanese teachers at Meiji Gakuin in Tokyo.
The talks, essays, and writings include descriptions of life in Japan, Oltmans' thoughts on Japanese customs and culture, and her experience of returning to the United States. Writings from the late 1930s and early 1940s comment on the influence of Christianity in Japan and on events leading up to World War II in Asia. Also included are essays and talks on Manzanar Relocation Center and her experiences in the Middle East in 1946 and 1947 while she served with the Syria Mission. Talks given to church and civic groups after her return to Kentucky in 1947 detail life in Lebanon and her teaching work there. Essays written after her return to Japan in 1948 document life under U.S. occupation. Talks, essays, and writings given after her retirement in 1954 cover a number of topics including the world mission of the Presbyterian Church, Japanese education, life and work in the Near East, and Christian values.
A small amount of subject files and clippings documents subjects of interest to Oltmans including "new religions" in Japan; Japanese education; and travel, mission work, and politics in the Middle East. There is one file on the Manzanar Relocation Center, 1943-1981.
The photographs include portraits of Oltmans and group shots of fellow missionaries, friends, and pupils. Also included are images (annotated by Oltmans) of people, buildings, and historic sites in Japan, China, and the Middle East.
Organization and Arrangement
SERIES I: BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS AND RELATED RECORDS, 1906-1991
SERIES II: CORRESPONDENCE, 1897-1986
SERIES III: TALKS, ESSAYS, AND WRITINGS, 1904-1960
SERIES IV: SUBJECT FILES, 1937-1981
SERIES V: CLIPPINGS, 1923-1967
SERIES VI: PHOTOGRAPHS, c. 1889-c. 1990
Alternative Formats
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Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not have been digitized in their entirety.
Administrative Information
Evelyn Tackett, a niece of Sarah Oltmans, donated the papers to the Presbyterian Historical Society in 2002.
Catalog Headings
Collection Inventory
| Box | Folder | Description | Alternative Formats |
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1 | 1 | Finding Aid to Record Group 427 | |
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| SERIES I: BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS AND RELATED RECORDS, 1906-1991 | |
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1 | 2 | Biographies and obituaries, 1934-1991 | |
1 | 3 | Programs, certificates, and school transcripts, 1906-1958 | |
1 | 4 | Passports, 1915-1952 | |
1 | 5 | Albert Oltmans and his daughter, Janet (Jean) Oltmans, Memorials, 1939-1972 | |
1 | 6 | Jean Oltmans, Japanese poems, undated | |
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| SERIES II: CORRESPONDENCE, 1897-1986 | |
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1 | 7 | 1897-1908 | |
1 | 8 | 1915-1922 | |
1 | 9 | 1923 | |
1 | 10 | 1924 | |
1 | 11 | 1925 | |
1 | 12 | 1926 | |
1 | 13 | 1927 | |
1 | 14 | 1928 | |
1 | 15 | Feb.-May 1929 | |
1 | 16 | May-Sept. 1929 | |
1 | 17 | 1930-1931 | |
1 | 18 | 1932-1934 | |
1 | 19 | 1935 | |
1 | 20 | 1936-1939 | |
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2 | 1 | 1940-1941 | |
2 | 2 | 1943-1944 | |
2 | 3 | 1945 | |
2 | 4 | 1946 | |
2 | 5 | 1947 | |
2 | 6 | 1948-1949 | |
2 | 7 | 1950-1956 | Digital |
2 | 8 | 1957-1986 | |
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| SERIES III: TALKS, ESSAYS, AND WRITINGS, 1904-1960 | |
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2 | 9 | Moody Institute, Chicago, notebook, 1914 | |
2 | 10 | Notes on a trip to Nikko Temples, c. 1916 | |
2 | 11 | Talks and essays, 1904-1951 | |
2 | 12 | Talks and essays, 1952-1960, undated | |
2 | 13 | Jesus Christ, 1933, 1949 | |
2 | 14 | Christ Risen, 1936 | |
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3 | 1 | Thesis: “The Japanese System of Education,” 1942 | |
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| SERIES IV: SUBJECT FILES, 1937-1981 | |
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3 | 2 | Meiji Gakuin, Tokyo, 1937-1967 | |
3 | 3 | Manzanar Japanese Relocation Center, 1943-1981 | Digital |
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| SERIES V: CLIPPINGS, 1923-1967 | |
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3 | 4 | Japan, 1923-1967 | |
3 | 5 | Middle East, 1956, undated | |
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| SERIES VI: PHOTOGRAPHS, c. 1889-c. 1990 | |
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4 | 1 | Sarah Clarke, c.1889-1919 | Digital |
4 | 2 | Sarah Clarke Oltmans, c.1920-1947 | |
4 | 3 | Sarah Clarke Oltmans, c. 1920s-c.1990 | |
4 | 4 | Sarah Clarke Oltmans and Albert Oltmans, c.1936-1939 | |
4 | 5 | Groups including Sarah Clarke Oltmans, 1915-1951 | |
4 | 6 | Sarah Clarke with students, 1918-c.1930s | |
4 | 7 | Sarah Clarke Oltmans with students, c.1930s-c.1950s | Digital |
4 | 8 | Individuals and groups without Sarah Clarke Oltmans, c.1940s-c.1950s | |
4 | 9 | Japan, c.1920s | |
4 | 10 | China—Peking, 1930 | |
4 | 11 | China—Peking, 1930 | |
4 | 12 | Cyprus, 1947 | |
4 | 13 | Galilee and Cyprus, 1946-1947 | |
4 | 14 | Baalbek, c.1946 | |
4 | 15 | Jerusalem and Bethlehem, c.1946 | |
4 | 16 | Athens, 1947 | |
4 | 17 | Syria and Lebanon, 1945-1947 | |
4 | 18 | Syria and Lebanon, 1945-1947 |