Douglas Newton Forman papers, 1930 -- 1957

Collection context

Creator:
Forman, Douglas Newton, 1890-1961
Abstract:
The collection is comprised of papers and reports on medical mission work collected by Forman during his tenure at the Christian Medical Council for Overseas Work. The bulk of the material deals with China, although some of the data is drawn from other mission fields, such as the Philippines, India, and Africa.
Extent:
1 linear feet 1 linear foot; 2 boxes
Language:
English .
Scope and content:

This collection contains papers on medical mission work collected by Forman during his tenure at the Christian Medical Council. The bulk of the material deals with China, although some of the data is drawn from other mission fields, such as the Philippines, India, and Africa. The papers in folders 3 - 4 were produced as part of a report to the State Department on American medical mission institutions and staff in China following the outbreak of war with Japan. Folders 8 - 10 are mainly concerned with the planned establishment of a Hospital Service Agency in Shanghai to meet the needs of war-damaged mission hospitals in China.

Biographical / historical:

Douglas Newton Forman was born on March 22, 1890 in Jalandhar in the north of India to a missionary family. His father Charles W. Forman was a medical missionary in India for forty-three years, and his grandfather C.W. Forman founded the Forman Christian College in Lahore, now part of Pakistan. Douglas Forman graduated from Wooster College and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He married Amy Gilson March, daughter of missionaries to Syria, in 1915 before serving in the United States Army Medical Corp from 1917 to 1919. After that he and his wife lived in India as medical missionaries under the auspices of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. until 1939 when they returned to the United States. In 1943 Forman began working under Edward Hicks Hume, the director of the Christian Medical Council for Overseas Work (CMC), and three years later took over from Hume as executive secretary. The council had been founded in 1938 by Hume, was located in New York City and was a division of the National Council of Churches and a representative committee of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America. Allen O. Whipple, professor of medicine at Columbia University from 1921 to 1946, was chairman of the council. Forman retired from the CMC in 1960, and he died on September 25, 1961 after a long illness. He was survived by his widow and six children, including the American diplomat Douglas Forman Jr.

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

Onsite storage.

Terms of access:

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.

Preferred citation:

Item description, MRL 6: Douglas Newton Forman papers, 1930-1949, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Location of this collection:
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