This finding aid is made available for public use following the Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons designation.
This collection is open for research.
Onsite storage.
Formerly part of the independent Missionary Research Library (MRL), these records were donated by Susan Clark Lobenstine between 1958 and 1964, and were accessioned by the Burke Library at the time of the MRL's closure in 1976.
The Reverent Dr. Edwin Carlyle Lobenstine was born on January 18, 1872 in Leavenworth, Kansas. He was educated in Europe before graduating from Yale University in 1895. He studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York City from 1895 to 1897, and at Auburn Seminary from 1897 to 1898. In that year he was ordained by the Presbytery of New York and went to China as a missionary. He initially worked in Anhui 安徽 province in the East of China, and directed famine relief work in 1909. In 1911 the China Continuation Committee was formed as a result of the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, and Lobenstine served as its general secretary. He went on to work for the National Christian Council of China, the successor organization to the committee which was founded in 1922. He was also a board member of several institutions of higher learning in China, including Nanking University 南京大學, Ginling College 金凌女子大學, and the Yale in China program. In 1935 he retired from the NCC of China and returned to the United States, where he was chairman of the Yale-in-China Association from 1936 to 1944. He passed away in 1958. He was married to Susan Clark Lobenstine.
Missionary Research Library Archives: MRL6, China
Item description, MRL6: Edwin Carlyle Lobenstine album, 1935, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
The album was separated from its wooden cover and placed in an acid-free paper wrapping. The front and back covers remain with the album, separated by paper. Acidic items within the album were interleaved with acid-free paper. The finding aid was created by Gregory Adam Scott in 2009, reviewed and updated by Brigette C. Kamsler in 2014 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2020.
This collection contains a commemorative album presented to Presbyterian missionary Edwin Carlyle Lobenstine and his wife, Susan Clark Lobenstine, on the occasion of his retirement from the National Christian Council of China. The album contains photographs, letters, cards and inscriptions from people who knew Lobenstine and his work in China. Represented here are people such as H.H. Kung 孔祥熙, the wealthiest person in China at the time and husband of Soong Ai-ling 宋藹齡; Zhang Boling 張伯苓, the founder of Nankai University; Earl Herbert Cressy, who worked with the Council on education; C.Y. Cheng 誠靜怡, the first General Secretary of the NCC of China; Charles Luther Boynton, long-time member of the NCC of China; Abbe Livingstone Warnshuis, leader of the International Missionary Council; Eugene E. Barnett of the Chinese YMCA; and Wu Tiecheng 吳鐵城, Chinese general and then-mayor of Shanghai. Several of the photos have lost their captions and many of the people represented in the album have yet to be identified. Several of the photographs depict the Ninth Biennial meeting of the NCC of China in 1933.
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This collection is arranged in original order.