The collection is open for research.
Onsite storage.
This collection contains the correspondence of Gertrude Bigelow, including letters sent to Cora Harrington of Watertown, New York. This collection also contains provenance notes, news clippings, and commencement programs of the Graham Seminary in Tsukiji, Tokyo.
Gertrude S. Bigelow papers, circa 1887 -- 1976, bulk 1887 -- 1926
This series contains the correspondence of Gertrude Bigelow, including letters sent to Cora Harrington of Watertown, New York. This series also contains provenance notes, news clippings, and commencement programs of the Graham Seminary in Tsukiji, Tokyo.
Missionary Research Library Archives: MRL7, Japan
This collection is organized in one series arranged by format.
The collection is open for research.
Onsite storage.
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.
Item description, MRL7: Gertrude S. Bigelow papers, 1887-1976, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Formerly part of the independent Missionary Research Library (MRL), these records were donated by Fred Harvey Harrington, grandson of Cora Harrington (recipient of much of the correspondence in the collection) in July of 1944, and accessioned by the Burke Library at the time of the MRL's closure in 1976.
Columbia University Libraries, Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary
Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. Acidic items were unfolded and separated from one another by interleaving with acid-free paper as needed. The finding aid was created by Gregory Adam Scott in 2009, reviewed and updated by Sarah Davis in 2014 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2020.
2020-07-14 PDF converted to EAD and description updated by Leah Edelman.
Gertrude S. Bigelow was a Presbyterian missionary teacher in Japan. She was born circa 1860-1863 in Batavia, New York. She graduated from the Ladies Seminary in Hamilton, NY in 1883, and went to Japan to do mission work for the Presbyterian Church in Japan in 1886. Initially she worked at the Graham Seminary (新栄女学校, later known as Joshi gakuin 女子学院) in Tsukiji 築地, Tokyo 東京. From about 1890, she spent 20 years working in Yamaguchi 山口. In 1894 she attended the Second International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions held in Detroit. In 1907 she was joined by her sister, Florence Julia Bigelow, who married Thomas C. Winn in 1917 and died in 1934. In 1909 Gertrude published an article in The Assembly Herald entitled "Japan's Daughters and the Missionary Teacher." From around 1913 to around 1929 she worked in Shimonoseki 下関, in a girls' school called Baiko Jogakuin (梅光女学院). She was active in the church as late as 1935.
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