This collection contains some restricted material. Restrictions related to specific material are listed in the detailed contents list.
Onsite storage.
This collection contains lecture notes, correspondence, drafts, manuscripts, articles, and other materials related to Rawlinson's studies of Christianity in China and of Chinese religious culture and history, as well as annotations by Rawlinson's son, John Lang Rawlinson.
Frank Joseph Rawlinson papers, 1924 -- 1937
This series contains lecture notes, correspondence, drafts, manuscripts, articles, and other materials related to Rawlinson's studies of Christianity in China and of Chinese religious culture and history, as well as annotations by Rawlinson's son, John Lang Rawlinson.
Missionary Research Library Archives: MRL6, China
This collection is arranged in one series in chronological order.
This collection contains some restricted material. Restrictions related to specific material are listed in the detailed contents list.
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, MRL 6: Frank Joseph Rawlinson papers, 1924-1937, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
MRL 6: Abbe Livingston Warnshuis papers, 1877-1963, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Additional material by Rawlinson can be found in the MRL Pamphlets collection, folders 0484, 2161, 2192, and 2357.
MRL 12: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions records, 1878-1958, 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 accessioned by the Burke Library at the time of the MRL's closure in 1976.
Columbia University Libraries, Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary
Metal clips and staples were removed from materials and folded items were flattened. Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. Acidic items were separated from one another by interleaving with acid-free paper as needed. Fragile items in folders 8 and 9 were replaced with acid-free photocopies and the originals separated into restricted folder 10. The finding aid was created by Gregory Adam Scott in 2010, updated by Brigette Kamsler in 2014-2015 as part of the Henry Luce Foundation grant, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2020.
June 3, 2014 XML Instance Created by Sarah Davis.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
2020-05-01 EAD spot checked and corrected and description updated by Leah Edelman.
Frank Joseph Rawlinson 樂靈生 was born in 1871 in Langham, Rutland County, England. In 1889, he and his younger brother came to the United States, and Rawlinson became a member of a Baptist church in Baltimore. He studied at Bucknell University from 1895 to 1899, after which he married Carrie Dietz and entered Rochester Theological Seminary. He graduated in 1903; that same year he was ordained, became a U.S. citizen, and was appointed as a missionary to China under the auspices of the Southern Baptist Convention. He arrived in Shanghai on October 16, 1902, and began work with the Central China Mission.
In June 1911, Rawlinson secured a place on the editorial board of The Chinese Recorder (教務 雜誌), and in 1914, he was appointed to the executive committee of the China Continuation Committee. In 1917, while on furlough in America, his wife died; later that year, Rawlinson married Florence Lang, earned an M.A. from Teacher's College of Columbia University, and was awarded an honorary D.D. from Bucknell University. From 1918 he lectured at the Nanking University School for Missionaries, and from 1921 regularly lectured at the North China Union Language School in Beijing. His liberal views on Christian and Chinese beliefs antagonized the Southern Baptist Mission Board, however, and in 1921 he was dismissed from his pastorate of Grace Church in Shanghai.
In May 1922, Rawlinson was accepted to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and left his former mission affiliation. He became involved with the National Christian Council of China and edited their Chinese Christian Yearbook from 1922. From 1924 to 1925 he studied and lectured as a McFadden Mission Fellow at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he continued lecturing, writing, and serving as editor of The Chinese Recorder. On August 14, 1937, during a Japanese attack on Shanghai, Rawlinson was killed when a bomb was accidentally dropped on a busy intersection by a damaged Chinese plane.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
All links open new windows.