| Creator | Wilson, Eleanor, 1891-1972 |
| Title | Eleanor Wilson papers |
| Dates | 1891-1972 |
| Identification | MS 35 |
| Quantity | 0.25 linear feet (1 half manuscript container) |
| Collection Abstract | The Eleanor Wilson papers consist of general letters written by Eleanor Wilson 1936-1971 for distribution to her friends and her missionary colleagues, an article written by her for a 1933 college publication, an article recalling memories of her time in the South Pacific published in 1970, and newspaper clippings about her activities in 1947. There is an unexplained gap in the general letters between 1948 and 1956. |
| Historical Abstract | Eleanor Wilson served as a missionary in the Caroline and Marshall Islands (Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands) from 1936 to 1961 with war furlough time from 1941 to 1946. Wilson attended Cambridge Latin School and Simmons College and later attended and graduated from the Biblical Seminary in New York with a degree in Theology. She served the Anahola Church on Kauai from 1962-1965 and moved to the Pilgrim Place religious retirement community in Claremont, California in November 1965. |
| Language | Material in English. |
| Location | Collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Archives staff for more information. |
Collection is open.
Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question, unless otherwise designated.
Please contact the College Archivist with requests to publish any material from the collection.
[Identification of item: description and date], Eleanor Wilson papers, MS 35, Simmons College Archives, Boston, MA, USA.
The Eleanor Wilson Papers were donated to the Simmons College Archives by Geneva Daland, Class of 1918, in 1977.
Accession number: 78.065
Processed by Claire Goodwin, August 1992
Supervised by Megan Sniffin-Marinoff and Peter Carini
This collection guide was encoded as part of the LEADS project by Kendra Ciccone, April 2013
Eleanor Wilson served as a missionary in the Caroline and Marshall Islands (Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands) from 1936 to 1961 with war furlough time from 1941 to 1946. Wilson was born in Norwalk, Connecticut and her family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts when she was three years old. She attended Cambridge Latin School and Simmons College 1911-1914.(1) Wilson later attended and graduated (1923) from the Biblical Seminary in New York with a degree in Theology. She then worked for the Young Women's Christian Association in Kalamazoo, Michigan as Director of General and Religious Education.
In 1925, Wilson left for Japan where she was assigned to the Kobe Theological Seminary as a teacher and principal. In 1933, she was recalled to Boston by the American Board of Missions (later named the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions) to serve as Acting Associate Secretary at the Board's office on Beacon Street. In 1936, Wilson departed from Boston as a missionary. Her destination was Kusaie in the Caroline Islands, at the time designated by the League of Nations as part of the Japanese Mandated Islands but also known as Micronesia.(2) The Japanese had allowed the American Board of Missions to continue their missionary work in the islands. Wilson remained in Kusaie until February 1941; she returned to Micronesia in 1946, having spent the intervening war years living in Baltimore, Maryland, where she worked in a department store and lived with her brother. She also visited many American cities to speak about the islands on behalf of the American Board of Missions and studied the Marshall language in anticipation of her future assignment in the Trust Territory.(3) In 1945, Wilson left Boston for Hawaii, where she was ordained a Christian minister in February 1946, and in August 1946, she was given permission to return to Micronesia for a new assignment in the Marshall Islands.
The dynamics of her missionary work changed in 1950 when she was appointed skipper of the American Board of Mission's latest mission vessel, Morning Star VI. The Star allowed Wilson to reach many more island people and was in service until 1952. In 1957, another vessel, Morning Star VII, made Christian mission service throughout the Trust Territory islands available again. Wilson supervised the sale of the Morning Star VII in 1960 but retained use of the vessel until her retirement to Hawaii in 1961. She served the Anahola Church on Kauai from 1962-1965 and moved to the Pilgrim Place religious retirement community in Claremont, California in November 1965.(4)
The Eleanor Wilson papers consists of general letters written by Eleanor Wilson to her friends and missionary colleagues, an article written by her for a 1933 college publication, an article recalling memories of her time in the South Pacific published in 1970, and newspaper clippings about her activities in 1947. The bulk of these materials document the life of Wilson as a white female missionary from Boston, Massachusetts who traveled to Japan and Micronesia (the Pacific Islands/Trust Territory) before and after World War II to offer Christianity to native island people. The general letters also document the lives of the native people and how these native populations re-established their relationships with Christian missionaries after the withdrawal of the Japanese from Micronesia. There is an unexplained gap in the general letters between 1948 and 1956.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
Collection is arranged into 4 series:
Arranged chronologically.
This series contains copies of what Wilson termed "general letters" written for distribution to friends and the missionary community. There is an unexplained gap from 1948 to 1956.
The bulk of the letters (1936-1948, 1956-1960) were written by Wilson when she served as a missionary for the American Board of Missions in the Caroline and Marshall Islands (Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands). The majority of these letters were mimeographed and distributed by the Missions Council of the Congregational Christian Churches, Boston, and the American Board of Missions, Boston (later, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions). They document the activities associated with offering Christianity to native island peoples and provide details on how World War II affected the island populations and environment.
Of the eight additional letters, four letters were written by Wilson while she served the Anahola Church in Kauai, Hawaii and cover the period 1962-1965. They document Wilson's Hawaiian parish activities and travels to visit family and friends on the mainland. The remaining four letters were written from Claremont, California where Wilson resided after retiring; these letters cover the period 1966-1971 and document additional travels and her continuing involvement with Christian ministry. There is an unexplained gap in the correspondence between 1948 and 1956.
Box 1
This series contains one article written by Wilson in the autumn of 1933 for the Simmons Review at the request of the editors. It documents Wilson's thoughts on her mission and teaching work in Japan, on her "adventurous spirit," and on the Japanese culture.
Box 1
Arranged chronologically
This series contains two newspaper clippings (from the Boston Evening Globe and Boston Traveler). Each clipping has a dateline of January 13, 1947 and originates from Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. Both articles document Wilson's attendance as the only white woman at the Protestant Churches conference, the first held in Micronesia since 1938.
Box 1
This series contains a bound soft-cover article titled: "Too Old? A Saga of the 'South Pacific'" published [presumably by Eleanor Wilson] in 1970.
Box 1
