Tait Papers
IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0233 Acc 9663
Held at: National Library of Scotland, Manuscripts Division
Domain: archival
Title: Tait Papers
Date(s) of contents: 1916-1950
Level of description: Fonds
Extent and medium: One folder of papers plus three notebooks.
CONTEXT
Name of creator(s): Tait, Ruth M. A.
Administrative/Biographical history: Dr Ruth M A Tait seems to have spent her early years of study in Scotland, in Golspie and Edinburgh. She spent time during the 1920s and 1930s working as a medical missionary in China, including time as a member of the Women's Hospital Group of the Jenkins-Robertson Memorial Hospital in Sian-fu, Shaanxi, North China (the Jenkins-Robertson Memorial Hospital was connected with the Baptist Missionary Society). She also appears to have worked in the Haryana district of India, at the Rala Matpur Hospital in Palwal, and in Bhiwani.
Custodial history:
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased by the National Library of Scotland in 1998.
CONTENT AND STRUCTURE
Scope and content/abstract: The collection comprises:
1. Three diary notebooks. The first covers the period 4 July 1916 to 6th October 1920, and relates to Tait's early years, including her education in Golspie and Edinburgh. The second diary covers the period 7 October 1920 to 22 June 1927, and the third diary covers the period 24 April 1932 to 29 October 1932. The second and third diaries relate to Tait's personal and professional life in China.
2. One folder of miscellaneous papers including Tait's personal correspondence to her family, her official correspondence to missionary supporters, farewell addresses to Tait from her medical colleagues in India, an article on Shaanxi Hospital from an unidentified periodical, a pamphlet Report of the Jenkins-Robertson Memorial Hospital, Sian-Fu, Shensi, North China (London: Mission House), a few Chinese papers.
System of arrangement: The collection is uncatalogued, and consists of the three diary notebooks and the folder of papers outlined in Scope and content.
ACCESS AND USE
Language: Mainly English, with a little Chinese material.
Conditions governing access:
Conditions governing reproduction:
Finding aids: None.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material: The Angus Library, Regents Park College holds the archives of the Baptist Missionary Society.
The Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World holds the personal papers of George Armstrong Young, who also worked for the Baptist Missionary Society in Shaanxi during the 1920s and 1930s.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: July 2002.
- INDEX ENTRIES
- Subjects
-
- Hospitals
- Medical missionaries
- Medical missionary work
- Mission hospitals
- Missionaries
- Missionary societies
- Missionary work
- Religious activities
- Religious groups
- Religious organizations
- Women missionaries
- Women's missionary work
- Hospitals
- Personal names
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- Tait | Ruth M A | Doctor | Baptist Missionary Society medical missionary in China
- Tait | Ruth M A | Doctor | Baptist Missionary Society medical missionary in China
- Corporate names
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- Baptist Missionary Society
- Jenkins-Robertson Memorial Hospital | Shaanxi
- Baptist Missionary Society
- Places
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- Asia
- China
- East Asia
- Edinburgh
- Europe
- Golspie
- India
- Shaanxi
- Shensi x Shaanxi
- South Asia
- UK
- Western Europe
- Asia