DYER, Lora Genevieve.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Large archive concerning her three decades of missionary work in Fuzhou, China. A family archive of considerable depth and breadth, telling the story of an American doctor's three decades of service in China through her hundreds of letters home, her diaries, and a range of print publications, photographs, and ephemera. A more extensive description and a 39-page inventory, including an itemized list of all the letters, are available on request.After studying medicine at Smith College, Dr Lora Genevieve Dyer (1880-1969) was assigned by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to Fuzhou, where she specialized in women's health and paediatrics. She lived there continuously between 1916 and 1948, leaving only for occasional work and recreational travel and for a couple of periods of home furlough. She practised in the Ponasang Missionary Hospital, the Kate C. Woodhull Hospital (dedicated in May 1925), and the Willis F. Pierce Hospital (from mid-1938).She kept in touch with her family through copious letters, most of which are preserved in this collection passed down through the Dyer family. She sent either a single letter to be circulated among the family or several carbon copies to different addressees, including her parents, her brother and sister-in-law, and a favourite aunt. These typed updates (some with their mailing envelopes), together with separate autograph letters and an abundance of supporting material, narrate an extraordinary story of service halfway

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