Resource Materials on Late Ch’ing Dynasty China in the Southern Historical Collection Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

90 RESOURCE MATERIALS ON LATE CH'ING DYNASTY CHINA IN THE SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION WILSON LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL Edward Martinique Southern Historical Collection and Manuscripts Department Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 2751 * 4 - Telephones (919) 962-13*4-5 Directors Dr. Carolyn A. Wallace Hours of Operation: Weekdays, 8AM-5PMs Saturdays, 9AM-1PM Only a small part of the more than seven million manuscripts in the Southern Historical Collection deal with China and the Chinese people, but this small amount of material is rich in historical interest. Most of the material consists of the letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, journals, and scrapbooks of Southerners, particularly North Carolinians, who sojourned in China as missionaries, military men, diplomats, and businessmen. The earliest item about China in the Collection is the shipping book of the firm of Josiah Marshall and Dixie Wilde. In the 1820s these traders exchanged American manufactured goods brought from the Hawaiian Islands to Canton for tea. The files of another businessman from the South, Thomas Butler King, contain the reports of Franklin D. Williams about business conditions in Shanghai in the 1 8 * 4 O s . There are Williams's own summaries of foreign trade at Shanghai from 1 8 * 4 3 " t o 1849, trade statistics issued by the Shanghai British Chamber of Commerce, and circulars describing the business methods of the Chinese Hongs. Mention is also made in these r 91 papers of the death of the Tao-kuang Emperor on the 26th of February, 1850, and the following hundred days of mourning during which little business was done in Shanghai. Another early visitor to Gh'ing China was Catesby Jones, a US Navy officer stationed aboard the USS Perry and the USS Brandywine. Jones gives an eyewitness report of the meeting of Caleb Cushing, US minister to China, with the Chinese imperial minister, Keying (Ch'i-ying), on June 21st and 22nd, 18W-, to discuss the first treaty between the two countries. The McGavock family papers contain several letters from George M. Harris describing the situation under which foreigners remained undisturbed by the fighting in Shanghai between the Taiping rebels and the loyal imperial troops in October, 1853* Harris describes the Taipings as a wholesome force for changing old China and declares that the revolution will continue until a change of dynasty is accomplished. Another Navy officer, Victor Blue, left us his official correspondence describing some of the Navy's actions during the Boxer Rebellion. Blue was sent to establish contact with allied forces at Tientsin and Peking, to report on the disposition of the Boxers and the Chinese Army, and to appraise the situation of the foreign troops landing at Taku. More about the fight against the Boxers is contained in the papers of Harley Bascom Ferguson, a Lieutenant of Engineers in the US Army China Relief Expedition. His papers describe several engagements with the Boxers as the Expedition makes its way from Taku to Peking. After hostilities end, there 92 are accounts of murders, banditry, and smallpox scares while the Army bivouacks next to the Temple of Agriculture in the south of the city. The change of dynasty postulated by George Harris in 1853 came about in 1911. The Revolution in Kowloon and Canton is commented upon by the missionary, Mattie Buchanan, who was busy at that time establishing health clinics, Bible schools, and orphanages in Kowloon. She testifies to the disruption the fighting has caused in the vicinity of her mission and voices her anxious concern about "the superstition and ignorance" she finds among the Chinese masses coming into Canton and Kowloon from inland. These are only a few of the groups containing material about Ch'ing period China. A more thorough listing can be found in two guides to the Collection: The Southern Historical Collection: a guide to manuscripts by Susan Sokol Blosser and Clyde Norman Wilson, Jr. and The Southern Historical Collection: a supplementary guide to manuscripts by Everard H. Smith, III. The former was published in 1970 and the latter in 1976. Philip M. Hamer's Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United States and The National Union...