This week isn’t terribly exciting regarding any form of entering new cataloging records into the library’s system, so there won’t be any updates on that end. However, on Monday I was asked if I would be able to fix a slight issue that we had regarding the Aeon links we were using on the Special Collections website. These are the links that people could use to request the books that have been uploaded into the system, so, In light of that, I spent most of this week going in an fixing up the records of the books I had input over the past few weeks.
That’s all I’ve got for today, I’ll be here for another update next week!
After learning the general catalogining process for the items that I would be cataloging, I was able to finish up the Community of Christ collection that we had and moved onto the Gomez Mexican-Mormon Collection. This collection is what I’ll be working on for the foreseeable future since there are a lot of boxes to work through with a lot of exciting items to look at and log into the system!
Here are a few pictures from one of the books I came across as I was cataloging. It is from a self-published book by Eran A. Call that he titled LaHistoria de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias (Los Mormones).
La Historia de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias (Los Mormones).
This book is a brief summary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from its origin up to, assumed to be roughly, the date of publication. What particularly struck me in this book were many beautiful illustrations throughout the book that depict various events throughout this church’s history. Here are a couple of them:
I’ll apologize here for some of the image quality, the pages in the book are glossy and the lighting in the room made it somewhat difficult to get a picture lith less light glare in it. However, that being said the quality of the illustrations and pictures captures that Eran Call is attempting to portray in this book.
While I am cataloging part of tje Gomez Mexican-Mormon Collection, a large portion of it pertains to Eran Call, who was an LDS mission president in Mexico, and his writings as well as many of his possessions that he had that were eventually passed on to the owner of this collection. With that in mind, I think books like this are great additions for the collection as a whole and I can’t wait to see what else is in here.
This week was about learning the cataloging process and starting to work through the Community of Christ collection that Special Collections had recently acquired. This is done through the creation of both local bibliographic data (LBDs) and local holdings records (LHRs). The creation of these two records allows for people to then search through Special Collections on the libraries website to see what we may, or may not, have, and from which one could request the item to view in the Reading Room.
As of right now, I only search through WorldCat to see if there are any bibliographic records at any other libraries worldwide, and create LBDs and LHRs accordingly, any records not found (as in, original books or otherwise) will be handed over to Cataloging and they will create a new record from there.
For me, it has all been a new process for me to learn as I have never had to play around with this side of the library or this part of the archival process. That being side, it has been a positive, enlightening experience that I believe will help me later on down the line in whatever career path I end up in.
After learning about the fundamentals of cataloging, I started working through the Community of Christ collection and creating LBDs and LHRs for the books I had prepped last week.
That will be it from me this week, I’ll be back next week to give an update on what I’ve been working on!
Hello everyone, I’m looking forward to working as a CCEPS Fellow this semester! This first post seems to be the appropriate place to give you all a brief introduction of myself before I get into the materials I’ll be working with. My name is Stephen Cameron, I graduated with a B.A. in History from Brigham Young University-Idaho in 2018 and more recently I received my M.A. in Religious Studies from Claremont Graduate University in 2022. Currently, I am a Ph.D. student in the Religion Department at Claremont Graduate University with an emphasis in Mormon Studies and New Religious Movements.
I’ll be contributing my efforts towards some collections that Special Collections has procured over the past few years. The main collection I’ll be working on is the Fernando R. and Enriqueta Gomez Collection in Mormon Mexican History, I will also be working with a number of Community of Christ monographs. There may be other items I’ll end up working with, but until then it will be a journey!
This is as good a place as any to admit that, while I am relatively familiar with both of these collections and their subject matter, this is a wholly new process for me to learn! I learned research and writing skills during my academic studies, but now I’ll be grappling with some of the technical aspects of archiving and processing. I hope you’ll tune into my updates as I make our way throughout the semester!
This week is my last week working as a CCEPS Fellow. It has been my honor to work with Special Collections and the Asian Library of The Claremont Colleges Library. I have learned a lot while archiving the Ch’en Shou-yi Papers. Here, I must thank my supervisors and colleagues who always help and enlighten me. Sean guided me in the physical processing and intellectual organization of the Ch’en Shou-yi Papers. In addition, he was always patient to review my blog drafts each week. Xiuying taught me concepts in archival studies and inspired me to develop sensitivity to privacy and inclusive description, which I did not know about before accessing the archives. Thanks to their help, I now understand and have enjoyed the archival work every week.
Of course, I am sincerely grateful to the readers. Since I wrote the blogs every week beginning on February 8, I am glad to hear that quite a few researchers are paying closer attention to the Ch’en Shou-yi Papers and Asian Library collections. This week I begin labelling all the folders and double-checking the information I have input into the ArchivesSpace. During the upcoming Fall semester, I will give a presentation on my work, and I am looking forward to reading the collection finding aid, which will be published for public use in the near future.
This week when I was processing Ch’en Shou-yi’s materials, I found a governmental document, Directory of Chinese Scholars in America, 1961-1962, which was published by the Office of the Cultural Counselor, ROC Taiwan. As a Chinese scholar in the US, Ch’en received a copy with a gift note. The note disclosed some important information. First, Ch’en was not addressed as Doctor or Professor, but as a Committee Member, which meant that Ch’en must be a member of the committee in charge of the compilation of the directory. Second, Ch’en was asked to update the committee with the latest information of Chinese scholars in the US, indicating that Ch’en might have participated in gathering information about Chinese scholars in the US, or simply due to the fact that Ch’en had a wide academic circle. Indeed, from this document, we find many familiar names such as Chan Wing-tsit, Lin Yu-tang, and Chao Yen Ren that we introduced in the past weeks, making this document a useful index for Ch’en Shou-yi Papers.
Gift note by the Office of the Cultural Counselor, ROC Taiwan
First, this document listed Ch’en’s family and friends teaching at colleges. Ch’en’s two younger brothers, Chan, Shau-wing (陳受榮) and Chan, Stanley (陳受康) were scholars at Stanford University (p. 1) and Loyola University of Los Angeles (p. 2). Ch’en’s materials contain his correspondence with his brothers and an offprint written by Stanley Chan. Chan, Wing-tsit (陳 榮 捷 ) was Ch’en’s friend, fellow alumnus from Lingnan University, and colleague at the University of Hawaii. Chan and Ch’en established the Oriental Institute together (page 2). The Ch’en Shou-yi Papers include quite a few of Chan’s offprints, correspondence, and notes on Lingnan University. Liu, Wu-chi (柳無忌), professor at Indiana University (p. 52), focused on Chinese literature, especially modern Chinese writer and artist, Su Manshu (蘇曼殊). Liu was a friend of Ch’en and H. M. Lo (羅孝明), a Chinese scholar who also studied Su Manshu in Japan. Ch’en’s materials include correspondence among Ch’en, Liu, and Lo.
Ch’en Shou-yi was listed in this document
Second, this document listed Chinese studies scholars who benefited from Ch’en’s teaching or mentoring. Chu, Wen-Djang (朱文長), one of Ch’en’s students, was an instructor at Yale University (p. 20). Ch’en received Chu’s offprints of his latest worksand letters on Chu’s career in Singapore. Chuan, Han-sheng (全漢昇) was a visiting professor at University of Chicago (p. 20). Chuan was Ch’en’s student and became a well-known scholar for history of Chinese economics. Ch’en’s materials included Chuan’s offprints and handwritten notes on Ch’en’s lecture at Peking University.
Finally, this document listed some scholars who were not teaching or researching at colleges such as Ch’en’s old friends, Lin, Yu-tang (林語堂) and Yuan, T. L. (袁同禮). Both of them made contributions to modern Chinese literature and library science. The Ch’en Shou-yi Papers include Lin and Yuan’s photos, offprints, and correspondence. In addition, Chao, Yen Ren (趙元任), an important founder of modern Chinese linguistics, retired from University of California, Berkeley (page 6). Chao maintained a close relationship with Ch’en and Hu Shih. Chen’s materials preserve Chao’s correspondence and offprints.
Ch’en’s younger brother, Chan Stanley, and Ch’en’s friend, Chan Wing-tsit were listed
Today is my last day working as the CCEPS Fellow! Working with special collections has helped me learn so much about archiving that I will carry with me for the rest of my time at Claremont Graduate University and beyond. Sean and Ayat were a tremendous help, and I can’t thank them enough for their support. It has also been such a privilege to work on the Joseph Platt collection. Learning about this incredible man has taught me so much about Harvey Mudd College and the other Claremont Colleges, as well as the city of Claremont itself.
To wrap up, I will give you a brief review of this past week. I started by reorganizing the folders to ensure all the subseries’ were grouped. I also added to the scope and content notes for the collections subseries’ and added more files to ArchivesSpace. Next semester I will return to give a presentation on the collection and my time here as an archivist.
Just a quick update this week! With only a couple more weeks to go for the semester, I am nearing the end of the collection. The next three boxes I have left consist of books that were owned by Joseph Platt. Aside from this, the folder content I processed were documents related to Harvey Mudd College, Organizations, and Biographical Materials. The items that stood out to me were the Harvey Mudd College student handbooks because of their unique cover designs. The handbooks were created as a way for students to navigate their semester, whether they were new or returning students. The 1971 edition called, “An Amateur Mudder’s Handbook” contains sections titled, “Rules of the Game” which outline the ethics and responsibilities of being an HMC student. “Gameboard” details the important locations the students need to know. Finally, the last section, “Playing the Game” gives advice to students on a variety of subjects.
This week I processed a small box full of Ch’en Shou-yi’s personal documents such as his diaries, to-do lists, address books, official documents, appointment letters, governmental forms, and materials on his family. Ch’en’s personal documents provide supplementary sources for research of contemporary Chinese scholars in the United States.
As a scholar, Ch’en collected many books for his research and for The Oriental Library (now Asian Library at The Claremont Colleges Library). This box preserves the receipts from various bookstores and presses in China such as The K’ai T’ung Bookstore (開通書社), Sui Ya Zhai (邃雅齋), Lai Xun Ge (來薰閣), and others. Due to Ch’en’s contributions to Chinese studies, Ch’en was appointed by colleges and institutes in both China and the United States. This box preserves Ch’en’s letters of appointment from Academia Sinica in Taiwan and Peking University China foundations, as well as governmental documents for travel and work like IRS taxation forms, and the entry forms to the US and Taiwan.
From left to right: three receipts from book sellers Lai Qing Ge (來青閣), Sui Ya Zhai (邃雅齋), and Lai Xun Ge (來薰閣)Left: Appointment record from the University of Hawaii; Right: Appointment record from Academia Sinica
Among these materials, I was really impressed by the conversation notes between Ch’en and one of his Japanese friends, Katsuki Tamura (田村克喜) written during Ch’en’s visit to Japan. On four small notes, Ch’en and Tamura wrote simple Chinese characters to talk about Ch’en’s research topic, and Ch’en answered Tamura’s question on why he was not able to return to Mainland China because of the contemporary communism movements. At the time, Ch’en seemed unable to speak Japanese and Tamura did not speak English. Thanks to the same Chinese characters in both Chinese and Japanese, the two scholars successfully completed their conversation with pen and papers. With the same passion and friendship in research, language was no longer an obstacle for Ch’en to expand his social circle.
Left: Katsuki Tamura’s (田村克喜) business card; Right: Tamura extends his best wishes to Ch’en
If we study modern Chinese history, Hu Shih (胡適) should be an inevitable name. As a scholar, Hu Shih introduced methodologies he learned in the United States to renovate modern Chinese history, philosophy, and literature studies. As a poet, Hu Shih wrote the first poem in modern vernacular Chinese (白話文), thereby affecting the reform of modern Chinese language. Hu, like most contemporary scholars, introduced democracy and science into China, trying to enlighten people and establish a liberal new China. As the representative of liberalist scholars, Hu and the founders of Chinese Communist Party, Chen Duxiu (or Ch’en Tu-hsiu, 陳獨秀) and Li Dazhao (or Li Ta-chao, 李大釗), participated in the New Culture Movement and May Fourth Movement to innovate Chinese culture and gain China’s independence. Mao Zedong (or Mao Tse-tung, 毛澤東) was Hu’s student. During World War II, Hu became a celebrated politician in Chiang Kai-shek’s administration and was appointed as the Chinese Ambassador to the United States. As a result, Hu maintained close relationships with both the liberal and conservative parties in China, not to mention numerous Chinese scholars including his lifetime friend, Ch’en Shou-yi. The Ch’en Shou-yi Papers has a box full of Hu Shih’s materials including Hu’s manuscripts, offprints, newspaper clippings, and cassette and recording tapes, all valuable materials to study Hu Shih.
Hu Shih’s works in Ch’en Shou-yi papers includes Hu’s research on ancient Chinese philosophy like The Development of The Logical Method in Ancient China (先秦名學史), Buddhist studies like A Third Tunhuang Text of the Discourses of the Monk Shen-Hui (神會和尚語錄的第三個敦煌寫本《南陽和尚問答雜徵義：劉澄集》), and history studies such as Hsüeh Tsan, The Han-Shu Commentator (注漢書的薛瓚). Hu Shih also left two handwritten manuscripts on Chinese classics like Ch’ing-hsi wen chi hsü pien (青溪文集續編), and a published book, The Chinese Renaissance, likely a gift to Ch’en because of the handwritten compliments. In addition to academic works on Chinese history, literature, and philosophy, Hu also published his comments on politics such as China in Stalin’s Grand Strategy, and My Former Student, Mao Tse-tung. Ch’en also collected the magazine, Free China, which was published by Hu after retreating to Taiwan in 1949, and materials on the China Institute (華美協進社), which Hu helped found.
Hu Shih’s works on Chinese studies. The two on the right include Hu’s written compliments to Ch’en Shou-yiHu Shih’s works on politics and international relations. The one on the right includes Hu’s handwritten notes to Ch’en, wishing Ch’en to share this volume to Ch’en’s younger brother and their common friends
Ch’en also preserved special types of materials, such as cassette tapes and recording tapes of Hu’s speeches and lectures on Chinese literature and domestic political situations. One recording tape recorded Hu’s speech at a dinner during his visit to The Claremont Colleges. In the end, Ch’en collected newspaper clippings on Hu Shih, especially those reports on Hu’s death and contemporary well-known scholars lamenting the death of Hu. Hu recommended Ch’en to teach at the University of Hawaii, thereby introducing Ch’en to the United States. Hu was not only Ch’en’s lifetime friend and colleague, but also Ch’en’s faithful comrade in the publicity of Chinese culture and liberalism.
Upper left: Hu’s book with his handwritten compliments to Ch’en and his wife; Bottom left: Eulogy published on a Chinese magazine in memory of Hu Shih; Middle: American reports on newly appointed ambassador Hu Shih; Right: Hu Shih’s handwritten manuscriptsLeft: telegraph from Hu to Ch’en, on his visit to Los Angeles; Right: photo of Ch’en (right), Hu (middle) and Kiang Yi Sheng (left)
