Descriptive Summary
Creator(s)
Biographical Note / Administrative History
Lacy LeGrand Little was a Presbyterian minister and one of the founding missionaries of the Kiangyin Station of the Mid-China Mission, Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Arriving in China in 1895, Little served in Kiangyin (now Jiangyin) for more than thirty years. Together with R.A. Haden, George Worth and others, Little led the mission post through a period of significant growth and successful evangelizing, despite continued political strife and warfare in China. It grew to include a chapel, hospital and nurses training program, and schools for boys and girls, among other services.
In the early years of the Kiangyin mission field, Little spent significant time preaching and distributing Presbyterian literature throughout the countryside. Then, in 1906 and 1907, he and his wife, Ella, developed education programs for boys and girls. Their schools were successful, with enrollment continually rising. The school program benefitted from a large donation from James Sprunt of Wilmington, North Carolina, who donated $10,000 for the construction of new school buildings that were named James Sprunt Academy and Luola Murchison Sprunt Academy for girls.
Political conflict and war marked the first decades of the twentieth century in China. Having developed good relationships with the community, Little and the mission station were often involved in conflict mediation, especially in 1925, during the Battle of Kiangyin of the second Zhili-Fengtian War. Peace negotiations between the northern and southern forces were held inside Little's house.
Lacy Little was a native of North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina and Princeton Theological Seminary. He was married three times. Little married Pauline DuBose in 1896; she died in 1897. In 1900, upon returning to China after a trip back to the United States, Little married Ella Davidson. Ella died in 1916. Three years later in 1919, Little married Nell Sprunt.
Collection Overview
The Lacy L. Little Photographs and Papers document the work of Lacy LeGrand Little, a missionary with the Southern Presbyterian Mission in China during the early twentieth century. The collection dates from circa 1875 to 1940 and consists mostly of photographs. There is a small sampling of personal papers and maps. The photographs document life in China, the Little family and friends, and students of the schools associated with the Kiangyin mission field.
The collection is arranged into two series: "Photographs" and "Lacy L. Little papers." The photographs date from circa 1875 to 1940, but the majority are undated. Little's papers date from 1910 to 1940, with some undated.
The photographs consist of posed, formal portraits of missionaries and Chinese converts, and informal snapshots of people and places in China and elsewhere. As very few of the loose images are dated or identified, the photo albums, which are captioned, offer the best documentation of the missionaries' travels and experiences. Researchers should note that there are only three small albums.
Little's personal papers are very miscellaneous in nature, and include scant correspondence, examples of his writings and receipts for the funeral service and interment of Ella Davidson Little, his second wife.
Organization and Arrangement
The collection is arranged as follows:
SERIES I: PHOTOGRAPHS, circa 1875-1940
SERIES II: LACY L. LITTLE PAPERS, 1910-1940
Administrative Information
Received from James White in 1977.
The processing of this collection was made possible by funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives Project. The collection was minimally processed and the finding aid was created in Archivists' Toolkit in January/February 2011 by Garrett Boos, Sarah Newhouse and Bruce Nielson. This guide was revised in July/October 2011 by Bill Brock, Collection Management Archivist.
Catalog Headings
Collection Inventory
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| SERIES I: PHOTOGRAPHS, circa 1875-1940 | |
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1 | 1 | Album, Hawaii and China, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1917 and undated | |
1 | 2 | Album, "Scenes in China," 1927 | |
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2 | 1 | Album, unidentified, undated | |
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1 | 3 | Formal portraits, assorted individuals and families, from printed sources, undated | |
1 | 4 | Formal portraits, groups, unidentified, 1889, 1927, 1930 | |
1 | 5 | Formal portraits, groups, unidentified, undated | |
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2 | 2 | Formal portraits, groups, unidentified, undated | |
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1 | 6 | Formal portraits, pairs: including Grace Chen, Millicentt, Kenneth [Q.] Loh, [Alexander Y. Feng], Dr. and Mrs. [Tsang Yoh-zei], Lacy Little, and other unidentified people, 1926, 1927, 1930 and undated | |
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2 | 3 | Formal portraits, pairs: Lacy Little and wife, undated | |
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1 | 7 | Formal portraits, pairs, unidentified, circa 1875, 1890 and undated | |
1 | 8 | Formal portraits, pairs, unidentified, 1939 and undated | |
1 | 9 | Formal portraits, singles: [Tai Tiug-chi], Nettie DuBose Junkin, Frances C. [Ancell], Tsang Ts-siang, Sophia P. Graham, 1926, 1940 and undated | |
1 | 10 | Formal portraits, singles, unidentified, 1898, 1899, 1932, 1933 | |
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2 | 4 | Formal portraits, singles, unidentified, 1927 | |
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1 | 11 | Formal portraits, singles, unidentified, undated | |
1 | 12 | Formal portraits, school groups: Bible School for Women, The Kiangyan Doctors, Evangelistic Group, Boys' School Graduates, Bible School Graduates, Girls' School Graduates, 1931 and undated | |
1 | 13 | Formal portraits, school groups (includes identification of individuals in portrait), undated | |
1 | 14 | Informal snapshots, group portraits: Kiangyin Preachers with K.T. Chung, Kiangyin Committee of [Control], and Kiangyin Station Joint Committee, 1928 | |
1 | 15 | Informal snapshots, individuals, unidentified, 1934 and undated | |
1 | 16 | Informal snapshots, unidentified landscape (rolled panorama), undated [restricted (fragile)] | |
1 | 17 | Informal snapshots, undated unidentified urban landscape from harbor (rolled panorama), undated [restricted (fragile)] | |
1 | 18 | Informal snapshots, unidentified buildings and landscapes, undated | |
1 | 19 | Informal snapshots, people in China, Korea and other unidentified locations, 1927 and undated | |
1 | 20 | Informal snapshots, unidentified individuals and groups, 1909 and undated | |
1 | 21 | Postcards, travel photos, includes small framed image of boat, 1927, 1930 and undated | |
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| SERIES II: LACY L. LITTLE PAPERS, 1910-1940 | |
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1 | 22 | Correspondence, circa 1910s-1920s and undated | |
1 | 23 | Maps: "Mid-China Mission Field," "The Kiangyin Field," "Soonchun Compound," Tourist map of "Keijo," 1926, 1929 and undated | |
1 | 24 | Papers related to teaching Christianity and holding services, 1937 and undated | |
1 | 25 | Receipts and other records pertaining to Ella Davidson Little's funeral and burial, 1916, 1935 | |
1 | 26 | Sermons and other writings about missions in China by Lacy Little, Nettie Junkin and others, 1938-1940 |