William Winston Pettus papers

The William Winston Pettus Papers are arranged in four series: I. CORRESPONDENCE OF WILLIAN WINSTON PETTUS; II. CORRESPONDENCE OF THE PETTUS FAMILY AND OTHERS; III. WRITINGS; and IV. MISCELLANY.

Series I, CORRESPONDENCE OF WILLIAM WINSTON PETTUS, is divided into four sections: 1. Correspondence with Parents, 1928-1945; 2. Correspondence with Maude Miller Pettus, 1936-1945; 3. General Corresondence: Incoming, 1932-1945; and 4. General Correspondence: Outgoing, 1929-1945.

Section 1, "Correspondence with Parents," contains weekly, and later monthly, summaries of Pettus' activities from the time he left Peking to attend Yale College to his death in 1945. Subjects discussed by Pettus include: undergraduate life at Yale; medical school; his decision to return to China as a surgeon; and his day-to-day activities as a doctor in wartime China.

Section 2, "Correspondence with Maude Pettus," contains the letters Pettus wrote to his wife during their courtship (1936-1937) and during the period 1944-1945 when he returned to China without his family. Subjects discussed include family business and Pettus' day-to-day activities as a surgeon.

Section 3, "General Correspondence: Incoming, 1932-1945," and section 4, "General correspondence: Outgoing, 1929-1945," contain letters between Pettus and Yale-in-China Association staff members, primarily Executive Director Robert Ashton Smith and Recording Secretary Rachel Dowd. Subjects discussed include Yale-in-China finances; travel plans; hospital movements during the war; and Pettus' efforts to set up a regional blood bank and to re-open the Hsiang-Ya facilities in Changsha after the war.

Series II, CORRESPONDENCE OF THE PETTUS FAMILY AND OTHERS, is divided into four sections: 1. Correspondence of Maude Miller Pettus, 1944-1958; 2. Correspondence of William and Sarah Pettus, 1942-1955; 3. Correspondence of John DeForest Pettus, 1945-1952; and 4. Correspondence of Others, 1943-1954.

Series II contains correspondence of Maude Miller Pettus (Pettus' wife), William and Sarah Pettus (Pettus' parents), and John DeForest Pettus (Pettus' brother) with Yale-in-China Association staff members. Also included is a small quantity of correspondence between Yale-in-China staff members. Subjects discussed include Pettus' death, the Pettus memorial fund, and Edward H. Hume's biography of Pettus, Dauntless Adventurer.

Series III, WRITINGS, contains several of Pettus' diaries, drafts of several unpublished articles, and a copy of a published article. With one exception the diaries are from Pettus' college years and contain brief comments on his social activities and spiritual life. The one exception is a mimeographed fragment of a 1940 diary describing a portion of the Pettus family's trip to China. The original copy of this diary, as well as others kept by Pettus during the war years in China, were apparently lost in the war. The unpublished mauscripts include the following: "Report on the Effect of the Third Battle of Changsha (Jan. 1942) on the Work and Property of Yale-in-China;" "The Case of the Stolen Clock or How Our House Was Looted on Aug. 21, 1940," describing a theft by a servant; "The Five Day Occupation of Changsha by the Japanese;" and "Air Raids in Changsha," written in 1941. The one copy of a published article is "Dental Surgeon on the China Front," a description of the work of Russian dentist Dimitri Afonsky.

Series IV, MISCELLANY, contains obituary notices and memorials to Pettus including a transcript of a sermon on Pettus by his brother John DeForest Pettus; "A Life for China," a brief biographical sketch of Pettus by his mother; several financial documents; and sixteen photographs of Pettus and his family.

The William Winston Pettus Papers came to Yale University Library as part of the Records of the Yale-China Association.