Charlotte B. DeForest Papers

In Series I, Correspondence, the Original letters subseries begins with letters written by Charlotte to her parents as she left them in Japan and began her journey to continue her education first in Germany and then in the United States. Charlotte had literary interests and wrote substantive, detailed letters throughout her life. Charlotte's letters to family members dating from 1907 to 1912 are primarily from Japan, except when she was on furlough or vacationing in Guling (Kuling), China. Circular letters written by Charlotte date from 1940 to 1951 and relate primarily to her activities at Kobe College. Also of interest in Series I are letters written to Charlotte by Kobe College alumnae who were affected by the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

In 2022, a series of eight printed volumes of transcribed correspondence and other papers were added to Series I. These volumes, with accompanying CDs with the digital files, are from a project to transcribe Charlotte DeForest letters in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions Archives, 1810-1961 (ABC 1-91) held in the Houghton Library, Harvard University. The project was done by Motomi Tsugami of Kobe College as part of the Sougou-Kenkyu Project, 'Reading Missionary Letters of Charlotte De Forest and others', supported by the Kobe College Research Center from 2016- to 2022. The digital files are available the Divinity Library's server.

Series II, Writings, provide valuable autobiographical information about Charlotte DeForest, as well her writings on a variety of Japan-related topics. Journals kept by Charlotte in Japan, when she was eleven to fourteen years old (1890-1893), provide fascinating detailed information regarding the activities and feelings of a missionary child of the era. The later diaries are of the five-year variety.

Series III, Subject Files, includes material related to Kobe College and several files relating to Charlotte's translation and publication projects. She worked with Japanese writer Tasuku Harada, who was pastor of the Kobe Kumiai Church and later president of Doshisha University of Kyoto, to versify Japanese nursery rhymes that Harada had translated into English. Correspondence and drafts relate to the publication of The Prancing Pony: Nursery Rhymes from Japan.

Series IV, Personal Items and Memorabilia, includes biographical information, photographs of Charlotte DeForest and Kobe College, and collected memorabilia. One folder of correspondence in this series relates to Charlotte's inquiries regarding familial history of the incidence of cleft (or hare) lips. The folder of biographical information regarding Charlotte's brother John includes genealogical information about the DeForest family.