Esther Tappert Mortensen Papers

Esther Tappert Mortensen's twenty years in China are well documented in regular and detailed letters to her family. These letters report on Esther's activities, reflections, and emotions in her daily work and recreation. They also document wartime conditions in China and special events such as the visit of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh to the Ginling campus in 1931. Esther's correspondence with colleagues at Ginling shows her to be a strong-minded individual who became increasingly discontent with her status at Ginling. Additional correspondence and documentation of Esther's Ginling years is available in YDSL Record Group No. 11, the Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia.

The letters from the period after Esther's marriage to Ralph Mortensen tend to be more domestic in nature and reflect a more contented frame of mind. These letters from Shanghai do provide valuable information about the situation in the city after the Communist takeover.