Scope and Contents
Correspondence, writings, and collected material document the life and work of three generations of the Lacy family. Of particular interest are the missionary circular letters and other documents gathered by Creighton Lacy when preparing his dissertation about Protestant missions and the Chinese church at the time of the Communist takeover. Creighton Lacy also gathered biographical information about the Lacy family and transcribed diaries written by his father, Carleton. Papers related to Creighton Lacy's teaching career at Duke University Divinity School are contained in the Creighton Lacy Papers held there.
Dates
- 1905-2002
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Creighton Lacy, 2008
Arrangement
- I. Correspondence, 1937-2002
- II. Writings, 1932-1995
- III. Research Files, 1948-1952
- IV. Collected Material, 1940-1994
- V. Personal Items and Memorabilia, 1905-1997
Extent
3 Linear Feet (7 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
Correspondence, writings, and collected material document the life and work of three generations of the Lacy family. William H. Lacy directed the Foochow Mission Press and, after 1903, the Methodist Publishing House in Shanghai, while his wife Emma Nind Lacy taught at the Anglo-Chinese School in Fuzhou (Foochow) and elsewhere. Their four sons and one daughter all served as Methodist missionaries in China. Son George Carleton Lacy spent twenty years as general secretary of the American Bible Society in China and became Bishop of the Methodist China Central Conference in 1941. His son, Creighton Lacy, was a missionary to China from 1946 to 1951 and later taught at Duke University Divinity School.
Biographical / Historical
George Carleton Lacy
- 1888 December 28
- George Carleton Lacy was born in Fuzhou (Foochow), China, son of William Henry and Emma Nind Lacy, Methodist missionaries in China. William H. Lacy directed the Foochow Mission Press and, after 1903, the Methodist Publishing House in Shanghai, while his wife Emma Nind Lacy taught at the Anglo-Chinese School in Fuzhou (Foochow) and elsewhere. Their four sons and one daughter all of whom served as Methodist missionaries in China. Emma Nind Lacy's mother, Mary Clarke Nind, helped to organize the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society in the North Central states in the U.S. and in the 1890s took a world tour of Methodist mission stations. George Lacy was educated at mission schools in Fuzhou (Foochow) and Shanghai
- 1911
- B.A. Ohio Wesleyan University
- 1913
- B.D. Garrett Biblical Institute
- 1914
- M.A. from Northwestern University
- 1914
- Appointed as Methodist missionary to China, arriving in Shanghai in September
- 1916-1920
- After attending the Nanking Language School, George Lacy was an itinerant missionary in Jiangxi (Kiangsi) Province, President of William Nast College, and District Superintendent.
- 1918
- Married Harriet Lang Boutelle, who had gone to Guangzhou (Canton), China as a YWCA secretary.
- 1921-1941
- Loaned by Methodist Board of Missions to the American Bible Society; served as Secretary of its China Agency and then of the China Bible House formed with the British and Foreign Bible Society. Also served as China correspondent for Zion's Herald and The Christian Century
- 1928-1929
- Studied at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University in New York while on furlough. Received a second M.A. in 1938. Awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University and Garrett Biblical Institute
- 1935
- Appointed member of the Joint Commission on Unity of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, South in China
- 1941
- Elected Bishop of the China Central Conference and assigned to the Fuzhou (Foochow) area. Traveled extensively in China when his episcopal area was occupied by Japanese troops.
- 1949
- George Lacy's tenure as Bishop was set to end but the advent of the Communist government made it impossible to hold General Conference or elections. GCL officially resigned and turned his authority over to Bishop W. Y. Chen but he was not granted an exit permit when other missionaries left and was under house arrest.
- 1951
- Died of heart attack while being held at Union Hospital, Fuzhou (Foochow).
Biographical / Historical
Creighton Boutelle Lacy
- 1919 July 18
- Creighton Boutelle Lacy born in Guling (Kuling), China, son of George Carleton and Harriet Boutelle Lacy. He attended Shanghai American School.
- 1941
- A.B. (summa cum laude) Swarthmore College
- 1944
- B.D. (magna cum laude) Yale Divinity School
- 1944
- Married Frances M. Thompson
- 1944-1946
- Pastor of Grace Methodist Church, New Haven, CT
- 1946-1951
- Methodist missionary to China: taught philosophy at University of Nanking, Bible at the Anglo-Chinese College in Fuzhou (Foochow), theology at Union Theological School in Fuzhou (Foochow)
- 1953
- Ph.D. Yale University; thesis: "Protestant Missions in Communist China"
- 1953-1991
- Taught missions and social ethics at Duke University Divinity School, served as Associate Dean and editor of the Duke Divinity School Review. His major publications include Conscience of India; Moral Traditions in the Modern World (1965), Frank Mason North: His Social and Ecumenical Mission (1967), The Word-carrying Giant : the Growth of the American Bible Society 1816-1966 (1977), Coming Home--to China (1978)
- 1991-2010
- Professor Emeritus of Parish Ministry at Duke University Divinity School
- 2010 October 8
- Died
Processing Information
Place names were modernized in the description, with the name originally used in the collection material or in an older version of the finding aid in parenthesis: e.g. “Beijing (Peking)” or “Benin (Dahomey)”.
- Title
- Guide to the Lacy Family Papers
- Author
- Martha Lund Smalley
- Date
- 2010
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Yale Divinity Library Repository