M. M. and Carme H. Smyser were teachers and missionaries to Japan. The collection includes correspondence, diaries, financial and other notebooks relating to mission activities, and photographs.
The Smyser Family Papers, 1889-1984, document the missionary activities of Martin Mosser Smyser and Carme Hostetter Smyser in Japan. The papers include correspondence, diaries, a variety of financial and other notebooks relating to mission activities, and photographs.
The correspondence consists primarily of letters from M.M. Smyser to his daughter Lois Smyser Sutherland. These contain information on personal and family matters and on events and conditions at Smyser's mission. Also included are several of the reports Smyser sent to mission supporters. There are a number of letters, 1968-1984, from a Japanese scholar relating to the history of the Smysers' missionary work and to the missions of the Disciples of Christ church.
The diaries, 1902-1953, were kept by M.M. Smyser. They deal primarily with personal matters and day-to-day activities at Smyser's mission. The diaries from 1942-1944 contain a few interesting observations on life in Japan during the war from the viewpoint of an American sympathetic to the Japanese cause.
The financial and other notebooks include records of funds received from mission supporters, names of converts, Sunday school rosters, notes for sermons, and a record of Smyser's correspondence. There is also a parish record from Masardis, Maine, 1911-1914 and a volume of lecture notes taken by Carme Hostetter, 1889.
The photographs include portraits of the Smyser family, group photographs of American missionaries and Japanese students at Carme Hostetter's mission's in Tokyo, 1892-1897, and Sendai, 1900-1905, and from Smyser's Yokote mission, 1914-1954. There are also a number of scenic photographs.