Marion P. Blydenburgh lived in China from 1920-1931 with her husband, George T. Blydenburgh, who was the superintendent of the Nanchang General Hospital (also known as the Susan Toy Ensign Memorial Hospital) in Jiangxi Province through the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This collection contains correspondence written to family members in the United States describing daily life, family matters, and news of the hospital's progress as well as photographs, newspaper clippings, and glass lantern slides documenting the Blydenburgh family's experiences.
First-hand accounts from George Blydenburgh, Marion Blydenburgh, and others of incidents related to military campaigns in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Nanchang are among materials in this collection. Also included are annual reports from the Nanchang General Hospital, publications from the Nanking [Nanjing] Language School, as well as scrolls of woodblock prints, calligraphy, and painting. The collection is arranged in five series with Visual Materials and Correspondence encompassing the majority of the collection followed by Writings, Nanchang Hospital Reports, and Published Materials.
George Theron Blydenburgh (1891-1954) graduated from Wesleyan University in 1914 and Cornell University Medical College in 1918. He then joined the Navy during World War I and worked at the Brooklyn Naval Hospital in New York until 1919. Afterwards, he took an internship at Park Hospital in New York.
Marion Benson Paterson (1891-1969) graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1915. She taught at West Hartford High School for three years and then worked for the Red Cross in New York for two years.
Marion and George Blydenburgh married in August 1920 in Middletown, Connecticut. In September 1920, they sailed to China, arriving in October 1920 where they stayed in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province for language study before moving to Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. George Blydenburgh was the superintendent of the Nanchang General Hospital (also known as the Susan Toy Ensign Memorial Hospital) through the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They had three children: George Dean, born in 1921 in China; Stuart Maxwell, born in 1923 in China; and Marion Ellen, born in 1926 in the United States.
In 1927, due to incidents related to military campaigns and subsequent events, the Blydenburgh family lived in Shanghai and Tianjin, China, as well as in Japan and Korea.
