Japan, 1850s-1920s
Primary Source Guide to Select Holdings of the Southern Historical Collection
Scope:
This guide describes collections containing primary sources written by Americans who visited
Japan in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.
Document Types:
The types of documents represented in this guide include: letters, postcards, photographs, and
dairies.
Geography:
All documents are written either from Japan (and often major cities in Japan, including Tokyo,
Kobe, Nagasaki, and Yokohama) or from Naval vessels traveling to or from Japan.
Date Range:
1853 – 1920s
Creators:
The documents described in this guide were created by U.S. Naval officers, missionaries,
tourists, businessmen and their families. An abbreviated description of the collections described
in this Guide is presented immediately below. Please note that collections marked with an
asterisk contain a very small amount of relevant materials.
Businessmen and Dependents
Appleton Oaksmith Papers*: Appleton Oaksmith (ca. 1825-1887) was a North Carolina state
legislator and businessman from Carteret County, N.C. His papers include a single letter, 1880,
written from the United States Consulate in Nagasaki, Japan, concerning the appearance of Japan
and trade possibilities.
Elizabeth Hooper Blanchard Papers: Elizabeth Amis Cameron Hooper Blanchard (18731956) was an author, art collector, and interior decorator who lived in Japan between 1906 and
1909 while her husband was the American representative of an export firm.
Military Personnel and Dependents
George Beall Balch Papers: Balch (1821-1908) was a career U.S. Naval officer who
participated in the 1853 Perry expedition to Japan.
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John M. Brooke Papers: Brooke was a U.S. naval officer (1826-1906) who served in Japan
from 1859 to 1860; he returned home to the United States aboard a Japanese ship, the Kanrin
Maru. He kept diaries during this period.
Norfleet Family Papers: Ernest Norfleet (1851-1901) was a United States Navy surgeon who
served in China and Japan in 1891 and 1892.
Edwin R. Mackethan Papers: Alfred A. MacKethan (fl. 1900-1902) was a United States
Naval Officer who was stationed in Japan and other Asian countries from 1900 to 1902.
Lyman Atkinson Cotten Papers: Cotten (1874-1926) was a career U.S. Naval officer who
served as U.S. Naval Attaché to Japan, 1912-1915 and 1923. [Also see: John Steele Henderson
Papers]
John Steele Henderson Papers: Lyman Atkinson Cotten (1874-1926), a career U.S. Navy
officer, and his wife, Elizabeth Cotten (daughter of John Steele Henderson) lived in Japan, where
Lyman served two tours of duty as naval attaché with the U.S. embassy in Tokyo before World
War I. [Also see: Lyman Atkinson Cotton Papers]
Missionaries and Dependents
William Parsons Mccorkle Papers*: William Parsons McCorkle (1855-1933) was an educator
and Presbyterian minister of Virginia and North Carolina. He received a letter dated July 16,
1872 that describes Yokahoma, Japan.”
Lawrence D. Kessler Collection: Ruth Elizabeth Newton (fl. 1888-1957), the sole surviving
daughter of John C. Calhoun Newton (1849-1931) and Letty Lay Newton (1848-1924?) spent
her early childhood in Kobe, Japan, where her father, a minister, taught theology and ethics at the
Kwansei Gakuin, a secondary school run by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She carried
on an extensive correspondence with her family.
Martha Virginia Mcnair Evans Patterson Papers*: Martha (Mattie) Virginia McNair Evans
Patterson (1870-1912) of Laurel Hill and Laurinburg, Richmond, later Scotland, County, N.C.
corresponded widely and among her papers is a letter (1899) received from missionaries in Kobe
Japan.
Burnett Family Papers*: Anna Burnett of Bynum, N.C. received letters (1911-1919) from
members of the Oriental Missionary Society in Tokyo.
Tourists
James Graham Ramsay Papers*: Annie Laurie, James Hill Ramsay's daughter, travel to China
and Japan with her uncle Claudius and his wife Grace in 1907.
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A Note about Searching For Relevant Primary Source Documents
Manuscript collections are comprised of discrete documents (e.g., letters, diaries, photographs,
etc.) that are grouped together by archivists. Archivists provide access to these documents by
describing them in collective terms, rather than as individual works or items. When crafting a
collection’s finding aid, archivists try to single out important or rare items of interest. The
finding aids for our collections are available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv.html. The
text of these descriptions is key word searchable by an online Google search engine at
http://www.lib.unc.edu/search/mss.html.
The manuscript collections that are highlighted in this guide were discovered using the
Department’s Google search engine and the strategies discussed below.
Given the fact that the focus of our repository is the American South, we relied upon the relative
scarcity of the words, “Japan,” and “Japanese” in our descriptions to locate a fairly manageable
return set. Similarly, to check for Japanese locales that were described without appending the
word, “Japan,” we separately searched for “Tokyo,” “Kobe,” “Yokohama,” and “Nagasaki.” Of
course, this geographical listing is not exhaustive and a very good supplementary search would
be to search for additional place names without “Japan.” Finally, we conducted a number of
keyword Google searches combining “Japan” with a separate additional term, such as
“Missionaries,” “Perry,” or “Navy.”
As was previously mentioned, archivists do try to single out important or rare items of interest.
However, given the bulk of many collections and the pressures of time, many documents in a
collection are not heavily scrutinized and their contents are not noted by the archivist. This is a
rather round-about-way of stating that there may well be other items about Japan in our
collections that were not singled out by our descriptive archivists and that are consequently
invisible to a Google Search. Tactically, the way to search for potentially relevant, if
unmentioned, documents, is to play the odds and expand you search to the folders that lay near
an identified item. For example, if there are two letters describing a May 1907 voyage to Japan
in Folder 20, it may be well worth you time to examine the correspondence for the following
months. Searching for archival records is often a matter of intuition and perseverance.
In addition to our finding aids, each of our collections has a more limited bibliographic record in
the University Library’s online catalog (http://www.lib.unc.edu/webcat/). The catalog interface
allows you to search the catalog record of Manuscripts Department’s collections using a
controlled vocabulary as well as by key word. To restrict your search to our collections, you
should select “Manuscripts (Wilson)” in the lower search box.1 You can then either use key
words similar to those discussed above or you can use a controlled vocabulary. A controlled
vocabulary is essentially a bounded or limited set of words or phrases that are used every time an
archivist wants to draw a researcher’s attention to the presence of a particular subject matter,
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You may also want to use the controlled vocabulary that we use to describe our collections as a method of finding
relevant printed resources that are held by the University Library as a whole. To do this you should change the
search from “Manuscripts (Wilson)” to “All Libraries & Collections.”
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format-type, geographical term, person, group, or institution that is contained in a collection.
Some useful Library of Congress subject heading terms for this topic are:
o
o
o
o
Missionaries -- Japan -- Correspondence.
Japan Description and travel
Japan -- Photographs.
Japan -- Social life and customs -- 1868-1912.
Detailed Collection Information
Alphabetical Order
1. GEORGE BEALL BALCH PAPERS
Collection Number 1591
Finding aid:
A brief finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/b/Balch,George_Beall.html
A more complete paper-based description is available in the Manuscripts Department.
Collection Summary:
This collection contains official orders, reports, correspondence, and other records kept by
George Beall Balch (1821-1908), a career U.S. Naval officer. There are a few documents about
Balch’s experiences with the Perry expedition to Japan. These papers date from 1853.
Geography:
Loo Choo (Ryukyu Islands), Napa Kiang Roads, Port Loyd
Location of relevant items:
Folder No. 2 “1850-1859”
“Reports in connection with assignments at sea, one of which was surveying islands in
the vicinity of Napa Kiang Roads, Loo Choo and Port Lloyd with the Perry expedition.
Balch was at the time attached to the U.S.S. Plymouth.”
Folder No. 9 “1900-1924”
“Reminiscences of Commodore M.C. Perry’s Japan Expedition by Our Oldest Admiral,”
written by H.P. Goddard, 1906, as told to him by George Beall Balch. This manuscript
also tells of other events in Balch’s career.
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Research notes on collection:
Folder No. 2 includes two letters from 1853 that contain physical descriptions of the Loo Choo
(Ryukyu) islands, surrounding coral reefs, and other geographical and physical items of interest.
Folder No. 9 includes a nine page typed document of reminiscences by George Beall Balch
describing the 1853 Japan expedition. Balch writes, “On July 8th, 1853, an American squadron of
four vessels…first entered the bay of Yeddo and drove the entering wedge that opened Japan to
Modern civilization.” This document also contains Balch’s description and characterizations of
the Japanese he encountered. He comments on their dress and behavior which he viewed “as
stoical as Indians, but more intelligent.”
2. ELIZABETH HOOPER BLANCHARD PAPERS
Collection Number 3367
Finding aid:
A brief finding aid is available at
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/b/Blanchard,Elizabeth_Amis_Cameron
A more complete paper-based description is available in the Manuscripts Department.
Collection Summary:
Elizabeth Amis Cameron Hooper Blanchard (1873-1956) was an author, art collector, and
interior decorator. Between 1906 and 1909, Ms. Blanchard lived in Japan with her husband, who
worked for an American import/export firm. This collection contains correspondence that she
wrote home during this period.
Geography:
Kobe, Rokkosan Mountain, Kyoto
Location of relevant items:
Folders No. 87 - 95
“1906”-“1909”
Letters written by Elizabeth Blanchard during the time that she lived with her husband in Japan,
1906-1909.
Folder No. 124
“1907-1909”
Postcards from Elizabeth Blanchard while traveling in Europe and Japan. (23 items)
P-3367/Folders 14 - 16
“Japan”
Photographs and a few postcards from trip, 1906. (ca. 130 items)
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Research notes on collection:
Ms. Blanchard letters home to her mother are quite rich and detailed. She was very interested in
Japanese art and language and many of her letters reflect her art collecting activities.
Additionally, she wrote about numerous topics, including: the “foreign settlement,” the status of
Japanese women, the unfair treatment of Japanese by westerners, US foreign policy toward
Japan and China, and a small pox outbreak in Kobe (1908).
3. JOHN M. BROOKE PAPERS
Collection Number 3208-z
Finding aid:
A brief finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/b/Brooke,John_M.html
A more complete paper-based description is available in the Manuscripts Department.
Collection Summary:
John Mercer Brooke was a U.S. and Confederate naval officer, scientist, inventor, and professor
at Virginia Military Institute. Brooke served in Japan from 1859 to 1860 and returned home to
the United States aboard a Japanese ship, the Kanrin Maru. He kept diaries during this period.
Location of relevant items:
M-3208
Diary kept at Yokohama, Japan, 1859-1860.
Folder Nos. 1-3
Kanrin Maru Journal, February-March 1860
Research notes on collection:
The diary Brooke kept in Yokohama reflects his work and social activities, and describes
Yokohama and the Japanese people. The diary Brooke kept on board the Japanese ship records
position and winds, events on shipboard, physical descriptions of Japanese officers, necessary
Japanese phrases, observations on discipline and organization of the Japanese crew, and
comments on the ship's history and equipment.
Brooke's diaries, 1858-1860, have been published in Brooke, George M., Jr., ed., "John M.
Brooke's Pacific Cruise and Japanese Adventure, 1858-1860" (Honolulu, Hawaii: University of
Hawaii Press, 1986).
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4. BURNETT FAMILY PAPERS
Collection Number 106-z
Finding aid:
A finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/b/Burnett_Family.html
Collection Summary:
This small collection of family and personal correspondence includes letters (1911-1919) from
members of the Oriental Missionary Society in Tokyo to Anna Burnett at Bynum, N.C. Letters
from missionaries in China and Japan discuss their progress in Japan, Korea, China, and India,
and comment on war and living conditions in China.
Location of relevant items:
Folder Nos. 2 - 3
Research notes on collection:
There are many letters from China, but only a few from Japan. Folder 2 houses three letters
written from Japan in the 1910s; these contain descriptions of missionary work and proselytizing
efforts and include descriptions of Japanese reactions and responses to missionaries, identify
villages to which missionaries traveled, and the numbers of Japanese converted. Folder 3
contains a few additional letters from the 1920s that including news from Japan.
5. LYMAN ATKINSON COTTEN PAPERS
Collection Number 182
Finding aid:
A brief finding aid is available at
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/c/Cotten,Lyman_Atkinson.html
A more complete paper-based description is available in the Manuscripts Department.
Collection Summary:
This collection contains official and personal correspondence, account books, scrapbooks,
diaries, lectures, and technical articles of Lyman Atkinson Cotten (1874-1926), a career U.S.
Naval officer. Cotten was the U.S. Naval Attaché to Japan, 1912-1915, and he kept notes
recording his observations from this period.
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Location of relevant items:
Folder No. 539 “Notes While Attaché to Japan, 1912-1915”
54 pages, bound volume, handwritten journal.
Folder No. “1923”
Research notes on collection:
Atkinson wrote that this volume contained “notes on various interesting things,” including short
entries on a “Private Audience with the Emperor,” “Imperial Wild Duck Hunt,” and “Buddhist
Funeral.”
6. JOHN STEELE HENDERSON PAPERS
Collection Number 327
Finding aid:
A finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/htm/00327.html
Collection Summary:
Descriptions of travel, especially that of Lyman Atkinson Cotten (1874-1926) a career U.S. Navy
officer and his wife, Elizabeth Cotten (daughter of John Steele Henderson) in Japan, where
Lyman served two tours of duty as naval attaché with the U.S. embassy in Tokyo before World
War I. The first of these tours, in the mid-1910s, is included. While Bessie was in Japan, her
younger sister, Mary, came to visit for nearly a year during 1913-1914.
Location of relevant items:
Folder Nos. 311-341 “Correspondence, 1913” - “1916”
Folder Nos. 360-365 “Correspondence, 1922” – “1923”
Research notes on collection:
Collection includes many beautiful postcards from Japan. Most letters are on embossed
“American Embassy Tokyo” stationary, and largely concern family matters, personal events, and
daily events. Other topics discussed include: descriptions of travel, Kyoto, the Japanese
mentality, diet, weddings, and menus from the Japan Mail Steamship Company, cleanliness,
volcanic eruptions, and the 1923 earthquake.
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7. LAWRENCE D. KESSLER COLLECTION
Collection Number 5098
Finding aid:
A finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/htm/05098.html
Collection Summary:
Papers of Ruth Elizabeth Newton (fl. 1888-1957), the sole surviving daughter of John C.
Calhoun Newton (1849-1931) and Letty Lay Newton (1848-1924?), who spent her early
childhood in Kobe, Japan, where her father, a minister, taught theology and ethics at the Kwansei
Gakuin, a secondary school run by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Location of relevant items:
Series 4. Newton and Underwood Family Papers
Folder Nos. 158-244
“1888” – “1923”
Folder Nos. 274-279
“Pamphlets and Printed Materials, 1896-1931”
Folder P-5098/45-49
“Photographs, 1890s-1920s”
Research notes on collection:
Letters, publications and photographs received or written by Ruth Elizabeth Newton Underwood.
The bulk of the letters are between Ruth Newton Underwood and her parents, John C. Calhoun
Newton and Letty Lay Newton of Kobe, Japan. With a few exceptions from 1888 until 1923,
Newton's parents resided at the Kwansei Gakuin, a Methodist Episcopal secondary school in
Kobe, Japan. Although their correspondence is predominately concerned with daily life and
family news, it also contains references to current events such as the Russo-Japanese War of
1905, World War I, and Japanese involvement in North East Asia.
Additionally, the letters written by John C. Calhoun Newton, who served in various
administrative and teaching positions at the Kwansei Gakuin, often make reference to the
school's affairs, its relationship with the broader Japanese world, and other Methodist
missionaries such as Bishop Walter R. Lambuth, who were serving in Japan and China.
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8. EDWIN R. MACKETHAN PAPERS
Collection Number 4298
Finding aid:
A finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/htm/04298.html
Collection Summary:
This collection contains a considerable amount of correspondence between Navy Lieutenant
Alfred A. MacKethan and his mother and his brother Edwin R. MacKethan. In 1900, Alfred was
in charge of the United States Hydrographic Office in Savannah, Ga. From there he was ordered
to Manila, Philippine Islands, and then to Japan and other Asian countries. In 1902, Alfred
resigned from the Navy.
Geography:
Kobe, Nagasaki
Location of relevant items:
Folder Nos. 196 - 225
“1900”-“1902”
Research notes on collection:
In particular, see Folders 202-204; these contain letters Alfred A. MacKethan wrote when he was
stationed in Kobe and Nagasaki. Most letters describe the naval facilities, make brief notes or
comments about the cities themselves, and discuss family matters and other news.
9. WILLIAM PARSONS MCCORKLE PAPERS
Collection Number 450
Finding aid:
A finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/m/McCorkle,William_Parsons
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Collection Summary:
William Parsons McCorkle (1855-1933) was an educator and Presbyterian minister of Virginia
and North Carolina.
Location of relevant items:
Folder No. 4
“Correspondence”
“…A letter (1872) commenting on the life and customs of Hang Chow, China, and describing to
some extent this city and Yokahoma, Japan.”
Research notes on collection:
The letter is dated July 16, 1872. It is handwritten. It notes briefly that upon arriving in
Yokahoma that “we spent half a day enjoying the curiosities” and meeting the missionaries there
before leaving by boat for Kobe, which is described as “a lovely city”. The letter briefly
describes the scenery and houses, as well as other observations made when arriving in the
harbor, but does not contain much other descriptive information.
10. NORFLEET FAMILY PAPERS
Collection Number 549
Finding aid:
A finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/n/Norfleet_Family.html
Collection Summary:
This collection contains correspondence, legal documents, land records, account books,
plantation journals, and other records of the Norfleet family. One member of this family, Ernest
Norfleet (1851-1901) was a United States Navy surgeon who served in China and Japan in 1891
and 1892; Norfleet kept two journals during this period.
Geography:
Kobe, Yokohama
Location of relevant items:
Folder No. 12
“Volume 7: January-December 1891”
Journal entries made while in Kobe, Japan, begin on approximately page 40.
Folder N. 13
“Volume 8: December 1891-May 1892”
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Journal begins with entries made while in Yokohama and continues until approximately page
25.
Research notes on collection:
Most journal entries focus on Norfleet’s medical duties, activities on the ship and in the navy
yard, weather conditions, and progress reports on his study of German and Japanese.
11. APPLETON OAKSMITH PAPERS
Collection Number 2193-z
Finding aid:
A finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/htm/02193.html
Collection Summary:
Appleton Oaksmith (ca. 1825-1887) was a North Carolina state legislator and businessman from
Carteret County, N.C. His papers include a single letter, 1880, written from the United States
Consulate in Nagasaki, Japan, concerning the appearance of Japan and trade possibilities.
Location of relevant items:
Folder No. 1
“Correspondence,
1825 - 1884”
Research notes on collection:
A letter (1880) written by the United States Consulate in Nagasaki, Japan to Oaksmith,
concerning the appearance of Japan and trade possibilities in Asia.
12. MARTHA VIRGINIA MCNAIR EVANS PATTERSON PAPERS
Collection Number 4645
Finding aid:
A finding aid is available at
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/p/Patterson,Martha_Virginia_McNair_Evans
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Collection Summary:
Martha (Mattie) Virginia McNair Evans Patterson (1870-1912) of Laurel Hill and Laurinburg,
Richmond, later Scotland, County, N.C. corresponded widely and among her papers is a letter
(1899) received from missionaries in Kobe Japan.
Location of relevant items:
“Correspondence”
Folder No. 26
Research notes on collection:
Letter dated September 29, 1899 appears to be addresses to Patterson’s first husband, Erasmus
Hervey (Hervey) Evans (1861-1900). Letter deals with personal matters and describes
missionary activities in Kobe.
13. JAMES GRAHAM RAMSAY PAPERS
Collection Number 1568
Finding aid:
A finding aid is available at http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/r/Ramsay,J.G.
Collection Summary:
James Graham Ramsay of North Carolina was a Whig state senator, 1856-1864, and served in
the Confederate Congress. After the war, he was active in the state Republican Party and served
again in the legislature in 1883. Of note are letters detailing the stay of James Hill Ramsay’s
daughter Annie Laurie with her uncle Claudius and his wife Grace in 1907 and reports of travel
to China and Japan that same year.
Location of relevant items:
Folder No. 46
“1907”
Research notes on collection:
Several letters written from the S.S. Minnesota, one which reads: “We have seen many strange
and interesting sights, so many in fact that it would take volumes for me to attempt to describe
same.” (May 13, 1907). The letters do not, alas, actually describe these sights.
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