The Jensen Family Collection documents the lives of Manley Charles Jensen, his wife Sara Ludavica Haug, and the early years of their children Johan Waldemar Haug Jensen and Manley Charles Jensen, Junior. Manley C. Jensen, Senior was an American born in San Francisco, but his career took him initially to the Philippines and then to Dairen and Shanghai, China. He worked for Standard Oil for a number of years, before returning to the United States in the early 1940s. While living abroad he met his Norwegian wife, and the two married in the Philippines. Photographs document Jensen's career, family trips around China, Europe, India, and the United States, and masonic activities. Photographs and a number of scrapbooks created by Sara Haug Jensen document the social scene in 1930s Shanghai.

Manley Charles Jensen was born in San Francisco, California on July 14, 1880 to John J. Jensen and Edith F. Barten. Sara Ludavica Haug was born in Kragero, Norway in February 1880 to John W. Haug and Elizabet Haltermann. Manley and Sara met in the Philippines and married in Manila on August 14, 1915 at Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint John. Sara gave birth to their son, Johan Waldemar Haug Jensen, in Manila on September 7, 1916. The family left the Philippines in 1917 and moved to China, living and working in KiuKiang [Jiujiang], Wuhu, and Shanghai from 1917-1919. Manley went to Dairen around May 1919 to work for Standard Oil Company of New York, and then later worked in Shanghai as a representative of the U.S. government in the Municipal Council of the International Settlement as a public works director and other related positions. Manley worked with the Shanghai Municipal Council and the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, and was involved in masonry in both China and the Philippines. Manley and Sara's second son, Manley Charles Jensen, Junior, was born April 30, 1924 in Shanghai, China. The family went on a trip around the world in 1927. In 1936 Johan left China to attend college in California. The rest of the family moved to the United States by late 1941. Sara passed away in Ouray, Colorado in 1942, while Manley Senior died in Ohio in 1957.

12.12 linear feet

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