Correspondence and other material related to American educators working in the Philippines in the early 20th century.

Amos Ralph Eastman and Genevieve “Jennie” Martha Topping Eastman were two of a group of about five hundred teachers sent by the United States government to the Philippines in 1901 during the colonial period as part of a project to change the country's social, political, and economic life by way of educational reforms. These so-called “Thomasites," named for the ship they arrived on, were the precursors of today’s Peace Corps volunteers, and are credited with turning the Philippines into the third largest English-speaking nation in the world. Throughout their time in the islands, they kept up a steady correspondence with family in Michigan that provide a look at the early period of American colonialism in the Philippines.

4 Linear Feet (8 boxes)

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