This collection consists of letters written to the Nicholson family, largely related to the Friendship Home in Pasadena, California. Herbert Nicholson was a reverend and a missionary in Japan for much of his adult life. The collection also includes publications, including books written by Herbert Nicholson, and photographs.

Reverend Herbert V. Nicholson was a Quaker minister and missionary who spent his life working on the evangelical circuit in Japan. Born in Rochester, New York in 1892, Nicholson spent his early childhood in Greater New York before moving with his family to the suburbs of Philadelphia. Nicholson attended a number of Quaker schools, including the prestigious Westlawn Boarding School, before attending Haverford College. Shorting after graduation, Nicholson worked as a secondary school teacher back in his hometown before ultimately decided to become a missionary. Assigned to Japan in 1915, Nicholson worked diligently under the supervision of the Quakers and was soon among their most conversant speakers of Japanese. He met and married his wife, Madeline Waterhouse, in Yokohama and the couple had three children, Virginia, Samuel, and Donald. The Nicholson family returned to the United States when Japan began to invade China in 1939. After renting a home in Pasadena, Reverend Nicholson was assigned by the Quakers to work at the West Los Angeles Community Methodist Church.

4 folders

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