Gilbert and Sallie Reid Collection, circa 1890-1930

Collection context

Summary

Creators:
Gilbert Reid (1857-1927) Sallie Reynolds Reid (b. 1864) Reid
Abstract:
Extent:
5 boxes
Language:
Preferred citation:

Gilbert and Sallie Reid Collection. Claremont Colleges, Pacific Basin Institute

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains photographs, pamphlets, books, and ephemera of Gilbert and Sallie Reid from their time in Peking (Beijing) and Shanghai around the turn of the twentieth century. The collection includes an extensive photographic record of the Siege in Peking (Boxer Rebellion) of 1900, during which time the Reid family was besieged in the city’s Legation Quarter. Other photographs feature Chinese officials, Reid family members, and the buildings of the International Institute of China. Some materials reflect the Reids’ social and civic obligations, such as reports of the Ladies’ International Club of Shanghai and menus from commemorative anniversaries of the Siege in Peking. Books and pamphlets in the collection range from a report on the working conditions of rickshaw drivers to an illustrated guide to Chinese folk songs. The collection’s small amount of correspondence includes a note to Sallie Reid from the social reformer Jane Addams and greeting cards from the Reid children.

Biographical / historical:

Gilbert Reid was an American Presbyterian missionary active in China from 1882 until his death in 1927. Born in 1857 in Laurel, New York, he graduated from Hamilton College in 1879 and from Union Theological Seminary in 1882. In 1894, after two years as a practicing Presbyterian missionary in China, Reid founded the International Institute of China to advance Christianity among China’s upper classes and to promote greater understanding between Christians and non-Christians. Under his direction, the International Institute became an interfaith forum in which representatives of world religions sought common ground on questions of faith, ethics, and social action. Reid was the author of several books, including Glances at China (1892) and A Christian’s Appreciation of Other Faiths (1921), and a frequent columnist for The London Times, New York Herald Tribune, and other papers. In 1917, Reid began publishing the Peking Post to argue against Chinese involvement in World War I. His stance led to his exile to the Philippines in 1917. Reid returned to Shanghai after the war, where he died in 1927. Sallie B. Reynolds Reid was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1864 and educated at the Columbia Female College and the New England Conservatory of Music. She began missionary work in China in 1892 under the auspices of the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions, a missionary division of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She married Gilbert Reid in 1897 and thereafter played an active role at the International Institute of China and among social reform groups in Shanghai.

Acquisition information:
Donated to the Pacific Basin Institute

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research

Terms of access:

Permission to publish must be obtained from the Pacific Basin Institute Archive

Preferred citation:

Gilbert and Sallie Reid Collection. Claremont Colleges, Pacific Basin Institute

Location of this collection:
420 N. Harvard Avenue
Pomona, CA 91711, US
Contact:
(909) 607-8035