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Gilbert and Sallie Reid Collection
PBI.004
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Title: Gilbert and Sallie Reid Collection
Dates: circa 1890-1930
Collection Number: PBI.004
Creator/Collector:
Gilbert Reid (1857-1927)
Sallie Reynolds Reid (b. 1864)
Extent: 5 boxes
Repository:
Claremont Colleges. Pacific Basin Institute
Pomona, California 91711
Abstract: Photographs, pamphlets, books, and ephemera related to the life and work of Reverend Gilbert Reid and Sallie Reynolds Reid.
The collection documents the Reids’ experience as American missionaries in Peking and Shanghai from 1882-1927. Materials include
family photographs, photographs of the International Institute of China, and a photographic chronicle of the Siege of Peking
(Boxer Rebellion) of 1900.
Language of Material: English
Open for research
Permission to publish must be obtained from the Pacific Basin Institute Archive
[Identification of item]. Gilbert and Sallie Reid Collection. Collection Number: PBI.004. Claremont Colleges. Pacific Basin
Institute
Donated to the Pacific Basin Institute
Biography/Administrative History
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.
Scope and Content of Collection
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.
China
Protestant churches - Missions
Boxer Rebellion
Gilbert Reid
Sallie Reynolds Reid
International Institute of China