James and Sarah Daily papers, 1940-1994

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Summary

Creators:
Rosenberg, Sally Anne
Abstract:
This collection chiefly contains travel diaries and correspondence reflecting the trips of American hydraulic engineering professor James W. Daily (1913-1991) and his wife, Sarah A. Daily (1915-2009), to the People's Republic of China in 1974 and 1979, as well as a visit by Sarah in 1994. Also included are letters from Carr Chia-Chang Liang, a Caltech student in the late 1930s, that chronicle his trip back to and conditions in wartime China in the early 1940s.
Extent:
0.58 Linear Feet 1 box
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], James and Sarah Daily papers, Collection no. 3316, East Asian Library, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection chiefly contains travel diaries and correspondence reflecting the trips of American hydraulic engineering professor James W. Daily and Sarah Daily, his wife, to the People's Republic of China in 1974 and 1979, as well as a visit by Sarah in 1994.

The Dailys visited in 1974 as part of a delegation of American hydraulic engineers and related materials consist of typescript copies of an unpublished travelogue of the experience by James Daily, titled One Month in the People's Republic of China and some related published articles (Folders 2-22).

In the summer of 1979, the Dailys returned to China, where James lectured at the East China College of Hydraulic Engineering in Nanjing, and Sarah taught English. Materials from that trip consist of versions of Sarah's travel diary, her letters to family from China, and later letters to her from her Chinese students (Folders 23-26). In 1994, following James' death in 1991, Sarah again traveled to China, and these papers consist of a manuscript and typescript version of her travel diary as well as a binder with some printed material (Folders 27-29).

Also included in the collection are letters from Carr Chia-Chan Liang, a Caltech student in the late 1930s, who returned to China in 1940, as well as from Wen-hsin Wang, Liang's aunt in Honolulu, Hawaii. The letters chronicle his trip back to and conditions in wartime China (Folder 1).

Many of the items have been digitized in the USC Digital Library (see links below).

Biographical / historical:

James W. Daily (1913-1991) was a hydraulic engineer and professor. He received a BA from Stanford University (1935) and an MS (1937) and a PhD (1945) in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1946-1964) and a professor of fluid mechanics and hydraulic engineering at the University of Michigan (1964-1981).

In 1974, Daily was invited to join a delegation of American hydraulic engineers to visit the People's Republic of China, and he and his wife, Sarah Daily, traveled there between August and September 1974. He was invited to return to China in 1979 to teach at the East China College of Hydraulic Engineering (εŽδΈœζ°΄εˆ©ε­¦ι™’), in Nanjing. While there, Sarah Daily taught English at the same institution.

Sarah Atwood Daily (1915-2009) (also known as Sally Daily) was born in New Jersey and graduated from Smith College. She married Professor James W. Daily (1913-1991) in 1938. She traveled to China in 1974, 1979, and 1994, and taught English at the East China College of Hydraulic Engineering in Nanjing in 1979. The Dailys lived in Michigan from 1964 until 1983, when they retired to Pasadena, California.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Sally Anne Rosenberg.
Processing information:

Some processing by USC students in 2019 as part of the "Piloting a Shared Practice for Accessible Archival Descriptions" Dean's Challenge Grant. Additional description by Diann Benti in 2021.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Advance notice required for access.

Terms of access:

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the East Asian Library at eal@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the East Asian Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], James and Sarah Daily papers, Collection no. 3316, East Asian Library, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Location of this collection:
East Asian Library
Doheny Memorial Library, 1st floor
Los Angeles, CA 90089-1825, US
Contact:
(213) 740-1772
Website