Biographical note on James Daily
Biographical note on Sarah Daily
Scope and Contents
Conditions Governing Access
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Conditions Governing Use
Preferred Citation
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Related Materials
Processing Information
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries East Asian Library
Title: James and Sarah Daily papers
Creator:
Daily, James Wallace, 1913-1991
Creator:
Daily, Sarah Atwood, 1915-2009
Creator:
Liang, Carr Chia Chang, ca.1915-
source:
Rosenberg, Sally Anne
Identifier/Call Number: 3316
Physical Description:
.6 Linear Feet
1 box
Date (inclusive): 1940-1994
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.
Language of Material:
English.
Biographical note on James Daily
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 (华东水利学院), in Nanjing. While there, Sarah Daily taught English
at the same institution.
Biographical note on Sarah Daily
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.
Scope and Contents
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).
Conditions Governing Access
Advance notice required for access.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Conditions Governing Use
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.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Sally Anne Rosenberg.
Related Materials
A digitized set of 463 slide photographs taken by another participant in the 1974 visit, Maury Albertson, a professor in the
department of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University, is available in the USC Digital Library.
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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
华东水利学院 (Nanjing)
East China College of Hydraulic Engineering (Nanjing)
China -- Description and travel -- 20th century
Hydraulic engineers -- United States -- Archival resources
Travel -- China -- Archival resources
Daily, James Wallace, 1913-1991 -- Archives
Daily, Sarah Atwood, 1915-2009 -- Archives
Liang, Carr Chia Chang, ca.1915- -- Archives
Rosenberg, Sally Anne