Scope and Contents
The Mills family resided as Presbyterian missionaries in Nanjing (Nanking), China from 1912 - 1943, witnessing the Nanjing Incident (1927) and the Nanjing Massacre (1937), intermittently seeking refuge in Shanghai and traveling back to the United States. W. Plumer Mills remained in China until 1949, and his daughter Harriet Mills was imprisoned in China from 1950 - 1955. The collection includes correspondence, collected materials, writings, biographical information, and photographs, providing insight into the Mills family’s lives in China and the United States.
Series I, Correspondence, contains mainly family correspondence from 1913 - 2019. The series features letters sent and received during the Nanjing Incident, the Nanjing Massacre, and World War II. It also includes letters to Harriet Mills during her time imprisoned and telegrams bringing news of her release. The end of the series contains notes written by Angie Mills regarding correspondence.
Series II, Reports and Collected Materials, contains six subseries. The first subseries includes reports written by W. Plumer Mills in 1914 and 1927 regarding the Nanjing Incident. It also includes reports written by various organizations during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937. The second subseries contains personal accounts of the Nanjing Incident in 1927, including by W. Plumer Mills. The third subseries contains newspaper clippings regarding news of the Nanjing Massacre, as well as release of prisoners in 1955. Subseries four and five contain collected materials such as booklets and invitations. The sixth subseries contains information and photographs regarding Hillcrest American School in Nanking.
Series III, Writings, is organized into five subseries. The first three subseries contain writings by Harriet Mills and Angie Mills, including a last will and testament written by Harriet Mills in 1950 before her imprisonment and regarding the Mills family’s life in China. The fourth subseries contains notes and drafts of a children’s book, “Raffy,” written and edited by the Mills family. The last subseries, titled “Miscellaneous Writings,” includes notes and a notebook belonging to Cornelia Seyle Mills.
Series IV, Biographical Information, includes miscellaneous family information as well as a chronology of the lives of Wilson Plumer Mills and Cornelia Seyle Mills. In addition, the series includes identification cards of Mills family members that were used to travel between Nanjing and Shanghai.
Series V, Photographs, contains photographs of the Mills family from 1907 - 2020. The series includes a photo album with photographs dating from 1907 - 1936 and photographs of family life in Nanjing.
Dates
- 1907 - 2020
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Angie Mills, 1997 and 2024.
Arrangement
Arrangement
- Correspondence, 1913 - 2019
- Reports and Collected Materials, 1914 - 2018
- Writings, c. 1936 - 2018
- Biographical Documentation, c. 1940 - 2014
- Photographs, 1907 - 2020
Extent
2.5 Linear Feet (6 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
This collection contains materials relating to the Mills family during their lives as Presbyterian missionaries in China. The Mills family resided in China during the Nanjing Incident of 1927, the Nanjing Massacre of 1937, and World War II. The collection provides insight into China in the twentieth century containing narratives of conflict, experiences of imprisonment during the Korean War, and further descriptions of daily life as missionaries in China.
Biographical / Historical
Wilson Plumer Mills (1883-1959) was born in Winnsboro, South Carolina, and received college degrees from Davidson College, the University of South Carolina, the University of Oxford, Columbia Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary. He married Cornelia Seyle Mills (1889 - 1997) in 1912 and had two children, Harriet Mills (1920 - 2016) and Mary Agnes “Angie” Mills (b. 1924).
Wilson Plumer Mills served as the YMCA secretary at the University of South Carolina before traveling to China where he served under the International Committee of YMCA from 1912 to 1932. In 1932, he resigned from the YMCA, was ordained into the Presbyterian Church, and served under the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board in Nanjing. During this time, Cornelia Seyle Mills taught English and math in Nanking American schools, while working with Chinese women on improving healthy living conditions. While in Guling (Kuling) and Shanghai during the Sino-Japanese War, she continued teaching.
In 1937, when the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, W. Plumer Mills became vice-chairman of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, later becoming chairman. He remained in Nanjing during the Nanjing Massacre (Rape of Nanking) of 1937. During World War II, W. Plumer Mills was interned in 1941 and repatriated in 1943. He spent the next six years in Chongqing (Chungking) and Shanghai, returning to the United States in 1949. During this time, Harriet Mills resided in China as a Fulbright scholar at Peking University. After having her exit visa application rejected multiple times during the Korean War, she was imprisoned from 1951 to 1955, before returning to the United States upon release.
Harriet Mills and Angie Mills both graduated from Wellesley College. Harriet Mills went on to teach Chinese language and literature at several universities, traveling back to China to give talks and visit friends. Angie Mills researched the history of Shanghai and the Shanghai American School, returned to Shanghai to speak, and wrote about her own experiences of life in China.
Processing Information
Place names were modernized in the description, with the name originally used in the collection material or in an older version of the finding aid in parenthesis: e.g. “Beijing (Peking)” or “Benin (Dahomey)”.
- Title
- Guide to the Mills Family Papers
- Author
- Riley Harrison
- Date
- 2024
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared According To Local Divinity Library Descriptive Practices
Part of the Yale Divinity Library Repository