http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1814749491

Samuel Wells Williams family papers

The papers include correspondence (comprising over half of the collection), journals, manuscripts of Samuel Wells Williams's Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, and an annotated copy of the 1848 edition of his The Middle Kingdom, themes and lecture notes by Frederick Wells Williams, diaries, newspaper clippings, articles on China, maps, and pictures. The bulk of the correspondence relates to S. W. Williams, missionary, diplomat, and sinologue. The period between 1845 and 1855 has extensive correspondence with missionaries and with James Dwight Dana and Matthew C. Perry, whom Williams accompanied on his mission to open Japan and on his return visit in 1854. Williams's letters to friends and family comment on progress made and their reception in Japan. In 1856 Williams became secretary and interpreter to the American Legation in China and many of the letters refer to Chinese problems of the following twenty years. His correspondents include, in addition to Dana and Perry, Anson Burlingame, Hamilton Fish, Asa Gray, Frederick Low, William Bradford Reed, and William Henry Seward. The remaining correspondence covers the period 1885 to 1939, encompassing the correspondence of F. W. Williams, Yale professor, and Wayland Wells Williams, writer.

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