Alum Biographies: Introduction
Below, you can see photographs of alums from the early graduating classes of Ginling College. Click on their photograph or name to view short biographical accounts of their lives. As of now, we have biographies for the classes of 1919, 1920, and 1921. In no way are these complete accounts of the rich lives that Ginling’s early alums led, but they start to portray the diversity of the talent and success that each alum achieved. These women became teachers, doctors, administrators, humanitarians, and more.
A few notes: the alums are listed by their name in Hanyu Pinyin (graciously transliterated by Jessica Xu, a student in the 2020 iteration of this course, and Hua Tan, an alum of Nanjing University), but we have listed alternate/out-of-date spellings of their names that appear in the primary source documents on this website in the biographical description. The names are written out "Last Name First Name" to line up with the primary sources. In addition, first instances of places named in the biographies will include the ways they are originally spelled in the primary sources in parentheses. Lastly, we have only included alums that received degrees from Ginling.
Class of 1919
Class of 1920
Class of 1921
Bibliography
Alumnae Report, 1940, Ginling College, MRL 6: Matilda Calder Thurston Papers, Series 3, Box 1, Folder 4, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
American Bible Society. “Annual Report of the American Bible Society, Volume 88.” American Bible Society, 1904. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=HyDPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Ancestry.com. North Dakota and Washington, Chinese Passenger Arrivals and Disposition, 1903-1944. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Ancestry.com. Seattle, Washington, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1965. Selected Passenger and Crew Lists and Manifests. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.
Board of Home Missions. “Reports of the Boards, Issue 101.” Presbyterian Church, 1903. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZNJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP2#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Central China Women’s Conference 1925. Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press, 1925.
Columbia University. Committee on General Catalogue, and Frank Diehl Fackenthal. Columbia University Alumni Register, 1754-1931. New York: Columbia university press, 1932. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b4525470.
Feng, Jin. 2009. The Making of a Family Saga : Ginling College. Albany: State University of New York Press. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e025xna&AN=298393&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Ginling Association in America Newsletter, Spring 1964, Ginling Association in America, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 154, Folder 2961, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20154/RG011-154-2961.pdf.
Ginling Association in America Newsletter, Summer 1958, Ginling Association in America, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 154, Folder 2958, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20154/RG011-154-2958.pdf.
Ginling Association Newsletter, November 14, 1950, Ginling Association in America, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 154, Folder 2956, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20154/RG011-154-2956.pdf.
Ginling College Annual, 1932, Ginling College, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 152, Folder 2954, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20152/RG011-152-2954.pdf.
Ginling College Magazine, 1924, Ginling College, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 151, Folder 2947, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20151/RG011-151-2947.pdf.
Gingling College Magazine, December 1925, Ginling College, MRL 6: Matilda Calder Thurston Papers, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 2, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Ginling College Magazine, January 1929, Ginling College, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 151, Folder 2950, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20151/RG011-151-2950.pdf.
Ginling College Magazine, June 1928, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 151, Folder 2950, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20151/RG011-151-2950.pdf.
Ginling College Magazine, March 1929, Ginling College, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 151, Folder 2950, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20151/RG011-151-2950.pdf.
Ginling College Pamphlet, 1916, Ginling College, MRL 6: Matilda Calder Thurston Papers, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 1, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Hu, Hua-ling. American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking : The Courage of Minnie Vautrin. Southern Illinois University Press, 2000. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=45747&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Letters concerning alumnae, 1940, Ginling College, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 131, Folder 2676, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20131/RG011-131-2676.pdf.
Letter from Mrs. C. L. Peng to Miss Griest, 1937, Mrs. C. L. Peng, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 140, Folder 2800, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20140/RG011-140-2800.pdf.
“Mrs. Way Sung New.” Wikidata. Last edited February 8, 2020. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60440188.
“News of China, Vol. 1” New York: United Service to China, 1942. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/stream/ldpd_10971374_001/ldpd_10971374_002_djvu.txt.
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The Pioneer, 1919, Ginling College, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 151, Folder 2946, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20151/RG011-151-2946.pdf.
These Twenty Years, 1935, Ginling College, Archives of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Group 11, Box 155, Folder 2971, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Ginling_College/Box%20155/RG011-155-2971.pdf.
Thurston, Matilda S. Calder, and Ruth Miriam Chester. Ginling College: Part I. New York: United Board for Christian Colleges in China, 1955-1956. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3980158?urlappend=%3Bseq=72.
United States Women’s Bureau. “Women in the United Nations, April 1947.” U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=UEgpTeO4TKsC&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Waelchli, Mary. "Abundant life : Matilda Thurston, Wu Yifang and Ginling College,
1915-1951." Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. Ohio State University, 2002. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. Accessed May 13, 2020.
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Xiong, Rosalinda. “Ginling College, the University of Michigan and the Barbour Scholarship.” Singapore, 2014. https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/118062/Ginling%20College%2C%20the%20University%20of%20Michigan%20and%20the%20Barbour%20Scholarship_%2030%20April%202016.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
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“Yi-fang Wu.” Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan. Accessed May 10, 2020. https://rackham.umich.edu/project/yi-fang-wu/.