Simons family papers, 1887-1982 (bulk 1918-1945).
Material type:
Mixed materialsDescription: 3,850 items; 16 containers; 6.4 linear feetSubject(s): - Garrett family
- Nicholson family
- Simmons family
- Benedict College
- Gordon College (Wenham, Mass.)
- United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Regiment, 357th
- Virginia Union University (Richmond, Va.)
- West Virginia State College (Institute, W. Va.)
- African American families -- South Carolina
- African American families -- Washington (D.C.)
- African American universities and colleges
- Baptists -- Missions -- Nigeria
- Bands (Music)
- Buddhism
- Hinduism
- Jazz
- Quartermasters
- Durban (South Africa) -- Race relations
- Railroads -- Employees -- Training of -- Africa, East
- Romance languages -- Study and teaching -- West Virginia
- Rural schools -- South Carolina
- Schools, British -- Africa, East
- Swing (Music)
- Teachers -- South Carolina
- Telegraph -- Africa, East
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Europe
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Haiti
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Music and the war
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, African American
- Young Men's Christian associations -- Africa, East
- Young Men's Christian associations -- Burma
- Young Men's Christian associations -- India
- Durban (South Africa) -- Social conditions
- German East Africa
Open to research.
Restrictions may apply to unprocessed material.
Correspondence, diaries and diary notes (1918-1922), receipts, subject files, programs, printed matter, and clippings comprising the papers (1902-1940) of William H. Simons. The papers document Simons's career as secretary of the international committee of the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) in Burma, East Africa, and India and as a Baptist missionary teacher in Nigeria. Topics include racial and social conditions in Durban, South Africa; schools organized by the British to teach telegraphy and other railroading skills to Africans to further the British campaign against the Germans in East Africa; and Hindu and Buddhist religious practices. Correspondents include family members, friends, and fellow students and colleagues at Benedict College, Columbia, S.C., Gordon College, Wenham, Mass., and Virginia Union University (Richmond).
Correspondence, subject files, financial records, printed matter, and other material comprise the papers of other Garrett, Nicholson, and Simons family members. Many papers relate to the World War II military service of Albert E. Simons, Jr., organizer of a jazz/swing band for the 357th Engineers Regiment during the war; William H. Simons (b. 1924), who served in Europe; and Joseph O. Curtis (not a family member), junior quartermaster officer in Europe. The correspondence of Naomi Mills Garrett reflects her experiences as a teacher in rural South Carolina from the 1910s to the 1930s, in Haiti during World War II, and as a professor of romance languages at West Virginia State College through the 1960s.
Some photographs transferred to Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Members of the Simons (Simmons) family, an African American family centered in South Carolina and Washington, D.C., especially William H. Simons (1881-1938), Baptist missionary and YMCA official, and members of the allied Garrett and Nicholson families.
Collection material in English.
Finding aid available in the Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room and at
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