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This collection has no restrictions.
Correspondence, subject files, manuscripts and printed materials documenting the work of C. Martin Wilbur, George Sansom Professor Emeritus of Chinese History, Columbia University. Correspondence with non-Columbia organizations includes the Institute of Pacific Relations, Far Eastern Association, INDUSCO, Council on Foreign Relations, Asia Foundation, and American Council of Learned Societies, among others. Subject files relevant to Columbia University include items pertaining to the Department of Chinese and Japanese, later renamed the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, as well as teaching files, student files and research projects directed. The manuscript files contain the notes and, in some cases, printed copies of published and unpublished works and public talks. Wilbur's writings and research concentrate on the history and politics of twentieth century China, with emphasis on the Chinese Revolution, 1920-1929, Sun Yat-sen, and communism in China. There are translations of minutes for the first and second Kuomintang Congresses, copies of documents from the Kuomintang Archives, and photographs of members of the Young China Party, Sun Yat-sen and several historical events in the 1920s. Files on fund raising efforts for the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and the Wellington Koo Fellowship also contain relevant correspondence. Biographical information includes a curriculum vitae (ca. 1968)
The collection is arranged in 11 series, with 3 additions.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
This collection has no restrictions.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); C. Martin Wilbur papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Gift of C. Martin Wilbur, 1988 & 1992.
Transferred from East Asian Library, 1993.
Source of acquisition--Wilbur, C. Martin. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--12/02/88. Accession number--M-88-12-02.
Papers: Source of acquisition--Wilbur C. Martin. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1992. Accession number--M-1992.
Scrolls & rubbings: Source of acquisition--East Asian Library. Method of acquisition--Transfer; Date of acquisition--02/15/93. Accession number--M-93-02-15.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Processed H.H 03/23/89.
Papers Processed AN 10/01/92.
Scrolls & rubbings Processed HR 02/17/93.
2009-06-26 File created.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Columbia M.A., 1933; Ph.D., 1941. Curator, Chinese Archaeology & Ethnology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1936-1947. Staff member, Office of Strategic Services & U.S. Dept. of State, 1943-1947. Associate Professor, Professor, George Sanson Professor of Chinese History, Columbia University, 1947-1976. Professor Emeritus & Senior Research Associate, East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 1976-. Co-director of the Chinese Oral History Project, ca. 1958-1980.
Alphabetical with individuals, ca. 1950-1967 and preceeded by some mixed files, 1951-1956. Completes the above, followed by alphabetical with individuals up until about 1978 up to L. Complete alphabetical files with individuals to 1978.
Box 1
Box 1
Box 1
Box 2
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Box 9
Box 10
Institutional and topical correspondence files, 1950-1968. Institutional correspondence file, 1950-1968 complete.
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Box 18
Institutional correspondence files, 1969-1976 ACLS to Institute of Modern History, Taipei. Institutional correspondence files, 1969-1976 complete.
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Box 19
Box 20
Box 21
Box 22
Box 23
Box 24
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Box 27
Chronological file, 1968-1978 (carbon copies of most of CMW's correspondence fron his office).
Box 27
Box 28
Box 29
Box 30
Files could contribute to a history of the Institute.
Correspondence with faculty members; Department of Chinese and Japanese (later, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures); History Department; East Asian Library; Columbia Central Administration; School of International Affairs; Graduate Faculties, etc., 1949-1976.
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1922-1924
Box 90
1925
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1926
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1927
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Box 103
The following Information is provided to assist persons interested in CMW's activities, if there should be any. Entries of are arranged according to the sequence accompany list of files, and there under roughly according to date when the activity began. Materials will appear in the files.
Box 16
CMW had long been a subscriber to IPR publications and thus, presumably, a "member." In 1944 he attended an IPR international congress at Hot Springs, Virginia, and in October 1954 while in Japan, he attended a congress held in Kyoto. In 1956 (?) the IPR was denied tax-exempt status by the IRS--a victim of the McCarthy and McCarren accusations. CMW became a defender of the IPR in the court case, and joined the Board of the American IPR in about 1959. Although the IPR won its case against the IRS in the courts, by that time (about 1960 ?) the IPR was bankrupt and had to fold. CMW was involved in getting the IPR files deposited in Columbia's Special Collections Manuscript Library.
Box 14
Later renamed Association for Asian Studies. CMW was elected to the Board of the Association in 1948 at its foundation; served as Treasurer from about 1951 became Second Vice President in 1969 and President in 1971-72. He also served in a couple of constitution revision committees and in other capacities.
Box 21
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Box 15
This was a Chinese wartime self-help organization founded by Rewi Alley, Edgar and Peggy Snow, and leftist Chinese colleagues. INDUSCO raised money in American and sent it to the organization in China. CMW became a member of the Board of Directors at the request of Ida Pruitt, an old friend, in February 1949 and resigned in March 1952 after an operation for ruptured ulcer. By then INDUSCO was virtually defunct, partly as a result of the war in Korea and mutual hostility between the two countries. He was instrumental in having the files preserved in Columbia's Special Collections Manuscript Library as a valuable historical source on wartime China.
Box 13
A member of the council from about 1952 till, say, 1970. Participated in a study session on China, and contributed a chapter to a book published by the Council and Harpers Brothers in 1957 entitled Japan between East and West.
Box 33
Box 13
In 1952/53 CMW was active in a self-appointed committee of modern China specialists hoping to organize a journal to translate and disseminate materials from the Chinese mainland, which were difficult of access at that time. It would be modelled on a translation service for Soviet Russia. The effort consumed much time but the service was never funded.
Box 11
During sabbatical 1954/55 when CMW travelled in southern Asia he contacted several Asia Foundation offices, which were helpful in his research on China's-influences on its neighbors. During sabbatical in 1961/62 he became acquainted with the Asia Foundation in Taipei. He suggested the foundation support publication of scholarly books in the humanities and the social sciences by younger Chinese. As a result the foundation created "The China Committee for Publication and Prize Awards" in 1962 which arranged for the publication of some 50 Chinese works in ten years.
Box 20
Box 14
In 1955 CMW was invited to become a member of the committee judging applicants for the fellowship program financed by the Ford Foundation, which sent American graduate students to Asia (and elsewhere) to study language and work on their dissertations. He served for three years, which involved much travel in the U.S.
Box 15
Academia Sinica R.O.C. CMW's relations with the IMH began in the late 50s when The East Asian Institute's Chinese Oral History Program began to assist a similar program in Taiwan, sending $1,000 each year to Professor Kuo Ting-yee, Director of IMH, for uses that would facilitate his Institute's oral history work among Chinese of note. Copies of that work were deposited in Columbia's Special Collections. (The administrative files of the Chinese Oral History Project are in Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library together with the resulting oral history memoirs and documents gathered.)In 1961 when CMW was on sabbatical in Taiwan, the Institute of Modern History served as his academic sponsor and provided research space and introductions. As a result of his close connection with IMH, he was able to serve as an intermediary in the negotiations for a five year grant (later extended for five more years) from the Ford Foundation to IMH for its development. An element of the grant was the sending of young Chinese scholars from the Institute to American, European, and Japanese centers of Chinese studies in major universities for a year of familiarization, but not for an advanced degree. Four scholars from IMH came to Columbia, as did a few others from Taiwan, and al l were under CMW'f guidance. Hence, many close friendships developed.
Box 24
Box 17
In the 1950s the Ford Foundation was moving toward extensive promotion of Chinese studies. Primarily on the initiative of John Fairbank, but with CMW as one of three conveners, American scholars specializing in modern China met in June 1959 at Gould House to consider what must be done to stimulate and facilitate the study of contemporary China, which was virtually closed to American scholarship, but which had obvious world importance. As an outcome of that conference the Ford Foundation made a grant to be administered by the Social Science Research Council for a Joint Committee on Contemporary China (The "joint" referring to the American Council of Learned Societies). CMW was a member of that committee during its formative years when it laid out policy and planned for the most effective use of funds available. The committee became the model for many more area studies committees established under SSRC and ACLS, thereafter. In late 1962 CMW became a member of a Committee on Exchanges with Asian Institutions under SSRC auspices and using a Ford Foundation grant, with the purpose of sending American scholars to Japan and Taiwan to reestablish contact with local scholars. This went on for about five years, and many American scholars had the opportunity for a refresher year in Taiwan or Japan. In the above activities, CMW had to travel quite a bit for meetings, and had to judge of the merits of various proposals. See also Box 14 Harvard-Fairbank file
Box 27
Box 79
In 1962 Mr. Lo Chia-lun admitted CMW to use the Kuomintang Archives, at that time held in a farmhouse outside the city of Taichung, which he did for several days each week, journeying down by train on Sunday evening, and returning to reprint Taipei late on Thursday afternoon. This began a long association Box 79 with several directors, and with two Chinese researchers, Chiang Yung-ching and Li Yun-han. Both later came to Columbia on fellowships, and both have distinguished careers as scholar-teachers. The first scholarly books of each were given prizes and published by the committee which CMW suggested the Asia Foundation to set up and finance (see above).
Box 12
CMW was invited to be a Trustee in June 1962 and asked to be relieved in 1967 when he was to leave for sabbatical in Hawaii. The work of a Trustee was far from arduous.
Box 21
Box 16
In 1963 CMW became a member and soon chairman of the Board of Trustees of this school from which he had graduated in 1927. The property of the school was taken by the People's Republic of China, but was an asset that would enter into any final settlement of claims between the US and the PRC. So ours was a holding operation. We met once a year, under the guidance of our Secretary, Wallace Merwin. A. Doak Barnett was another trustee. The Board finished its business and terminated in January 1968 turning the school's assets over to an inter-mission board, since much of the original financing for the school had come from mission boards in the United States.
Box 13
In 1963 CMW became a member of the Awards Committee which judged applications of Chinese students in Taiwan for grants to study in the United States. The funds came from the C.T. Loo Educational Foundation. The grant program ended in 1966.
Box 22
Box 13
CMW became a member of the Board of Trustees, but forgets exactly when. The foundation had been set up by a wealthy Chinese art dealer at the persuasion of Mr. Chih Meng, director of the China Institute in America, who was president of the Foundation. The Trustees were mostly his friends. The most enjoyable relationship was with Mrs. Maurice T. Moore (Beth), wife of the Chairman of Columbia University's Board of Trustees and the sister of Henry Luce, who had bought its building for the China Institute. Eventually the Trustees had to," dissolve the foundation--I think that happened--for I resigned in conscience over the way Mr. Meng was trying to use the money.
Box 26
Box 11
A Joint Committee of ACLS and SSRC was financed by the Ford Foundation with the purpose of fostering cooperation in the humanities and social sciences between scholars in the United States and Taiwan. Fred Burkhardt, President of ACLS, headed the American, group, of which I was a member. We travelled several times, in alternate years, to Taiwan to meet with senior scholars to determine how each might assist the other in scholarship there, though we had little money to pass on. We also wished the support of our counterpart committee in facilitating work of American scholars in Taiwan in three fields-- 1) The broad area of traditional sinological studies, i.e. history, literature, philosophy, art, etc.; 2) anthropological and sociological field studies of contemporary Society in Taiwan; and 3) we asked the Chinese side to try to make available to American scholars the archival results of intelligence gathering on the Chinese Communist Party and on recent developments on the mainland. The first two were readily assented to, and many American humanists and social scientists have done fruitful work in Taiwan over the years. The last request presented a problem for our hosts because even they, as scholars, weren't given such access." As a solution, the Chinese side decided to organize a conference on Mainland China Problems at which American scholars would meet with Chinese analysts of mainland affairs. These conferences have gone on year after year, and I attended most of them up to about 1982. Archival access was also granted to a few American scholars.
Box 18
Box 19
Box 20
Box 16
In about 1964 CMW became a member of the Board, representing Columbia, of this program managed by Stanford University (hence, usually called "the Stanford Program"). The program aimed to give intensive, year-long training in Chinese to American students under competent Peking-speaking Chinese teachers in Taipei. The school was under policy direction of eight (later ten) American graduate schools with Chinese language programs. The Board met once a year, often at Stanford, to select a director and try to solve any problems that came up. It solicited funds from foundations such as Carnegie and Ford, and later, I believe, from NDFL. An admittance and fellowship committee judged the quality of applicants. The school is an outstanding success. CMW served till about 1973 succeed by Professor Hans Bielenstein as Columbia's representative.
Box 24
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Box 13
This is an offshoot of the Nationalist Chinese Information Service, and CMW became a member of the Board in about 1965 (?). In 1974 he became chairman of a fellowship committee which granted fellowships for a few American scholars to study in Taiwan. This lasted till 1977. In 1984 he became chairman of the Board of the Chinese Cultural Center.
Box 23
Box 20
A long-time member of this association, CMW became a member of the John King Fairbank Prize Committee in 1971-72. Upon retirement in 1976 he gave up his membership in the association.
Box 31
CMW joined the Columbia faculty in July 1947 as Associate Asian Professor of Chinese History and a member of the Department of Institute Chinese and Japanese (later renamed the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures), his department of administration. He was also a member of the History Department. Correspondence pertaining to these departments is in. In 1957 he was appointed Professor and in 1965 appointed George Sansom Professor of Chinese History. He retired from the University in 1976 after 29 years of teaching, with the title George Sansom Professor Emeritus of Chinese History. Files pertaining to his Columbia relationships, other than teaching and research, are in these Cartons. In 1948 he became a founding member of the East Asian Institute in the School of International Affairs. In 1957 he was appointed Director of the East Asian Institute in succession to Sir George Sansom and Professor Hugh Borton, holding the position for six years. The files in May contribute to a history of the Institute, though they seem not to contain matters pertaining to his directorship, which May be in some Institute central files.
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In September 1957 CMW, as Initiator, together with Searle Boxes Bates, Howard Boorman, Morton Fried, Franklin Ho, and James Morley as conveners, organized a University Seminar on Modern East Asia with sections on China and Japan. Both sections have continued to the present (1988) with wide memberships, and are managed by the East Asian Institute. Some files pertaining to the Modern China Seminar are in Boxes .39-55. CMW usually taught or participated in three graduate courses each semester. One was a graduate lecture course on Chinese history from approximately 1600 to 1950. A second was a graduate colloquium and .seminar on Twentieth Century China, with emphasis on social history. He participated in a one-semester Chinese bibliography course with Professors Carrington Goodrich and Mr. C.C. Wang, and in a joint lecture course on Japan and China given by Institute faculty members, displaying various social science approaches to the subjects. From these courses there developed various masters theses and doctoral dissertations. Contains some plans for courses, a run of lecture notes for G6826Y, the graduate lecture course, as given in the spring of 1976 reading notes for the colloquium and seminar on 20th Century China. Also some examples of the necessary work in evaluating students for fellowships and efforts at job placement. Box 44. CMW kept brief notes on all students from 1947 to 1976 (about 1,000), and these are now in five loose-leaf note books in Box 45. He kept more extensive records on those who earned the MA degree under his sponsorship, including correspondence with such students and his efforts to help them secure appointments or further fellowships for them. These records are in Boxes 46-49.are more extensive files on students who received the Ph.D under his guidance, or partial Ph.D guidance. With many of these students he continued correspondence.
Box 36
Box 37
Box 38
Box 39
Box 40
Box 41
Box 42
Box 43
Box 57
CMW was greatly interested in the history of the Chinese Communist Movement, which was coming to power about the same time as he arrived at Columbia. Thus, he instituted a search of the holdings of the East Asian Library to learn what was available. This resulted in Chinese Sources on the History of the Chinese Communist Movement: an annotated bibliography of materials in the East Asiatic Library of Columbia University. Edited by him, it was reproduced for private distribution by the East Asian Institute as No. 1 in the Institutes series of studies, and sent to scholars and libraries with an interest in modern China. In the summer of 1950 CMW wrote a prospectus for research on the history of the Chinese Communist Movement, outlining questions worthy of research in the light of his then knowledge. This prospectus, 50 pages. With the approval of the Institute's Executive Committee and with modest financing from the Institute's research funds, he organized a research project, hiring as an assistant a brilliant graduate student, Ms. Julie Lien-ying How, beginning in March1951. Both CMW and Ms. How made trips to Washington to do research in the Library of Congress or in the National Archives, and their bibliographic notes are in Box 64. CMW also commissioned Mr. Ichiro Shirato to search Columbia's Japanese collections and those in the Library of Congress for a Bibliography of Japanese Sources on the Chinese Communist Movement. which CMW edited and the Institute published in 1953.
In the early 1950s there were many unemployed Chinese intellectuals who had fled from the People's Republic of China. Congress voted a fund to be used for their temporary employment until they could become settled in occupations of their own. Through the good offices of the State Department and Columbia University, our project was able to employ three of these gentlemen, Mr. Jennings Wong, Mr. King-ching Wang, and Mr. Seymour Cheng, for several years. They translated documents on the early history of the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, with Ms. How making the document selections and correcting their inadequate English. Some of the results of their work are in Boxes 57-66, never published.
Directing these projects required much time in consultations, and much administrative correspondence. This correspondence, and annual reports, with accounts, for the Institute's Executive Committee, are in Box 58.
In addition to the two bibliographies, the major result of the project was a book entitled, Documents on Communism, Nationalism, and Soviet Advisers in China. 1918-1927 Papers from the Peking Raid, by C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How (Columbia University Press, 1956), xviii, 617 pp. Research notes, the edited draft, and CMW's marked copy (with some reviews) are in Box 57 (printed annotated book), Box 61 (first draft), Boxes 62 and 63 revisions.
Boxes 64-65 contains more from supervised projects or research done by others, such as the following: Archival materials for research purposes; History of the Chu-Mao Red Army; On the Chinese "united front"; Documents on the Chinese Soviet Republic, 1933 Chung-hua nien-chien 1948 [Chinese yearbook], a history of the CCP to 1945 especially on negotiations with the National Government. Henry Lieberman interview with Chang Kuo-t'ao (Zhang Guotao; 張國燾; 张国焘) in 1952 Julie How interviews with important Chinese in Hong Kong, 1963-1966. Manuscript translation of chapters 1, 2, and 11 of Professor Kuo Ting-yee's A Short History of Modern China, 1839-1949 done by Dr. Larry Shyu in 1975-79, (draft edited by CMW) but never published. Partial translation of Chiang Yung-ching's manuscript, Ho Chihminh and China ca. 1970 partially translated by Margaret Chen (the original was published later in Taiwan). Missionary Reports on China under the CCP, 1948-1955 a valuable file.
Box 58
Box 59
Box 60
Box 61
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Box 63
Box 64
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Box 67
Published and Unpublished In 1952 CMW began work on a book on "Modern China and Communism", which he never completed. There are planning notes and drafts of two chapters. He wrote a chapter on The CCP's United Front Policy of 1933-1937 for which there are notes and a draft. This was abandoned because the available documentation seemed too superficial.
In 1954-1955 CMW was on sabbatical leave under a grant from the Ford Foundation to study China's influences in the rest of Asia. He spent six months travelling from Taiwan to India and back, observing and interviewing, and six months in Japan doing the same. His interview write-ups are included here, rather interesting for the period. He published several popular articles on China's influence in Japan and India, and there are copies of other articles written in 1955 '56 and '59 for popular journals, which were rejected.
An M.A. essay written at Columbia in 1924 by Ch'en Kung-po, one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party, on Communism in China was discovered in Special Collections Library. CMW undertook to verify the unique documents therein, and to write an introduction on Ch'en's life. The introduction and essay were published by the East Asian Institute in 1960 and later published in book form by Octagon Press. CMW's research notes and manuscript worked on during 1959 are in Box 68 (69-70?).
A chapter, "The Capture of Shanghai, March1927" written in 1961 in Taipei, but not used in that form. Writing on the background of the Nationalists' Northern Expedition of 1926-28, done in 1963 Introduction and one chapter on "The Social Setting." Two more chapters written later dealing with Sun Yatsen's efforts in Canton. Twelve chapters on the background (1923-1926) for the Nationalists' Northern Expedition of 19261928. These were not published in this form, but drawn upon for the books, Sun Yat-sen: Frustrated Patriot (Columbia University Press, 1976), and The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-1928 (Cambridge University Press, 1984).
Box 71 Contains outlines for public talks, 1952-1966 and 1968-1988 many book reviews, 1948-1966 critical reading of manuscripts for publishers; correspondence on the republishing of Slavery in China during the Former Han Dynasty 206 B.C.-A.D. 25 (Chicago, Field Museum Press, 1943); reprints; plans for sabbatical and other academic trips and conferences.
Box 68
Box 69
Box 70
Box 74
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Box 116
Chinese calligraphy scrolls written by prominent Republican-era Chinese which were presented to Professor C. Martin Wilbur. Many are inscribed by the writers. Also included are 2 "Rubbings from the Forest of Tablets" (Shensi Provincial Museum)
Box 117
Tube Box 12
"魏柏教授暨夫人賞玩
先生見教之可以化民也先之/呂博愛陳之以德義教之以敬/讓導之以禮樂示[]以好惡異/教不肅[]成異政不嚴洽
公元一九六二年四月陸軍中將毛秉文敬贈"
Formerly in Tube box 10
Tube Box 13
藝苑珍藏
Tube Box 12
Tube Box 12
Tube Box 12
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Tube Box 13
Inscribed to Mr. C. Wilbur Martin and Mrs. (Kathryn Edson) Wilbur.
Formerly in Scroll Box 11