Moffett Korea Collection

Collection

Identifier: SCM 281

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Moffett Korea Collection (Manuscript Collection) currently consists of 230 boxes arranged in five series. It is expected that additional material will be given by Eileen Moffett in the near future. There is also a collection of photographs, photo albums, pictorial histories and yearbooks consisting of 118 boxes, four topically arranged photo albums, and one box of glass lantern slides, and a collection of over 1,000 books on Korean history and culture, Korean Christianity and Korean religions.

Dates

1870 - 2008

Biographical / Historical

Samuel Hugh Moffett was born in Pyongyang, Korea, April 7, 1916, to Samuel Austin Moffett and Lucia Fish Moffett, pioneer missionaries to Korea. He was educated at Wheaton College (B.A. 1938), Princeton Theological Seminary (Class of 1942), Yale University (Ph.D. 1945), and the Center for Chinese Studies in Peking (1947-48). He was ordained by the Presbytery of Connecticut Valley on September 19, 1943, and served Presbyterian churches in Connecticut while completing his doctoral studies. He entered into a distinguished career as a missionary after a year as director of youth work for the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, located in New York City. His first assignment was to China, where he served on the faculty of Yenching University in Peking from 1948-1949, and on the faculty of Nanking Theological Seminary in 1949-50. He was eventually arrested and expelled by the Chinese communist government when it took power. After the death of his first wife and a brief period of teaching at Princeton Theological Seminary, he married Eileen Flower.

Eileen Flower Moffett (born in Spokane, Washington, March 12, 1928) was educated at the University of Washington at Seattle (B.A. 1950) and at Princeton Theological Seminary (M.A. 1955). She served briefly as the director of Christian Education at the First Presbyterian Church in Caldwell, New Jersey. She also spent a year teaching at the Beirut College for Women in Lebanon. Following her marriage to Dr. Moffett in 1956, she joined him as a Presbyterian (UPCUSA) missionary to South Korea, where they served together for over twenty-five years. Eileen Moffett served as an assistant professor at the Presbyterian Theological College and Seminary in Seoul from 1960 until 1981, and as director of the Korean Bible Club movement from 1976 until 1981.

Samuel Hugh Moffett served as Principal of the Kyungan Higher Bible School in Andong from 1957 until 1959. He served as professor and Associate President of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Seoul from 1960 until 1981 and Dean of the Graduate School from 1966 until 1970. He was President of the Asian Center for Theological Studies and Missions from 1974 until 1981.

The Moffetts returned to Princeton in 1981, where Dr. Moffett served as the Henry W. Luce Professor of Ecumenics and Mission from 1981 until 1986 and as a guest professor in 1986-87. Dr. Moffett was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1977 and Eileen Moffett was named a Distinguished Alumna of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1997. Samuel Hugh Moffett died on February 9, 2015, at the age of 98.

Extent

348 Linear Feet (348 Boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

Series I: Samuel Austin Moffett (Boxes 1-22) Subseries 1: Correspondence (1-4) Subseries 2: Letters and Papers (5-22) Series II: Korea Materials (Boxes 29-123)

Processing Information

Insofar as possible, the organization of materials within the various subseries was kept in the original order established by Samuel H. Moffett and Eileen Flower Moffett. In some cases, for instance in the Korea Materials subseries of Series II, this results in two different subseries under the same theme, one of materials filed by date (boxes 61-75) and a second of materials filed by subject (boxes 76-92), as this was the arrangement of the files as received. In the case of Series III, the Samuel H. Moffett Papers, the Correspondence files are kept in their original chronological order and the Personal files and Missions files are also in their original order with their original topics as filed by Samuel H. Moffett. As is the case with the Korea Materials, there are also two sets of Missions files (boxes 183-187 and boxes 188-198) which came to the library at two different times and were each kept in their original order. The English language sermons, addresses and lectures which were grouped by themes in the Moffett papers have also been kept in their original groupings, as were the Korean language materials. Additional English language sermons, addresses and lectures (now found in boxes 156-160) were gathered together and ordered alphabetically by title. English language talks relating to slide presentations (Box 167) were also grouped together in a single box. Publications by Samuel H. Moffett were ordered according to date of publication. Many were already in this order, but other stray items were added to this subseries in chronological order. Course materials in Subseries 5 were also gathered and ordered during processing, although individual course materials were usually already grouped together. Extensive indexing of items in boxes 1 through 58 was done by Eileen Moffett in the mid-1990s, with some assistance from Timothy J. Smith and Raymond Cannata of the Princeton Seminary Archives and Special Collections staff. Major additional processing, including the establishment of the current series and subseries was done by Kenneth Henke, beginning in 2004, with some assistance from student workers in the Archives and Special Collections Department of the library.