Caleb Cook Baldwin Manuscript Collection

Collection

Identifier: SCM 267

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The collection consists of works collected and created by Harriet F. and Caleb Cook Baldwin on their missionary tours in China during the 19th century. Items include black and white photographs, works by the Baldwins printed in China, and biographical documents about Caleb Baldwin.

Dates

1855-1898

Language of Materials

Chinese, English

Access

There are no special restrictions to access of this collection. It may be examined by library patrons under the normal rules and conditions of Special Collections.

Chronology

1820
: Born, Bloomfield, N.J.
1841
: Graduated, College of New Jersey
1847
: Graduated, Princeton Theological Seminary
1847 May 25
: Ordained, Newark, N.J., Presbytery
1847 September 28
: Married Harriet Fairchild
1847 November 3
: Left New Jersey for Foochow, China
1857 October 25
: Sailed from Foochow to New York
1859 September
: Left New York for Foochow, by way of Hong Kong
1873 October
: Left U.S. for Foochow
1886 April
: Returned to U.S. from Foochow
1887 August
: Left U.S. for Foochow
1895 April-June
: Returned to U.S.
1896
: Harriet Baldwin died.
1911 July 19
: Died, Glen Ridge, N.J.

Biographical Information

Born in Bloomfield, N.J., Caleb Cook Baldwin was a member of the Presbyterian Church there. He attended the Bloomfield Academy. Upon graduation from the College of New Jersey, he taught school in Maryland before entering Princeton Theological Seminary.

After seminary, ordination, and marriage, Baldwin and his wife Harriet sailed around the Cape of Good Hope for China under the American Board of Missionaries, arriving in Foochow in 1848. They had four children, one of whom was born in China.

In China, Baldwin collaborated on an Anglo-Chinese Dictionary and a Manual of the Foochow Dialect, the latter co-written with his wife. A biographical sketch states Baldwin also wrote several other works in Chinese, including a revision of the Foochow Bible.

Baldwin retired in 1895. Harriet Baldwin died in 1896, and he died in 1911.