Peter Carter Speers Manuscript Collection

Collection

Identifier: SCM 272

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The collection consists of correspondence to and from Peter Carter Speers chronicling his time in Lahore, through his foreign service and death in the United States. Also in the collection are black and white photographs, mounted on boards or in albums, of people and places throughout Lahore.

Dates

1914-1963

Language of Materials

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

1892 July 10
: Born, Montclair, New Jersey
1914
: Bachelor of Science, Princeton University
1914
: Appointed Professor of Chemistry, Foreman Christian College, Lahore
1919
: Returned to United States
1920
: Married Margery Kittoe Smith
1920
: Returned to Lahore
1934-1935
: Home leave; Master of Science degree, Princeton University
1940
: Returned to Lahore
1943
: Position with War Production Board
1946
: Returned to Lahore
1947
: Partition of India
1953
: Left Lahore
1962 October 23
: Died

Biographical Information

Peter Carter Speers was a missionary with the Punjab Board of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Known by his middle name, he became Professor of Technical Chemistry and Director of the Technical Chemistry Laboratory at Forman College in Lahore. His father was Presbyterian layman James Milliken Speers. Two brothers, Guthrie and Theodore Cuyler, were Presbyterian ministers. His cousin Edward (Ned) Dodd was a missionary in Persia and later with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.

A member of Princeton University's Class of 1914, Speers established a refugee hospital for women and children on the Forman College campus during conflict over formation of Pakistan, under whose sovereignty Lahore now stands. Returning to the United States in 1953, Speers served as Information Officer of the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, D.C. until his death in 1962.