Archive Record
Images
Additional Images [3]
Metadata
Object Identification Number |
1986.050.005 |
Object Name |
Album, photograph |
Donor |
Edwards, Delbert |
Scope / Description |
Black hard cover photograph album, previously held together with cord through two punched holes in the cover and album pages. Album pages and covers are now loose. Album pages have photographs attached with adhesive. Subjects of most photos are Mette Blair and her time as a Missionary in India as well as her life in the American Midwest. 9" W x 13" L x 1" H Mette K. Blair was born on August 20, 1895 on a farm near Kimballton, Iowa. Her parents Niels C. and Kristine L. (Bjorn) Blair were Danish immigrants and early settlers of Audubon County. She had one older sister - Karen. Their parents died within a year of each other, leaving Karen and Mette as orphans. A biographical article published in the October 1920 issue of Lutheran Woman's Work says that Karen was 17 and Mette 14 when their parents died; they stayed on the farm by themselves for six months before moving to Benson, Nebraska in September 1910. The same article gives further information, noting that they attended Benson High School and both graduated on June 10, 1915. Mette was confirmed in 1913 at the Kountze Memorial Lutheran Church of Omaha and began to think of missionary work. She trained to become a registered nurse at Clarkson Hospital from 1915-1918. After graduating, Mette joined the National Red Cross to serve during the war, working for three weeks as a civilian relief nurse at Fort Omaha during the flu epidemic before the armistice was signed. After traveling with her sister and doing private nursing, in September 1919 she became a student at the Moody Bible Institute. Then, from January - April 1920, she worked at the Post-Graduate Hospital in Chicago before taking a position managing a small hospital in Arapahoe, Nebraska. In October 1920 she was preparing to do missionary work. She joined the Lutheran Missionary Service and worked in India for 30 years as well as doing special trips around the U.S. Mette retired from the service in 1963 and traveled back to Omaha. She died in 1978 and is buried in Kimballton, Iowa (as are her parents). |
Dates of Creation |
1923-1924 |
Associated People |
Edwards, Delbert Blair, Mette K. |
Search Terms |
Photograph Album Edwards, Delbert Blair, Mette K. photo album India Midwest Kimballton, Iowa Nebraska |
Images |
350\1986050005.JPG |
Accession number |
1986.050 |