Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Object Identification Number |
1986.050.010 |
Object Name |
Print, Photographic |
Donor |
Edwards, Delbert |
Description |
Black and white photograph of a group of women and children standing outside a brick building. Each is dressed in a coat, and a few are wearing hats or scarves. There is a handwritten message on the back. It reads: "Poor people gathered at our / Mission gate, Christmas / day, 1920, waiting for a / package containing meat, / rice, steamed bread, a few / wppers for fuel to cook the rice. / The medical girls collected / & raised the money and fed / over 300 people. And as / they had received their / package they waited as / the sunny side of our medic / court and one of our / Senior med. girls told / them the Christmas / story. This medical / student graduated last / June & is one of our new / interns for this yr. - a very / evangelistic type of girl & / we can't help but love her. / "More love to Thee O Christ, / More love to thee!" and to those / "outside the Fold" -" and then, written on the side, "Only those who had cards & a Christian message were / admitted. The girls distributed the cards / personally." |
Creation Date |
Christmas 1920 |
Place of Creation |
India |
Associated People |
Blair, Mette K. |
Search Terms |
Edwards, Delbert Blair, Mette K. Clarkson Memorial Hospital photo album Christmas India Lutheran Missionary Service mission missionary church religion |
Provenance |
This photograph shows a crowd outside what is likely a Lutheran missionary in India at Christmas 1920. The items in the accession belonged to Mette K. Blair, who served in the Lutheran Missionary Service in India and around the U.S. after training as a nurse. ------- 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 the Kimballton, Iowa as are her parents. |
Images |
165\1986050001.JPG |
Accession number |
1986.050 |