Guide to the George Way Harley Papers, 1911-1975
[top]Descriptive Summary
TitleGeorge Way Harley Papers, 1911-1975
Creator
Harley, George Way, 1894-1966
Extent
5 Linear Feet
2,500 Items
Repository
2,500 Items
Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Language
English.
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Administrative Information
Access RestrictionsCollection is open for research.
However, patrons must sign the Acknowledgment of Legal Responsibility and Privacy Rights form before using this
collection.
Also, all or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. Consequently, there may be a 24-hour delay in obtaining these materials.
Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library to use this collection.
Use Restrictions
The copyright interests in the papers of George W. and Winifred J. Harley are reserved to their heirs under the provisions of U.S. copyright law (Title 17, U.S.C.). For further information, see the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], The Papers of George Way Harley, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.
Provenance
The papers of George Way Harley (1894-1966), missionary and physician, and his wife Winifred Jewell Harley were deposited in the Manuscript Department by Mrs. Winifred J. Harley, 1973-1977; converted to a gift in September 1986.
Processing Information
Processed by: Steven L. Hensen
Completed June 26, 1987
Encoded by Stephen Douglas Miller
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
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Biographical Note
| 1894, Aug. 8 | Born, Asheville, N.C. |
| 1916 | A.B., Trinity College, Durham, N.C. |
| 1916-1918 | Teacher, North Carolina high schools |
| 1923 | M.D., Yale University |
| 1923, Aug. 4 | Married Winifred Frances Jewell |
| 1924 | Superintendent, Harrington Hospital, Grenfell Mission, Labrador |
| 1925 | Diploma, Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |
| 1926-1960 | Founder and superintendent, Ganta Mission, Ganta, Liberia |
| 1932-1962 | Research Associate in Anthropology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University |
| 1938 | Ph.D., Kennedy School of Missions, Hartford Seminary Foundation |
| 1945-1946 | Special consultant to Foreign Economic Administration in Liberia, U.S. Dept. of State |
| 1957 | L.H.D., Duke University |
| 1960, Apr. | Retired from Ganta Mission and returned to U.S. |
| 1966, Nov. 7 | Died, Lancaster, Va. |
Collection Overview
The papers of George Way Harley span the years 1911 to 1975 though the bulk of them are from 1925 to 1960. The papers relate principally to the life and work of George W. and Winifred J. Harley at the mission they founded and supervised at Ganta, Liberia and include diaries and journals, correspondence, writings and notes, miscellaneous personal and subject files, account books, notebooks, scrapbooks, albums, photographs, printed materials, clippings, diplomas, certificates, memorabilia, and other papers.
Shortly after George W. Harley graduated from Trinity College (later Duke University) in 1916, he went to Yale to attend medical school, where he met his future wife, Winifred Frances Jewell. Responding to calls to mission work heard at the First Methodist Church in New Haven, and after receiving his M.D. in 1923, Harley and his wife left the U.S. under the auspices of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After a short time studying in London, they were sent to Ganta, in the Liberian interior, where they established a medical mission and industrial school.
During the next 35 years spent at Ganta Mission, Dr. Harley built a medical dispensary, hospital, church, school, several residences and shops, as well as a leper village and two
"sick villages."
In addition to his medical work, Dr. Harley was also very involved and interested in the industrial training and teaching of the local Liberian people, as well as local anthropology, art, native medicine, mapping, meteorology, and other scientific interests. On his death in 1966, Liberia declared a national day of mourning and President William V.S. Tubman issued a proclamation praising the long service of Dr. Harley on behalf of Liberia and its people.
The correspondence of George W. and Winifred J. Harley forms the largest portion of these papers. Included are many letters to members of their respective families (letters from family members being notably absent) detailing the daily life and struggles of mission work as well as more official correspondence with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church and scholarly correspondence relating to Dr. Harley's scientific work, particularly his relationship with the Peabody Museum of Harvard University in conducting anthropological field work and collecting botanical and entomological specimens. Also included in the correspondence are letters reflecting in a general way on the impact of World War II in Liberia and the operations of the plantations of the Firestone Rubber Company.
The writings found in these papers consist of holograph and typewritten drafts and notes on a variety of subjects. Included are articles of both popular and scholarly interest focusing, not surprisingly, on various aspects of Harley's experience and work at the mission and in Liberia. Of particular note are a copy of Harley's 1938 Ph.D. dissertation, Native African Medicine and two drafts of Mrs. Harley's memoirs of her life with George Harley.
The Miscellany files in these papers consist of notes, minutes, printed and near-print material, and other papers relating to a particular subject, such as Dr. Harley's participation in the work of the Advisory Council on Health of the Republic of Liberia or his work with the Foreign Economic Administration. Also included are Dr. Harley's notes in his research on trypanosomiasis (
"sleeping sickness"
), biographical and personal files on Dr. and Mrs. Harley, rainfall statistics, notes on the Mano language, and miscellaneous notes and papers relating to the Liberian timber and mining industries.
Rounding out the papers are a series of account books and notebooks, relating primarily to personal and mission finances; clippings and printed matter relating to the Harleys in particular and to Liberia in general; scrapbooks and photo albums, the latter focused principally on the Harley's post-retirement years; and a series of certificates, awards, and diplomas.
Correspondents of note include Thomas Smith Donohugh, E. A. Hooton, George Schwab, and William V. S. Tubman.
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Subject Headings
These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
- Donohugh, Thomas Smith, b. 1875.
- Hooton, Earnest Albert, 1887-1954.
- Schwab, George.
- Tubman, William V. S., 1895-1971.
- Methodist Episcopal Church.--Board of Foreign Missions.
- Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology.
- Firestone Rubber Company.
- United States.--Foreign Economic Administration.
- Mano (African Tribe).
- Tropical medicine.
- Missions, Medical.
- Art, Liberian.
- Missions--Liberia.
- Anthropology--Liberia.
- World War, 1939-1945--Liberia.
- Medicine--Practice--Liberia.
- Liberia--History 1874-1944.
- Liberia--History 1944-1971.
- Medicine, Primitive.
- Harley, Winifred Jewell, 1895-
- Harley, George Way, 1894-1966
Detailed Description of Collection
Diaries and Journals, 1925-1960
Except for a rather full journal of the Harleys'
early years at the Ganta Mission (1925-1927),most of the diaries are sporadic with usually brief entries. Some are little more than calendars. Arranged chronologically.
Box 1
1925; 1925-1927; 1929
1931, 1932, 1939, 1939
1933; 1934; 1936
1944-45; 1946; 1948; 1953; 1956 and 1960
Correspondence, 1918-1975
Letters, postcards telegrams, greeting cards, and mimeographed holiday
"newsletters."
Includes many retained copies of letters sent. Correspondence relates to personal, family, and mission business. There is little correspondence for some of the years the Harleeys were on furlough. Arrange chronologically.
Box 2
1918-1924
1925 Jan.-July
1925 Aug.-Dec.
1926
1927
1928
1929
Box 3
1930-1931
1932
1933
1934
1935-1936
1937-1939
1940-1942
1943-1944
Box 4
1945
1946-1949
1950-1952
1953-1956
"Letters dictated,"
1953 July-1955 May
1957-1959
1960
1961
Box 5
1962-1963
1964-1965
1966
1967-1975
Undated and fragments
Writings and Notes, 1916-1972
Includes handwritten and typescript drafts and notes for college papers, scholarly and popular articles, theses and dissertations, memoirs, and speeches. The topics include travel and description, medicine, anthropology, and mission work. Most of the writings are undated, though some were subsequently published. Reprints of some published works are included. Arranged alphabetically by title.
Box 5
"As I See It Now,"
1959
"Asheville,"
[1916]
[Autobiography]
"A Boy With Ten Homes"
[ca. 1916]
"Brickyard,"
undated
"Charles Alfred"
[ca. 1932]
"Cool Springs,"
[1916]
"Doctor Eaton"
[ca. 1916]
"Fighting Joe,"
1916
"Ganta Dispensary Patients,"
1933
"Ganta Mission Evangelists,"
undated
"Ganta Mission Workshops,"
undated
"History of Ganta Mission to 1960"
"Jack of All Trades,"
1958-1959
"A Kid Brother's Luck,"
[ca. 1916]
"Kwambli Goes to School,"
undated
"Liberia; The People and Custom,"
undated
[Mission problems....], ca. 1930
"Monrovia to Sanoquell,"
undated
Box 6
Native African Medicine, Ph.D. Thesis, 1938
pp. 1-140
pp. 141-299
pp. 300-419
"The Northern Messenger,"
1940
"Notes on the Economic Botany of Central Liberia"
"Notes on the Poro in Liberia,"
1941
"Occidental Medicine in Prim. Soc.,"
undated
"A Person,"
1916
"Personal History,"
undated
"Powell and Carter,"
undated
"Razor Society,"
undated
Readers' Digest Interview, 1960
"Roads and Trails in Liberia,"
undated
"Sandy,"
undated
"Schoolhouse,"
[1937?]
"Sixteen Buck Shot,"
ca. 1961
"Snake Cult of Wanyanwegi"
(by Frederick G. Carnochan)
"The Snake Societies,"
undated
"Some Background Data Concerning Ganta Mission,"
1958
[Speech], Lincoln University, 1963
"Studies in Remedies Used by the Liberian Native,"
undated
"Suture Closure Patterns in the Chimpanzee,"
undated
Box 7
"Teen-Agers in West Africa with Special Reference to Liberia,"
undated
"There Are No Secrets,"
undated
A Third of a Century with George Way Harley in Liberia,1972;corrected ms. By Winifred J. Harley (working title:
"The Winds of God Were Moving Through the Palms)"
corrected ms. (second version)
"Thirty-Five Years Looking Back,"
1961
"Thou Shalt Not,"
undated
"Treatment of Snakebite,"
undated
"The Vital Function of Bile,"
1923
"West African Religion,"
undated
"Why Missions in Africa?"
undated
"Yellow Sickness,"
undated
Reprints
Untitled writings
Miscellaneous speaking notes
Miscellaneous notes
Miscellany, 1924-1976
Principally subject files of miscellaneous papers relating to various activities or interests of Dr. or Mrs. Harley, including such things as minutes of the Advisory Council on Health, Republic of Liberia, miscellaneous notes on Liberian timber and gold mining, personal medical records, passports, and memorabilia, diplomas, etc. Arranged alphabetically by folder title.
Box 8
Advisory Council on Health, R.L., 1958-1961
Biographical, 1948-1966 and undated
Diplomas and certificates, 1924-1966
Foreign Economic Administration,
1945-1946
Forestry and botany
Ganta Mission
Liberia--Public health and sanitation
Mano Language
Box 9
Methodist Church,
1933-1976
Mines and mineral resources,
1943-1945
Personal and medical, 1925-1966
Rainfall statistics and charts, Ganta,
Liberia,
1927-1960
Saniquellie Hospital,
1947-1950, undated
Trypanosomiasis cases,
1944-1945
Other papers
Account Books and Notebooks, 1924-1974
Personal and mission financial accounts of a scattered nature. Volume for 1927-30 also contains gardening information and rainfall data, 1927-1932. Included in the notebooks are a medical notebook and some anthropological and mapping field notes. Account books arranged chronologically by first year of volume; notebooks in one folder.
Box 9
1924; 1928; 1929
Box 10
1927-1930
1930; 1932; 1933; 1936
1945-1950; 1935-1952; 1955-1959; 1959
1952-1960; 1965-ca. 1974
Box 11
Notebooks
Clippings, 1916-1972
Newspaper and magazine clippings relating to the Harleys and their work. Arranged chronologically.
Box 11
1916-1972, undated
1931(scrapbook)
Printed Material
Tear-sheets, pamphlets, articles, printed ephemera, etc. containing writings by, about, or mentioning G. W. Harley. Also includes general printed matter relating to African art, Liberia, and Ganta Mission. Organized into three broad categories; otherwise unarranged.
Box 11
African Art
Liberia
(2 folders)
Box 12
General
Scrapbooks and Albums, 1937-1966
Scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, memorabilia, printed ephemera, letters, photographs, etc. Includes a scrapbook of sympathy cards, letters, obituaries, and memorial service programs on the death of G.W. Harley. Also, some loose photographs.
1937-1947
1952-1960
Box 13
"The Last Ganta Years,"
1954-1960
"At Home-Merry Point,"
1960
"Virginia,"
1960-1966
"In Memoriam,"
1966
Photographs
Oversize: Certificates and Diplomas, 1911-1960
Certificates and Diplomas, 1911-1960.
Oversize Folder 1
Clippings and memos, ca. 1945-1950
Certificate, Order of the Star of Africa, 1949
Certificate, Liberian Humane Order of African Redemption
1946
1960
1947
Citation, 1960
Award (Mrs. Harley), 1947
Diploma, Royal College of Physicians, 1925
Diploma, Trinity College, 1916
Diploma, Kennedy Mission School, 1938
Diploma, Yale University, 1933
Diploma, Merrimac High School, 1911
Diploma, Bates College, 1915
Diploma, Concord Graded Schools, 1912
Embalming License, Connecticut, 1920
