Sneak Peek

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  Earl Willmott with Staff of Jenshow Boys School

  Earl Willmott poses at back left with the principal and teachers of the boys' middle school he was in charge of in Jenshow, 1922-1933. All the men (except Earl) wear scholar's gowns with cloth shoes. Two of the men wear scholar's hats, and one holds a fan.
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  Portrait of Chinese Pastor's Family

  Multigeneration family consisting of Liang and his wife, son and his wife, three boys, two girls and two babies. Note that the girls have "natural feet," having given up foot-binding as Christians and modern Chinese.
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  Chinese Children Play a Circle Game

  A large group of children hold hands together in an inner and outer circle, probably playing a game or singing a song. Many of them are looking at the camera with expressions ranging from suspicion to happiness. They wear padded clothing and many of the boys wear hats. A Chinese woman - probably their kindergarten teacher - stands in the back left. They're on the lawn within the mission compound.
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  Six Chinese Children Playing with Blocks

  Six well-dressed Chinese children pose in an enclosure made of wooden blocks. There is a brick wall behind them and another child off to the right.
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  Postcard of the Qutangxia Gorge

  The panoramic scene is shot from a trackers' path cut out of the rock face. Two boats can be seen on the river, which courses between vertical rock cliffs on both sides. A few people can be seen on the trackers' path, obviously tourists, not trackers. "The Three Gorges" is written in gold letters in both English and Chinese on the front.
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  Willmott House in Jenshow, c.1970s

  A large two-story house with double wrap-around verandahs. The yard appears to be unkept with scrappy trees growing up randomly and neither flowers nor grass lawn.
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  Christmas for Last Group of Missionaries, WCUU 1951

  Sixteen missionaries and two small children pose on a lawn at WCUU. I can identify only a very few of them - Leslie Kilborn (far left), Earl and Katharine Willmott (center back and front), Bill Small with one of his small children (center back next to Earl).
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  Bill Skinner in a Lawn Chair

  William Skinner reclines is a lawn chair in front of a flowerbed. Behind him can be seen a corner of the Willmott house's porch at WCUU.
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  Bill Skinner in a Garden

  William Skinner strikes a casual pose with his hand in the pocket of his suit, standing in front of bushes and trees in the background.
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  Arranged Wedding at Jenshou, 1920s

  The bridal couple descend an outdoor staircase. The building could be an aristocratic household, a temple or other public building. The groom wears a scholar's gown with a jacket with center front closure. The bride wears a foreign style wedding dress with veil. Although it looks white, that is not likely at this early date because in Chinese culture white is associated with death. Red is the wedding color, so a lot of Christian brides wore pink as a compromise between the two.
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  Missionary Children Riding Sacred Fish

  The sacred fish gong is in the courtyard of a temple. Missionary children sit atop the sacred instrument as if it were a toy. The photographer must have approved. Of a photograph of mish kids standing on the head of the Great Buddha of Leshan, Don Willmott later wrote, "It is an example of what I call the 'colonial attitude' which we had in those days — a kind of innocent arrogance toward the Chinese. We kids would do almost anything we felt like, whether it was disrespectful of their religions or causing damage to their crops. They never dared to retaliate. They were always quite friendly. But maybe they did have in mind that on the Yangtze River, not far away, there were gunboats to protect us, and that sometimes these gunboats took action."
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  Women Processing and Spinning Cotton

  The women on the right are preparing the cotton for spinning. The woman on the left is spinning the cotton. She works the treddle with her bound foot.