Overview
This collection consists of letters written by Janet Elliott Wulsin to her family while she lived in Paris and China
Dates
- Creation: 1918-1924:
Conditions Governing Access
unrestricted
Conditions Governing Use
Because the original letters are fragile, researchers must use copies of the letters located in Box 2. The copies are numbered identically to the originals and noted. Copying: unrestricted
Extent
2 linear feetThis collection consists of letters written by Janet Elliott Wulsin to her family while she lived in Paris and China. Janet Wulsin chronicles her experiences as a Red Cross nurse in Paris during World War I, including daily life, details about her job, and excursions outside of the city. As a newlywed, she writes of her marriage and future plans. A gap exists in the correspondence during the time she and Frederick returned to America (1920). However, her correspondence resumes when Frederick's work took them to Peking.
The Peking correspondence records Janet's daily life in the city, including social activities and Peking "society" that centered on close friends such as Julia and Fritz Deane. She also writes about Americans involved in activities such as the Rockefeller Foundation Hospital, international business ventures, and exploration (Roy Chapman Andrews). Additionally, she describes going to "tiffins" (lunches), playing mah-jongg, taking Chinese language lessons, housekeeping, entertaining, and visiting temples outside the city.
Janet Wulsin also describes the logistics of traveling by train, in a caravan of camels, hunting and specimen collecting, meeting local folk, photography, and other activities related to their exploration. Especially of interest are her observations of isolated monasteries and lamaseries rarely seen by Westerners at that time. Also included in this collection are Mabel Cabot's research notes for her book, Vanished Kingdoms: A Woman Explorer in Tibet, China, and Mongolia 1921-1925.
Biographical Sketch
Janet January Elliott was reared in an affluent family in Boston and New York, the daughter of railroad executive, Howard Elliott. Anxious to explore, Janet was tired of the "the superficial social life of her world in New York," and, in 1918, at age 24, she joined the Red Cross as a nurse in France to help out the war effort and to be near her fiancé, Frederick Roelker Wulsin, whom she married in 1919. Frederick was a lieutenant in the Army and, prior to his graduation from Harvard in 1913, spent time in East Africa collecting specimens for the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Frederick intended to become an explorer and scientist, and in 1921, the couple left New York for China.
The young couple spent the next four years on expeditions, using their Peking (now Beijing) house as a home base. In 1921, they traveled for several weeks to Shansi Province. The next trip, the "great trek" of 1923, was funded by the National Geographic Society and took them through the Alashan desert to Kansu Province (Gansu), to several monasteries (Labrang, Kumbum, and Choni), to Lanchow, and then back to Peking for several months. Janet became pregnant and left China in 1924, giving birth to Frederick Jr. the following spring. In the meantime, Frederick completed another expedition and returned to America in December of 1924. Janet and Frederick had two more children: Howard Elliott Wulsin and Janet January Wulsin; the couple divorced in 1929. Frederick married Susanne Emery in 1930, who, along with her husband Harry, had traveled in China with the Wulsins. Frederick had a long and distinguished career teaching anthropology at Tufts University; he died in 1961. Janet married Richard Hobart in 1932, and had one daughter, Mabel "Muffie" Hobart (Cabot); Janet died in 1963.
Source: Cabot, Mabel H. Vanished Kingdoms: A Woman Explorer in Tibet, China, and Mongolia 1921-1925. New York: Aperture, 2003.
Arrangement
- Series I includes Janet Wulsin's original correspondence(when available) 1918-1919, 1921-1924
- SeriesII includes research copies of Series I.
- Series III includes additional duplicatecopies of correspondence and Mabel Cabot's research notes.
Physical Location
Peabody Museum Archives
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2004.7
These papers are a gift of Mabel H. "Muffie" Cabot, Dr. Howard E. Wulsin
2004
General note
Collections records may contain language, reflecting past collecting practices and methods of analysis, that is no longer acceptable. The Peabody Museum is committed to addressing the problem of offensive and discriminatory language present in its database. Our museum staff are continually updating these records, adding to and improving content. We welcome your feedback and any questions or concerns you may want to share.
Processed by:
Beth Bayley,Simmons College archives intern; edited by India Spartz, Senior Archivist
November 2004
- Title
- Wulsin, Janet E. (Janet Elliott). Janet E. Wulsin Collection, 1918-1924: A Finding Aid
- Author
- Peabody Museum Archives
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- pea00017
Repository Details
Part of the Peabody Museum Archives Repository
Papers in the Peabody Museum Archives consist of primary source materials that document the Museum’s archaeological and ethnographic research and fieldwork since its founding in 1866. More than 2,800 feet of archival paper collections contain documents, papers, manuscripts, correspondence, data, field notes, maps, plans, and other historical records that represent diverse peoples from around the world, and which were created or collected by the Museum, its individual affiliates, or related entities. The collections also document the history or provenience, as well as the creation of, many of the Museum’s archaeological and ethnographic collections.