Collection ID: 4079905 11.7

Collection context

Summary

Creator:
International Institute of Rural Reconstruction
Extent:
163 linear feet and 271 boxes; Audio Visual boxes; Flat boxes; 8 Tube boxes
Language:
English , Chinese , Spanish; Castilian .
Preferred citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); International Institute of Rural Reconstruction Records; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Background

Scope and Content:

Correspondence, manuscripts, lectures, notes, diaries, notebooks, reports, financial records, blueprints, photographs, and printed materials of Y.C. James Yen and the IIRR concerned with the development, sharing, and financing innovative methods of teaching, improving agriculture, health and family planning, and education in impoverished villages. Among the cataloged correspondents are: Pearl Buck, William O. Douglas, Nelson Rockefeller, and DeWitt Clinton.

The Addition: conprises correspondence, reports, financial records, photographs, slides, negatives, contact sheets, photograph albums, scrapbooks, reel to reel films, videocassettes, reel to reel audio tape, tape cassettes, printed materials, maps, works of art, posters, and Chinese calligraphy of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction. This collection is an addition to previously donated and processed IIRR materials. This addition focuses heavily on IIRR's outposts in various countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and houses the bulk of IIRR's photographic, audio visual material, and memorabilia including the awards of Dr. Y.C. James Yen.

Biographical / Historical:

The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) was founded in 1960 to combat rural poverty worldwide. Its head and founder was Dr. Y.C. James Yen 晏陽初 (1980-1990). It deals with the problems of poverty, illiteracy, disease, and misgovernment in China, the Philippines, and other third world countries, and promotes American aid programs. Y.C. James Yen was born in 1893 in Sichuan Province, China. He graduated from Yale University in 1918, and later studied at Princeton University. During early experience as a Y.M.C.A. teacher in France among Chinese workers in 1919, Dr. Yen recognized the need for Chinese workers, traditionally a lower and undereducated class in their native country, to have basic reading and writing skills. He set about teaching them basic Chinese characters, enabling them to communicate with family members back home. Inspired by his success, he returned home to China. In 1923, he became the head of the Chinese National Association of the Mass Education Movement (later, the Chinese Mass Education Movement) and its fund raising arm, the American Cooperating Committee. Together these organizations supported the College of Rural Reconstruction in China. During World War II, Yen returned to the US and organized the American-Chinese Cooperating Committee (later the American-Chionese Committee of the Mass Education Movement) to secure American support and funding for his educational efforts in China. His committee was responsible for the China Aid Act of 1948 (otherwise known as the "Jimmy Yen Act") and the creation of the Chinese-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction.

After China turned to communism, Dr. Yen turned his attentions to the Philippines and other, smaller, nations in need. He formed the International Committee of the Mass Education Movement, later known as both the International Mass Education Movement (IMEM) and Jimmy Yen's Rural Reconstruction Movement (JYRRM). These organizations merged into the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction in 1960. The IIRR headquarters in the Philippines acted as the driving force behind a number of smaller movements in other countries. These movements included the Colombia Rural Reconstruction Movement (CRRM, MCRR), the Guatemala Rural Reconstruction Movement (GRRM, MGRR), the Ghana Rural Reconstruction Movement (GhRRM), the Indian Rural Reconstruction Movement (IRRM), the Korean Rural Reconstruction Movement (KRRM), and the Thailand Rural Reconstruction Movement (TRRM) to name a few. Dr. Y.C. James Yen died in 1990. He was survived by his movement, which still has regional centers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America as well as its headquarters in the Philippines.

Acquisition information:

Records: Source of acquisition--IIRR. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1993. Accession number--M-1993.

Records: Source of acquisition--IIRR. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--08/25/1994. Accession number--M-94-08-25.

Records: Source of acquisition--IIRR. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1999 2002.

Gift of the IIRR, 1993; 1994; 1999 2002.

Processing information:

Records Processed HR 05/12/1998.

Records Processed HR 05/20/1998.

Records Processed by Molly Monosky, Annie Grunow, Alexsander Gelfand, and Rebecca Farber 2005.

Arrangement:

Selected materials cataloged; remainder arranged. Boxes 167-170: Cataloged correspondence; Boxes 1-161: Arranged correspondence & other records; Boxes 162-166: Printed materials; Oversize box: Blueprints, plans, photographs& maps; Map case 14-M-6: maps Addition, Boxes 1-108.

Accruals:

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Rules or conventions:
appm

Indexed Terms

Subjects:
Adult education -- China
Adult education -- Philippines
Agricultural education -- China
Agricultural education -- Philippines
Chinese Americans
Chinese -- United States -- Societies, etc -- 20th century
Community development -- China
Community development -- Philippines
Economic assistance, American
Economic development projects -- China
Economic development projects -- Philippines
Education -- China
Education -- Philippines
Filipinos
Fundamental education -- China
Fundamental education -- Philippines
Non-governmental organizations
Reconstruction (1939-1951) -- China
World War, 1939-1945 -- Economic aspects -- China
Economic development -- China -- 20th century
Public health -- China -- 20th century
Economic development -- Philippines -- 20th century
Public health -- Philippines -- 20th century
Economic development -- Taiwan
Songs
Developing country specialists
Philanthropists
Adult education teachers
Agriculture teachers
Area specialists
Educators
Lobbyists
Public health personnel
Reading teachers
Sinologists
Accounts
Agreements
Announcements
Annual reports
Anthologies
Appointment books
architectural drawings (visual works)
Articles
Awards
Bibliographies
Biographies (literary works)
blueprints (reprographic copies)
Brochures
Budgets
Bylaws (administrative records)
Certificates
Diaries
Drafts (documents)
Financial records
Grants
Greeting cards
Interviews
Itineraries
Journals
Lectures
Ledgers (account books)
Lists (document genres)
Manuscripts for publication
Maps (documents)
Memorandums
minutes (administrative records)
Newsletters
Notebooks
Notes (documents)
Oaths
Outlines (documents)
Passports
Photographs
Poems
Posters
Press releases
Prizes
Readers
Receipts (financial records)
Reports
Resolutions (administrative records)
Speeches (documents)
Tax returns
Names:
Zhonghua ping min jiao yu cu jin hui
American Cooperating Committees
College of Rural Reconstruction
Zhongguo nong cun fu xing lian he wei yuan hui
Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement
Unesco
United States. Agency for International Development
United States (Title of work: China Aid Act of 1948.)
Altschul, Frank, 1887-1981
Astor, Brooke
Blaine, Anita McCormick
Benton, William, 1900-1973
Blair, William McC., Jr. (William McCormick), 1916-2015
Bowles, Chester, 1901-1986
Buck, Pearl S (Pearl Sydenstricker), 1892-1973
Buckley, James Lane, 1923-
Zhang, Zhizhong, 1890-1969
Zhang, Qun, 1889?-
Chen, Cheng, 1898-1965
Chen, Qizi
Zhu, Jiahua, 1893-1963
Davidson, Carter, 1905-1965
Dewey, John, 1859-1952
Douglas, Helen Gahagan, 1900-1980
Douglas, William O (William Orville), 1898-1980
Field, Marshall, 1893-1956
Hocking, William Ernest, 1873-1966
Hoffman, Paul G (Paul Gray), 1891-1974
Xie, Fuya, 1892-1991
Hutchins, William J. (William James), 1871-1958
Kaltenborn, H. v. (Hans), 1878-1965
Koo, V. K. Wellington, 1888-1985
Kuo, Ping Wen, 1880-1969
Lasker, Mary
Lehman, Edith A. (Edith Altschul)
Lehman, Herbert H (Herbert Henry), 1878-1963
Lovett, Robert A (Robert Abercrombie), 1895-1986
Lu, Zuofu, 1893-1952
McCloy, John J (John Jay), 1895-1989
Marshall, George C (George Catlett), 1880-1959
Myers, William Irving, 1891-1976
Mellon, Paul
Moe, Henry Allen, 1894-1975
Moynihan, Daniel P (Daniel Patrick), 1927-2003
Paley, William S (William Samuel), 1901-1990
Penney, J. C (James Cash), 1875-1971
Pound, Roscoe, 1870-1964
Reagan, Ronald
Reid, Whitelaw, 1913-2009
Reuther, Walter, 1907-1970
Rockefeller, David, 1915-2017
Rockefeller, John D., Jr (John Davison), 1874-1960
Rockefeller, John D., III (John Davison), 1906-1978
Rockefeller, Nelson A. (Nelson Aldrich), 1908-1979
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
Rosin, Axel, 1907-2007
Scherman, Harry, 1887-1969
Schultz, Theodore W (Theodore William), 1902-1998
Skouras, Spyros Panagiotes, 1893-1971
Soong, T. V (Tzu-wen), 1894-1971
Stevenson, Adlai E (Adlai Ewing), 1900-1965
Swope, Gerard, 1872-1957
Taft, Charles P (Charles Phelps), 1897-1983
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
Vanderbilt, William H (William Henry), 1901-1981
Wallace, DeWitt, 1889-1981
Wallace, Henry A (Henry Agard), 1888-1965
Wallace, Lila Acheson, 1887-1984
Walsh, Richard J., 1912-
Watson, Thomas John, 1874-1956
Wilbur, Ray L (Ray Lyman), 1875-1949
Yen, Y. C. James, 1893-1990
Places:
China -- Development -- 20th century
China -- Economic conditions
China -- History -- 20th century
China -- Rural conditions -- 20th century
Latin America -- Economic conditions -- 20th century
Philippines -- Rural conditions -- 20th century

Online content

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is located off-site, except for cataloged correspondence, oversize materials and acetate disks. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.This collection has no restrictions.

Unique time-based media items have been reformatted and are available onsite via links in the container list. Commercial materials are not routinely digitized.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Curator of Manuscripts/University Archivist, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML). The RBML approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

PREFERRED CITATION:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); International Institute of Rural Reconstruction Records; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
6th Floor East Butler Library
535 West 114th St.
New York, NY 10027, United States
CONTACT:
(212) 854-5590
rbml@library.columbia.edu